A Gift of Time

Since Adam, each and every human being ever born as been born under a death sentence. The only thing that varies from person to person is TIME. These differences in time do not reflect differences in the value of each person. The time from conception to death is always a part of the total package of God's gift of each individual to the world.

We would never have dreamed of shortening the life of Steven (Acts 7) just because we knew ahead of time that his lifespan would be only 3% of Methuselah's (Genesis 5). And yet that is exactly the counsel which many of today's parents are receiving through misguided counsellors armed with uncertain test results.

Last week, we heard the travesty of a perfectly healthy twin who was accidentally killed in an attempt to purposely kill his sibling who seemed to be destined to live a shorter life already.

While there is nothing that we can do to lengthen either our own lifespan or that of others, there is plenty that we can do to receive what time God gives for the gift that it is. Perinatal Hospice and Palliative Care is just such an opportunity to rejoice in God's gift of time. Their mission statement is:

As prenatal testing becomes increasingly routine, more parents are learning devastating news before their babies are born. In too many places, the ability to diagnose has raced ahead of the ability to care for these families and their babies. But in a beautiful and practical response, more than 100 pioneering hospitals and hospices in the U.S. and other countries have started providing perinatal hospice/palliative care for families who wish to continue their pregnancies with babies who likely will die before or shortly after birth.

A perinatal hospice approach walks with these families on their journey through pregnancy, birth and death, honoring the baby as well as the baby's family. Perinatal hospice is not a place; it is more a frame of mind. Even in areas without a formal program, parents can create a loving experience for themselves and their baby, and health professionals and family and friends can offer support in the spirit of hospice

There are two nearby programs that we can support in concrete and active ways.

Angel Watch, Intermountain Health Care. Contact: Carolyn Kasteler RN, (801) 698-4486. Salt Lake City, Utah

Rainbow Kids Palliative Care Program, Primary Children's Medical Center/University of Utah. Contact: Nurse coordinator Beth Nordfors RN, (801) 662-3770. Salt Lake City, Utah

Let's give some thought to how we might help others to receive and rejoice in God's gifts.

CrossTalk: Thanksgiving Preparations

Across our native land, Thursday will be a time for gathering with family and friends to give thanks for our many blessings. As we prepare our homes and meals for this Thanksgiving Day, here are a few thoughts to help you prepare your hearts as well.

A good place to start is with a two column list. Put good things on one side and bad things on the other. You will quickly find that such a list is harder than it seems. At first, the list of “bad” things grows quickly. But with more careful thought, many of these things can be seen as “good.”

For instance, grown-ups routinely recognize that education, healthy food, and firm behavioral boundaries are precious gifts. But children rarely see this. Remember back when you were a kid and you grumbled or whined because you didn’t like something your parents wanted to give you?

Now, consider that we are all still children in relation to God and His gracious giving. As children, we are simply without the necessary perspective to see the blessings of what God is giving us.

Some things that God gives are more obviously good: food and clothing, home and family, body and life. But even these are often experienced as “bad” — especially when we are looking at the particulars of our life. We hear it said, “Sure, food is good; but this food is awful. Sure, family is good; but not my family. Sure, life is good; but my life is a mess.”

But for those who believe that God is good, you have a ready gauge to tell you what things go in what column: All that comes from God is good! It really is that simple. And for Christians to know that God is the Man who gives His very life for you, you need only ask what comes from Him in order to know what is good and what to give thanks for.

Let your Thanksgivings follow the maturity of Jesus and leave behind the childishness of unbelief. When you do, you will see more and more of your life’s circumstances move from the negative column to the positive side. Your reasons for thankfulness will overflow while your reasons for grumbling will dwindle to nothing.

As your list becomes more and more lop-sided, your love for God grows as well. Or, better said, as your faith in God’s graciousness grows, your list will become more lop-sided. You will soon find that an hour is not enough time to thank God. Next, you will see that the whole day is far too short a time for thanksgiving. In heaven, we will find that eternity is still not enough time to finish saying thanks.

