Student Activities Fair

Look for representatives from our LCMS Campus Ministry at our table at Luther College's activities fair, this Tuesday August 28.

Advent - the time to prepare our hearts for His coming.

The Christian Church is patiently preparing for the coming of her Lord and Savior Jesus.  In Advent we consider the preparation for Christmas to be a sort of practice for us preparing for when He comes again.  We prepare our hearts for His coming by repenting of our sins, as John the Baptist taught and preached.  To aid you in repentance, I have prepared this study of the 10 Commandments with Self-Examination Questions.
http://prezi.com/nh8ae0go8cmg/the-10-commandments/

Advent: How does Jesus come now?

Advent  means “coming”.  The Word of God teaches us that the coming of Jesus, can be thought of as happening at three times.  In other words, the coming of Jesus can be expressed in three tenses:

1.         in the past, Jesus came as foretold by the prophets, born of a virgin in Bethlehem.

2.         in the present, Jesus comes to us as He promised, “I am with you always.”  (Matthew 28:20)

3.         in the future, Jesus will come with glory to judge the living and the dead.

How should we expect to see Jesus coming to us now, in the present?  That question came up for me this weekend at Christmas at Luther.  Performers and audience joined in singing Marty Haugen’s “Carol at the Manger”, the first verse of which concludes with the words, “teach us now where you are found.”

Jesus taught his disciples to find him in their midst (Matthew 18:20) when they hear and believe His Word (John 14:23, 15:5 & 7) and when they receive His body and blood (Matthew 26:26 & 28). As we observe Advent, we can gain great comfort from these promises:  Jesus still comes to us in His Church, in His Word, in the Holy Communion of His body and blood. 

The song, “Carol at the Manger”, does not mention these promises of Jesus. It says instead:

            Holy Child within the manger, lead us ever in your way,

            so we see in ev’ry stranger how you come to us today.

In Matthew 25:31-40 Jesus tells that when He comes again in glory, believers will learn that He has noticed the good works they had done in their lives and, surprisingly, He considers that these good works were done directly for Him.  Therefore, it could be drawn from this that when we help out a stranger, we are with the Lord Jesus.  Many Christian teachers build on this  explanation as an exhortation for Christian charity and works of mercy.  Mother Theresa was quoted in Time magazine as saying, “Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile we give and in the smile that we receive."

Such exhortation is what Lutherans have called the Third Use of the Law, that is, the Law of God guiding believers to do those things pleasing to Him. It is definitely necessary for Christians to be reminded to have mercy on the poor, to welcome strangers and to help out those in need.

There is cause for concern, however, in this noticeable trend in Christianity to direct people to seek the Lord Jesus in the works of the law that they do for the poor and needy. Whenever folks are directed to find hope and comfort in their own works, there will be one of two equally horrible results:  One is the kind of pride that comes before a fall, where the soul gets all puffed up and full of itself, believing its own self to be the best thing yet and motivated to make sure everyone else, including God, agrees. But the other possible result is despair, because the soul’s reliance on its own works to find a Savior and salvation will never satisfy the sin-laden conscience. For the pride there must be repentance, because it must answer to the Lord Jesus who is coming.  For the despair, there must be the Good News of forgiveness and life, which flows from the Lord Jesus who is coming.

Thanks be to God that the Gospel of Jesus directs you to believe that He is coming to you with His Word of forgiveness and in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.  When He comes He brings His love, His life, His salvation and then, and only then, the power to please Him with our lives and works

Christ on Campus

We have just become a Chapter of Christ on Campus!

Here’s the description from their website about what this means:

• "As the campus ministry arm of Higher Things, Christ on Campus seeks to connect high-school and college age youth with faithful Lutheran campus ministries and assists congregations and campus ministries in their faithful service to Lutheran college students. The Christ on Campus Chapter network plays an integral role in doing just that."

You’ll be hearing more about Christ on Campus in the future, for now though, I’d like to encourage college students and others interested to peruse the web resources and articles they make available to us at http://higherthings.org/campus/resources.html.

Martin Luther's Birthday

Today is the anniversary of Martin Luther's birth  (10 November 1483 – 18 February 1546).

Luther College students in our campus ministry will be watching the Luther movie this weekend. For those unfamiliar with the life and times of Luther I have recommended and distributed copies of  Luther: Echoes of the Hammer.  This new book from CPH is a quick and easy way to learn who's who and what's what in the rapid flow of the sometimes confusing movie.

Earlier this fall I enjoyed watching middle school students engaged in the history of the great reformer as they read Luther: Echoes of the Hammer.  I had to smile when several students in my catechism class told me that they finished it well before it was due; they didn't want to put it down. Some students allowed their siblings to borrow the book.  Parents mentioned to me that they enjoyed it as well, and learned something.

I'm anxious to hear more feedback from college aged people.  The intial reaction is that it's "cool".

Although Luther: Echoes of the Hammer is billed as a graphic novel, I can understand Andrew Craig's disappointment that it fails to meet the expectations he had for a work supposedly done in this genre. But overall, I am in happy agreement with the great majority of postive reviews. Many are welcoming this new tool available to us who teach the next generation about Martin Luther and  his work.

Studying Lutheranism 101

One of the participants in our Monday evening Bible group wrote

I really like this text we're working with and it seems to be really helpful for a lot of people in our group! I know a few have said they've looked at it on their own time which is also great!

The text she is referring to is Lutheranism 101 from CPH, which is proving to be a great blessing to Christians who want to delve further into the doctrine they had learned from the Small Catechism back in their Junior High years.

Isn’t it surprisingly refreshing to hear that there are some college students in this day and age who are actually reading a book?

As a campus ministry pastor, I appreciate how Lutheranism 101 is helping to layout the richness of the Christian faith.  Participants get a glimpse into our Lutheran Confessions with quotes in text boxes throughout the pages marked as “Believe, Teach and Confess.”  Supplementary resources are available from CPH like a study guide, leaders’ guide and power point slides.  I use these intentionally to make the reading of the book truly a Bible Study, and so, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we move from gaining the head knowledge of Christian concepts to truly hearing and believing the Word of God.

Words from Pastor Koren for All Saints' Day

Here are some very comforting thoughts from Rev. U. V. Koren, father of Lutheranism in Northeast Iowa and one of the founders of Luther College, Decorah:

In answsering the question, "Can and ought a Christian be certain of his salvation?" Rev Koren wrote:

"[The Christian] is to believe, i.e., he is humbly and in a childlike manner to rely upon the promises which God has given him precisely concerning [salvation].  Those promises are more firm than heaven and earth and are given just for this purpose, that we are to blieve them, have a firm conviction regarding that He will fulfill them in spite of the devil, the world and our flesh."

"Yes, indeed, God would have us believe that it is unalterably certain that we shall sometime be saved.  For He has given us all these glorious words and promises that we should believe them. He has surely not given them to us that we should doubt them.  "For the Son of God. . . was not yea and nay, but in him was yea.  For the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the glory of God by us" 2 Cor. 1:19, 20.