An exhortation to walk as Christians - Martin Luther

"Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?"


[Paul]has been reproving the Corinthians for their disposition to boast of the Gospel and of Christ while abusing such liberty unto unchastity and other sins. He admonishes them that, possessing the Gospel and having become Christians, they ought, as becomes Christians, to live according to the Gospel, avoiding everything not consistent with the faith and with Christian character--everything not befitting them as new creatures.

• • • • • • •

But in this text he has reference more particularly to an erroneous idea concerning life and conduct. In this instance it is likewise true that, once the flesh be allowed any license, and liberty be abused...there is introduced a leaven which will speedily corrupt faith and conscience, and continue its work until Christ and the Gospel are lost. Such would have been the fate of the Corinthians had not Paul saved them from it by this epistle admonishing and urging them to purge out the leaven of license; for they had begun to practice great wantonness...

• • • • • • •

Nor may we in our works and in our daily life tolerate the yielding to the wantonness of the flesh and at the same boast the Gospel of Christ, as did the Corinthians, who stirred up among themselves divisions and disorder, even to the extent of one marrying his stepmother. In such matters as these, Paul says, a little leaven leavens and ruins the whole lump--the entire Christian life. These two things are not consistent with each other: to hold to the Christian faith and to live after the wantonness of the flesh, in sins and vices condemned by the conscience.


excerpted from
Exhortation To Walk As Christians
A Sermon by Martin Luther; 1540


The entire sermon may be found here http://www.orlutheran.com/mlse1co5.html
An excellent read

A Poem

I’m not a good man
I’ve proved it o’er and o’er again
You gave me grace
I received it in vain
That was never the plan
But as I said before
I’m not a good man

I’m feeling blue today
feeling blue today
I’m feeling blue today
just like a castaway

Still, You are good to me



I wrote this one night last week. Actually, I wrote the first stanza one night; the second came to me the next night. And in a humorous note, the second stanza came to me as a song - I could actually hear it playing in my head!

Why is Jesus the only way?

The other day Mary told me that one of our grandchildren asked her, “Why is Jesus the only way?” Questions from grandchildren are wonderful questions! You know that when you answer their question you are actually addressing something they're interested in AND it helps you explain big ideas in simple ways.

So why is Jesus the only way? This can be answered with a few onlies:


There is only one God

Jesus is God's only (begotten) Son

He said he was the only way to the Father

He's the only sacrifice for sin

He's the only One who rose from the dead

There is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved


This is obviously not a theological treatise and I’ve not explained any of the points, but here you have it in a nutshell.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: 

no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Why is Jesus the only way?

The other day Mary told me that one of our grandchildren asked her, “Why is Jesus the only way?” Questions from grandchildren are wonderful questions! You know that when you answer their question you are actually addressing something they're interested in AND it helps you explain big ideas in simple ways.

So why is Jesus the only way? This can be answered with a few "only":


There is only one God

Jesus is God's only begotten Son

He said he was the only way to the Father

He's the only sacrifice for sin

He's the only One who rose from the dead

There is only one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved


This is obviously not a theological treatise and I’ve not explained any of the points, but here you have it in a nutshell.

I am the way, the truth, and the life: 
no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

How did you wind up here?

There is a woman who comes in quite often to buy lottery tickets. We talk about this and that. I must’ve mentioned my upcoming trip to Hawai’i because she asked me something about it and I told her I used to live in Hawai’i. “Hawaii?? How did you end up here??”

How did I end up here? There are two ways to look at that question: (1) How did I end up living in South Carolina? (2) How did I end up working at this store? I’m pretty sure she meant #1. So, how did I wind up living here in Rock Hill, South Carolina?

I was born in New Bern, North Carolina. As East Coast as you can get! Shortly after I was born my family began migrating West. We lived in New Bern, Sanford, and Fayetteville, NC; Jackson, MS; Nashville, TN; Dallas-Fort Worth (yeah, back then that’s how it was known!) and El Paso, TX; Tucson, AZ; and at some point made a winter stop in the Boston, MA area. People used to ask me if my Dad was in the military. No, he was a disc jockey. Eventually he got real good at it and wound up in the San Jose Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but not while he was married to my mother.

Anyway, my Mom and father divorced, must’ve been while we were living in Arizona. After a while she met and married another man (who I came to consider “Dad”) and he convinced her to sell all and move to Hawai’i. I was in the third grade when we moved to Hawai’i. That’s as far west as you can go in the US! We lived in Honolulu, then Kahaluu, then finally Kaneohe. Lived there seven years. Back then, that was the longest I had ever lived anywhere.

My Dad died while we were living in Hawai’i. We continued for a brief while but then the landlord decided he wanted to do some work on the house and raise the rent. My Mom couldn't afford this so we left Hawai’i – and thus began my eastward migration. We moved to Nashville to stay with my Grandparents. That first summer in Nashville I slept in a small travel trailer parked in my Grandparents driveway. Then we rented our own house and after a while my Mother was able to buy a house. It was while living in Nashville that I became a Christian.

I graduated from McGavock High School in Nashville and eventually went off to collegein Martin, TN. I was trying to go west. Mary and I met and married while in Martin. When she graduated (RN) we moved to Memphis so she could work and I could go to school. Mid-South Bible College.

Upon my graduation we began to trek eastward. My first pastorate was in Pensacola, FL. Then we moved to Macon, GA. Then York, SC. I pastored the church in York for 20 years. Basically raised our family here. When, in the course of time, I left the church (like how I put that? That’s the other way to take the question – I’m not going into that), we moved to Rock Hill. East again! I was born on the East Coast and here I am in my old age living on the East Coast.

And that’s how I wound up here in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

A good word

Exodus 3:7  And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;


Last night this verse came to mind, particularly, [I] have heard their cry. I meditated on that for much of the night. Actually, I put together a sermon on this passage. Pretty good message too, full of comfort, encouragement, and hope.

Last night I thought this would be a good message/sermon for the brethren. And it would be. But tonight the thought came to me, Perhaps this was a word for me, and all that I conceived as comfort, encouragement, and hope for the brethren was instead, or first, a good word for me.

And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;  8 And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; Exodus 3:7-8

Amen.

Once upon a time

A church council was examining a candidate for membership. One of the questions they asked him was, "What part of the Bible do you like best?" "I like the New Testament best," he replied. "What book in the New Testament?" "The book of Parables." "Would you kindly relate one of those parables to us?" So the uncertain candidate bluffed as follows:

"Once upon a time, a man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, and the thorns grew up and choked him.

And he went on and met the Queen of Sheba, and she gave him a thousand talents of gold and silver, and a hundred changes of rainment. And he got in his chariot and drove furiously. And when he was driving along under a tree his hair got caught in a limb and left him hanging there.

And he hung there many days and many nights, and ravens brought him food to eat and drink. And one night while he was hanging there asleep, his wife, Delilah, came and cut off his hair, and he dropped and fell on the stony ground; and it began to rain and it rained forty days and forty nights, and he hid himself in a cave.

And he went on and met a man who said, "Come in and take supper with me," but he said, "I cannot come, for I have married a wife." And the man went out into the highways and byways and compelled him to come.

He went on and came to Jerusalem and he saw Queen Jezebel sitting high up in a window. When she saw him she laughed. And he said, "Throw her down out of there," and they threw her down. And he said, "Throw her down again," and they threw her down seventy times seven times, and of the fragments they then picked up twelve baskets full. Now whose wife will she be in the day of judgment?"

There was no one in the council who felt qualified to question the candidate further for each council member suspected that his own unorganized Bible knowledge was as sketchy as that of the candidate. The man was voted into the church.