When you have finished your list — or simply been overwhelmed by the sheer wonder of it all — it’s time to move on to the next step. Recognize that God has given you all of these things through the people and things around you. He has used these people and things because He wants to receive your thanks through them.

To thank God does not stop with a mental note of His goodness. Thanksgiving expresses itself towards the people that He has used to bless you. Thank God for your family by loving your wife, your husband, your children. Thank God for your employment by working hard and being faithful. Thank God for your health by listening to your doctor and other health-care professionals. Thank God for His Word by hearing it regularly and taking it to heart.

By such things, not only will your life be filled with love and faith towards God, but you will also grow more and more to love each and every one of the good people and the good things that He has placed in your life. And they will also thank God in you. Thanks be to God.

Being Thankful for Lutheranism

The Internet Monk has been blogging in the "Post-Evangelical Wilderness" for 11 years. Now, having become a Lutheran he has posted a series of articles titled: How Lutheran Tradition Answers Many Post-Evangelical Concerns"

Life-long Lutherans often cannot know the richness of their own tradition simply because they don't have anything else to compare with it. Non-Lutherans may not know of its richness for the simple reason that it appears irrelevant to the concerns of popular Evangelicalism.

Either way, Chaplain Mike's articles are a worthwhile read for anyone interested in God the Crucified.  He provides seven reasons to be thankful for the Lutheran tradition which are summed up as follows:

1. The Lutheran tradition provides a solid historic tradition with roots.



2. The Lutheran tradition gives priority to Word and Table liturgical worship.


3. The Lutheran tradition places a strong emphasis on pastoral ministry.


4. The Lutheran tradition has a healthy emphasis on the vocational callings of all believers.

5. The Lutheran tradition is centered on Christ and the Gospel.


6. The Lutheran tradition keeps proper distinctions between Law and Gospel.

7. The Lutheran tradition has a sacramental theology that corrects the inefficiencies of revivalism.

8. The Lutheran tradition teaches most clearly the biblical doctrine of the Theology of the Cross.

 
After these 8 points, Mike gives a bonus post called "10 Reasons to Love Luther." All five articles can be accessed by following this link.

The LCMS before the SCOTUS

Readers of this blog should be interested in a case on the docket of the Supreme Court. A congregational dispute about whether or not to rehire a parish school teacher after a leave of absence has worked it way up to the highest court of the land.

This is no longer about a local dispute. It has become about whether or not the Federal Government can impel a church to hire someone. The decision issuing from this case has the potential to overturn centuries of case law and could impair a congregation's ability to hire based on the life and doctrine of a particular teacher or preacher.

For a synopsis of the case, read this article in the Wall Street Journal.

For a transcript of the argument before the Supreme Court, read this PDF document.

Or, you may wish to follow this on the Supreme Court Blog.

CrossTalk: Weep Not for Me, but for Yourselves, and Your Children

As I write these words today, two significant happenings fill my thoughts and prayers. Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani lost his appeal to the Iranian high court and today is condenned to death by hanging. His crime is that He knows Jesus to be the Lord and giver of life. So an innocent man stands to die for confessing the Life of the world. Also as I write, Christians around the world are participating in the third day of "40 Days for Life" <40daysforlife .com="">. Beginning last Wednesday--and through November 6--we have a special opportunity to speak up and speak out for the lives of the innocent, particularly those people who have yet to take their first breath and so cannot speak for themselves.

It goes without saying that Yousef and the innocent victims of abortion are tragic victims of senseless violence and misguided zealotry. Many before me have pointed this out. Less often noted is the way that we ourselves are injured by evils which, at first glance, only effect someone else. That is why I have taken the title of this article from Jesus' words to the women of Jerusalem as he carried the cross to his own place of execution. "And there followed a great company of people, and of women, who also bewailed and lamented him. But Jesus turning unto them said, 'Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children'" (Luke 23:27-28).

