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TLH Hymn 481 “Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow”

TLH Hymn 481 “Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow”

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A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING

Other than what God has told us in His Word, we do not know what the future holds. Several years ago we did not know that the whole world would essentially shut down for an entire year. We did not know that churches would be closed, and we would be watching sermons in our living rooms on video screens, without the benefit of weekly in-person contact with our fellow believers to encourage us in our faith. It has been, we might say, a “night of doubt and sorrow” that was unexpected and long.

When will the next significant trouble appear on the horizon for us? Will it be tomorrow, next week, or next year? We don’t know, but we do know that the Lord has given us brothers and sisters in the faith so that we will not need to face the next trouble alone. In Bernard Ingemann’s hymn “Through the Night of Doubt and Sorrow,”

“Commandment”

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GEMS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT It is likely that every person reading this article has studied the Ten Commandments in Luther’s Small Catechism. These Ten speak to us of divine requirements for daily living. The… 

Humble Yourselves

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STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble.’ Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from… 

Exactly the Wrong Medicine

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WALTHER’S LAW AND GOSPEL One of the hallmarks of the Lutheran Church is its proper understanding and application of the Bible’s two main teachings—Law and Gospel. Dr. C.F.W. Walther’s seminal work, The Proper Distinction Between… 

Sabellianism

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ERROR’S ECHO In this series we take a look back at some of the most notorious errors and heresies that have threatened the church over the centuries, as well as the subtle (and not so… 

Peace Thru Christ Lutheran Church Middleton, Wisconsin

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What’s New With YOU? Updates from congregations around the church of the Lutheran Confession Since our article appeared in the Lutheran Spokesman under the heading “A Slice of Life in the CLC” (November 2015), quite… 

Persecution of the Truth in India

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NOTES FROM THE FIELD In this series, thoseinvolved with CLC foreign missions profile one aspect of our overseas endeavors. If there was ever a place where Paul’s words apply—“exchanging the glory of the immortal God… 

Serving our Ever-Expanding Overseas Mission Fields

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MISSION NEWSLETTER Every other month our CLC Board of Missions updates us with recent news from various mission fields. We are continually overwhelmed by how our gracious God has blessed the CLC with an ever-expanding… 

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS JULY 2021 

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TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006

Date Hymns Reading Comments

Jul 1 WS 744 (LSB 801) Genesis 1:1-31 Everything God made was very good. His original created worked—and worked perfectly.

Jul 2 TLH 282 Genesis 2:1-25 God also made Adam and Eve, the “crown” of His creation, and they too were
perfect and perfectly suited to one another.

Jul 3 TLH 369; LSB 561 Genesis 3:1-24 One sin ruined everything because only one thing wrong ruins perfection. But one Man’s
perfection would later crush Satan’s head.

Jul 5 TLH 46 (LSB 921) Philippians 1:1-11 Paul prays with confidence in the Lord’s continued work among the Philippians.

Workers in the Word, Called by God

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COVER STORY – THE DIVINE CALL

Carrying out the Lord’s kingdom work under a divine call is a truly awesome privilege. It is, at the same time, both enormously gratifying and profoundly sobering to recognize that God Himself has elected you to the office you hold. The Holy Spirit through Paul communicated the weight and origin of the divine call with these words: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.” (Acts 20:28 ESV) He taught the gravity of the divine call by reminding us that the work is all about caring for souls that “he obtained with his own blood”—human beings for whom our Savior suffered and died. He also assured us that the origin of the divine call is God Himself .

The context of these words is also informative. They were spoken to the elders of the church at Ephesus. From Miletus, on the return leg of his third missionary journey, Paul had asked the elders from Ephesus to come to him. We therefore conclude from these words (“in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers”) that every divine call has the same source or origin—God the Holy Spirit—and that every single individual laboring under a divine call is charged by God Himself with the care of His own beloved children. Every Christian called to provide any aspect of soul-care to others is included. Divine calls are not limited therefore to the obvious (pastors, teachers, and missionaries), but include also every Sunday school teacher, every church council member, every elder and deacon, every layman that the congregation calls to conduct a Sunday service in the Pastor’s absence or to assist with the distribution of the elements in Holy Communion.