August 2017
Your First Love
Do you remember your first love? Now, I’m not trying to get anyone in trouble by bringing up specific, old memories but do you remember the emotions you felt, the passion in your heart, and the excitement that sent shivers up and down your spine?
Before you wander off down memory lane, let me bring my question forward in the context of our life connected to Jesus Christ. What is our first love in the church? What should it be? Those two questions might not share the same answer. Let’s start by answering the second question. Our first love should be a desire to share our faith in Jesus with others so that they too may know personally of His love and forgiveness for them. Is that not what our Lord commissioned us to do? Remember: [Jesus said] “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”(Mt 28:19).
That sounds good and we all say, “Yes, I should be doing that but …” because we have lots of reasons for not being bold in our witness for our Savior. Bad timing, bad health, bad people, bad weather, bad—well, you get the point. We have many excuses why we can’t carry our Lord’s direct command to us to go and make disciples of others. We see what we ought to be doing as God’s children. Yet we rarely carry out His command.
Anthony Pappas of the American Baptist Churches of Massachusetts (yes, there are Baptists in other places besides the South!) recently wrote this in response to the question about why churches are declining: A more powerful factor is the loss of our first love. We have forgotten that our God is in the redemption business and that we ought to be about “our Father’s business.” We have instead built up a whole enterprise around the maintenance business. [Many churches have] an immaculate building, tidy records, ordered worship, regular fellowship. All fine and commendable things, but unsullied by the chaos of sinners being transformed and babes in the faith blundering their way toward spiritual adulthood. Unless we reenter the redemption business, we will soon be out of business—period.
This is not a new thought but we cannot ignore the message any longer. If we intend to see Grace working as a vibrant, exciting messenger of God’s plan of salvation for all humankind we’re in need of getting back to our first love.
Remember I mentioned two questions we needed to answer a few paragraphs ago? The first question, “What is our first love in the church?” is now before you. You know the answer—go put it into practice.
Pastor Herring
Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?
A few years ago there was a television program called “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” that was a great success. People watching at home could participate as they attempted to answer the questions put to contestants who used lifelines to win money, even as much as a million dollars.
Money gets people’s attention. Unfortunately, our attraction to and interest in money makes it one of the most powerful forces in our lives. We live in a consumeristic and materialistic world which has lost its moorings. Money has become the solution to every problem. To fix what is wrong, our culture simply says, “Throw money at it.”
As God’s people, how important is money to us? How important is it to us to be millionaires? The high esteem in which our society holds money is in contrast to Jesus’ view of money and things. Money was important in Jesus’ time, but Jesus called a wealthy farmer a “Rich Fool” because he hoarded it for himself. He didn’t see his wealth or his ability to gain riches as God’s gift. Jesus said, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions” (Luke 12:15). The Rich Fool died suddenly, leaving behind all he’d labored over and worshipped. Jesus concluded the Parable of the Rich Fool by saying,“So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God”(Luke 12:21).
What does the phrase “rich toward God” mean? It means that Jesus has first place among our priorities and that we serve and honor Him only. It means that, although we have money and use money, we don’t love money or worry about it. It means that we“seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to [us]” (Matthew 6:33).
If God chooses to give us a million dollars, He will also grant us the strength, wisdom, and ability to use it to His glory, and that’s His final answer.
Pastor Herring
Thoughts
From
The
Board
OfElders
Reading Pastor Herring’s stewardship article got me thinking. This could be bad? Well, not really as it is about additional thoughts about the subject – most of which pop up when people mention ‘money’.
Money really is a loan from God. While we need it here, we will not need it in heaven. But even here, we cannot use it to buy God’s grace or gifts.
In a very real sense, money is one of many tools which God has given us. Perhaps the best tools God has given are our intelligence, imagination and talents. With these we have developed, by the Grace of God, many physical tools which can make life easier, healthier and more enjoyable. We may consider advancing we seen our lifetimes. We give thanks to God for these blessings.
We must always remember that God gives us tools of all sorts so that we can glorify God and help our neighbor. Tony Schmidt when I visited him, when he would tell about successes in his life, would say, “but it wasn’t me, it was…” and he would point upward. We can all ask how we are doing at giving credit to God.