Jesus, too, was an innocent man unjustly slaughtered. But he does not consider himself the most tragic figure in the story. More pitiable is the culture in which this injustice occurs. He does not say this with any glee or any sense of revenge. If you know Jesus at all, you know that he simply could not think this way. Rather, he says this because he sees more clearly than anyone else that a calloused disregard for your neighbor is truly a calloused disregard for yourself.

When God says, "love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:39), he is simply spelling out the realities of human life as he created it. Christians do not see love for another as in competition with love for self -- as though we have to take care so that we don't love our neighbor too much and neglect ourselves. Rather, for the Christian, when I love my neighbor I AM loving myself. Because in Christ, we are all one body. No body in his right mind would willingly let his finger be smashed by a hammer saying, 'that's only my finger; it's not me.' So also, the love of Christ gives us clear vision to know that concern for any person individually is care for every person corporately.

And so, my thoughts today are filled with weeping and lamentations more for the people perpetrating the crimes than for the victims. I know that Jesus holds all his children in his hands and that nothing that anybody does to them can truly destroy them. But I also know that we are quite capable of destroying ourselves by denying or ignoring our own humanity.

Therefore, as you pray for the plight of Yousef Nadarkhani and as you pray and speak during these 40 Days for Life, let your hearts most especially turn to those who are involved -- both directly and indirectly.

Pray for the doctors who have been misguided into thinking they are serving humanity by killing humans. Pray for the nurses who are often unwittingly drawn into participation in ghastly procedures. Pray for the millions of young women who have been misled or coerced into injuring their bodies and consciences in ways that they never could have foreseen. Pray for anyone who is compelled by false notions into doing what they know, deep down, is evil.

And, most of all, pray for yourselves. Pray that God might touch your heart through Christ that you might feel the same compassion for people who you have never met as you do for yourselves. For in this compassion for the unborn as the born and for all children as your own children, you will have a share in the heart of God and, therefore, a return to your own humanity as God created you. That, after all, is the kind of love that Jesus has for you. That is why he considered you so valuable as to die for you even before you ever knew him -- even before you were born.

Pastor Yousef: The Tactics Are Changing

Reports as recently as Saturday morning indicate that Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani is still alive. These same reports indicate that the Iranian government seems to be changing its tune. While the original trial ran all the way up to the Iranian supreme court on the charge that Yousef left Islam for Christianity. Now the Iranian press is indicating that his death penalty is actually because of rape. Much is still unclear. Namely, whether this is a new formal charge or whether it is only an allegation to deflect international pressure.

This kind of tactic should surprise no one who is a student of history. As Eusebius' Church History tells, oftentimes the Roman persecutors of the early Christians would trump up outrageous moral charges once they knew that threats of death did not have the desired effect. While a Christian is not afraid of dying, it would be abhorrent to drag Christ's name into baseness and dishonor.

Let us pray keep praying for Pastor Yousef remains steadfast in the face of this new challenge. Let us also pray that we may be as abhorred by the thought of falling into immorality as the faithful martyrs of all ages.

Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation

Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani's life hangs in the balance today. He is slated to be hanged because he became a Christian after being a Muslim. You can read the whole story here: http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/david-allen-green/2011/09/islam-age-iran-court-muslim.

The judge gave him an opportunity to save his life by denying that Jesus is God. He did not. Just as Jesus on Good Friday knew that Pilate's power came from the True God, so on this Friday, Pastor Nadarkhani confesses that the power of life and death are not ultimately any Muslim judge's, but Jesus' own power.

That is why Jesus says, "Whoever saves his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 16:25)

• Pray for Pastor Nadarkhani's wife and children that they will be cared for.
• Pray for the Iranian people that they will be freed from the bonds of Islam.
• Pray for the judge and prosecutors that God would use Pastor Nadarkhani's words to rescue them from their bondage.
• Pray for Pastor Nadarkhani that Jesus would keep him steadfast in his confession to eternal life.
• Pray for yourselves and for your children, that you might believe as Pastor Nadarkhani does.