Unfortunately, there is no gift or tool which the devil cannot use to evil purposes. We need to continually pray that God would keep us from selfish or destructive use of His gifts and tools. And remember St. Paul’s warning in First Timothy:
8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
Rev. Kenneth Haydon
REFORMATION ANNIVERSARY THOUGHTS
Part XI: Luther Misinterpreted and The Peasant War
By Reverend Myles R. Schultz
As has already been written in Part X of these articles the Roman Church was not only the center of Western Christendom but it also governed the politics and laws of the Holy Roman Empire. In so doing she controlled princes, emperors, and kings and governed both Church and State.
In 1524 Urick Zwingli, a catholic priest and reformer in Switzerland, abolished the Catholic Mass in Zurich. Zwingli and Luther agreed on a great deal concerning the need for reform in the Roman Church, services in the language of the people, as well as mutual cry for Scripture as the authority in issues of faith and life.
In 1525 Martin Luther married the former nun, Katherine von Bora, contrary to the Roman Catholic Church requiring celibacy for priests.
As a side note: In 1524 and 1525 respectively residents of England got their first taste of Turkey shipped in from South America, and hops were introduced in England to the cheers of beer drinkers everywhere.
While all of this was going on the efforts of reformers in the Holy Roman Empire sparked a general rebellion against the economic, social, and political status quo. This resulted in the “Peasants’ War of 1524-1525” in what is now known as Germany. This revolt was fueled by injustices faced by peasants in all three of the above mentioned areas; economics, social, and political. This uprising has also been called “The Lutheran Revolt”, and was strongest in what is now southern Germany.
Subsistence farming, enjoyed by the peasantry through which their lords provided a level of security, was undergoing a change as the lord’s profits took priority over the peasant wellbeing. Added to this was the ever increasing burden of ecclesiastical taxes, with exemptions for feudal nobility and clergy, placing and extra burden upon the already stretched peasantry. To all of this add the ever increasing cost for the basic needs of life and a rebellion was in the making.
The peasantry grew increasingly frustrated with the constant promises by lords, nobles and merchants. With the flame of the Reformation growing stronger, no longer were people willing to be used and abused by either Church or State.
As Luther rejected the religious authorities he gained ever increasing support from the princes of The Holy Roman Empire as well as the peasantry. His writings were driving a wedge between the people and the Roman Church while seemingly adding support to the people’s challenge of the governing authorities. Luther’s challenges could well be considered fuel for a national upheaval resulting in the “The Lutheran Revolt.”
In “The 12 Articles”, a peasant manifesto, the peasants demanded “the abolition of serfdom, the regulation of rents and the protection of certain common rights such as hunting, grazing, and fishing.” These articles listed the peasant’s protest against the rule of their overlords.
The peasants believed their demands conformed to Scripture and as such they expected Martin Luther to throw his support behind them as they formed armies. Plundering and looting followed them as they overwhelmed the estates of feudal lords and Church properties. At the beginning Luther did side with the peasants. In his Admonition to Peace Luther criticized the lords for their mistreatment of the peasants.
However when widespread violence broke out, Luther withdrew his support entirely. He was horrified as the peasants moved beyond attacks on Catholics and targeted his own followers in the nobility. The peasants, Luther said, had miss-understood his rejection of authority. His idea of "freedom" of man in his Liberty of the Christian Man meant the freedom of the Christian man or woman to obey the Word of the Lord without regard for the authority of the Roman Church. He rejected the peasants' claim that their demands for radical reform had biblical support. Nowhere, Luther said, did Scripture advocate revolt for earthly justice or material gain.
Luther responded to the revolt with his treatise “Against the Murderous and Thieving Hordes of Peasants.” In this treatise Luther encouraged the German princes to crush the peasants and preserve divinely appointed authority. The peasants were mercilessly put down by the governing authorities, at a cost of 100,000 lives. Disheartened by Luther's support for the status quo, the peasants accused him of betrayal. As a result many abandoned Lutheranism and went back to the Church.
It is this author’s belief that “The Lutheran Revolt” played a role in Luther’s furthering the development of “The Doctrine of Two Kingdoms”, the topic for Article XII.