“I didn’t know anything different...part 2”

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

Last month’s Focus reminded us marriage is no longer the majority type of household. We reviewed the disastrous impact of the sexual revolution because it promises personal autonomy but delivers slavery.

Married or single, the Bible teaches God created you for His purposes—you are his. He is our loving Father who gives us meaning and purpose. We all begin life as single solitary individuals cared for by God, and will end life this way, before His throne, not autonomous, but accountable.

For those who haven’t known anything different other than the Hollywood influence, the Sex Education influence, and have embraced the pervasive influence of the sexual revolution, consider something radical.

God understands you, because He made you. He further sent His son to this earth as a baby, and Jesus lived as a single man experiencing first hand all the temptations of youth and adulthood (Heb. 4:15). Singleness involves our attitudes and opinions about our own life and relationships, through adolescence and life. It is learning self-control over all things, including our inner desires, including raging hormones. It is learning to strive for self discipline and also purity and chastity. It is learning that we are not capable of these things without grace. God understands these very real internal struggles and battles even if we don’t. We take these attitudes into our future relationships and marriage. The Bible particularly emphasizes, teaches and warns about this subject speaking of our “conduct”. Peter, in his brief epistles, uses the word 9 times, “but as He who has called you is holy, so be holy in all your conduct” (1 Peter 1:15). This is in contrast to what he calls “filthy conduct” of the residents of Sodom, “and delivered righteous Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked” (2 Peter 2:7).

To repeat, we are not capable in and of ourselves to overcome these urges, or what the Bible calls the “flesh” without God’s grace. So as this relates to our subject, and sexuality, the biblical sexual ethic consists of “The thou shalt nots...” They get a bad rap. But God is no kill-joy simply to be cruel. The commandments are for our good. He gives us tough love, and warns us as a parent does his precious child about to run into traffic, Stop!

The sexual revolution of the last 50-60 years, emphatically says “Go!” Our sinful flesh agrees.

And people are jumping on board. Church participation rates are plummeting in mainline congregations. The bad news goes on and on. Albert Mohler Jr. president of the SBTS in his program The Briefing is correct when he makes this distinction quoting from and article by Noelle Mering in the Federalist entitled “Is sexual autonomy worth the cost of human lives?” It says, “The promise of the sexual revolution is that sex can be meaningless. Indeed it has to be meaningless to preserve our autonomy. If it has intrinsic meaning independent of what we want it to mean, then that might signify that we have duties independent of our autonomy.” This society insists upon treating everyone as completely autonomous. Is sexual autonomy worth the cost of human lives? This autonomy brings slavery, not liberation.

Perhaps the biggest threat to this autonomy is a little baby who is reliant upon his mother and father.

Marriage isn’t autonomous either.

What is marriage? Marriage is another box to be checked on a form. It is practiced in every culture since the beginning of time. It has been described as a contract. The state issues you a license. It allows you to have various, tax considerations, insurance, and pension benefits. It profoundly affects business, estates, partnerships and property. And now the Supreme Court of the United States, says, that it is also for two men, or two women. It is limited to monogamy—for now. Marriage is big.

This month we want to reflect on the radical ideals of sacred matrimony, not just an ordinary contract. We move from the cultural, legal, and the clinical to the biblical; from marriage to Holy Matrimony. This is God’s plan, not man’s plan. Its not autonomy, but submission and accountability.

I suspect many people today see marriage primarily from a cultural, legal or clinical sense. But there is so much more. Look into the face of Christ, and the marriage supper of the Lamb we wrote about a few months back. But is it too late?

Jacob Lupfer in a June 2018 opinion piece, in Religious News Service, (religious news with a liberal slant) writes, “Religious congregations hosted 22 percent of weddings in 2017, down from 41 percent in 2009. Churches are losing ground to banquet halls, hotels, country clubs, wineries, rooftops and museums...Clergy are solemnizing fewer and fewer marriages. Instead, couples are turning to civil magistrates or even loved ones who obtain credentials. In 2009, 29 percent of couples had a friend or family member solemnize their wedding. That number had increased to 43 percent by 2016.”

Then he asks, does it matter? Some of the same data reports that less than 25 percent of weddings are actually held in a church.

A larger question is does anyone care about sacred matrimony? Parents, we need to teach our young people about sacred matrimony and not let Hollywood and the University have all the influence.

In Paradise, Adam and Eve, literally single man and woman needed to become “one flesh” in the marriage bond where they experience the beauty of being one, “flesh”. Sexual union within marriage is ideally a beautiful pleasurable bond with an end outside of itself, not as Ms Mering writes in her Federalist article, “I tried casual relationships a handful of times with guys I had chemistry with, but I realized that they just made me feel bad about myself. I was always so painfully aware of the fact that the only reason these guys were talking to me was because I was letting them sleep with me…” .

Christian marriage is unique—a whole new worldview. It is a picture of redemption and Christ and His bride the Church. Marriage here on earth is a special, blessed and sacred estate between a man and a woman becoming husband and wife. God created marriage at creation. In the New Testament then it is a spiritual picture of Christ’s redemption of solitary man and woman at Calvary loved and precious before God. He is the groom and we are his glorious bride.

Marriage has a very large cultural, legal and societal footprint. But the Christian marriage worldview is too important to be lost. There is too much at stake, namely the very young.

Children are a heritage from the Lord. But now seen as mere biological “choices” of the expression of rights in the sexual revolution, they are to be prevented, and then possibly eliminated by whim and circumstance because they may hinder the precious autonomy of the individual.

Instead they are true miracles from heaven, ideally conceived in love, and as David says, “Your formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...your eyes saw my unformed substance; and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139:15)

So many people, young and old, have never known anything different. And consequently they have never thought these things through. Well this is not only different, but radical. The sexual revolution, packaged by formal education (and now even by mainline churches), and delivered by Hollywood, welcomed by our own sinful flesh, does not bring autonomy or liberation. It brings instead, bondage and slavery (Rom 8:34). True liberation is found only in Christ.

There are two very different paths today that are battling for predominance. Which will you choose?

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

Copyright 2019

“I didn’t know anything different”

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

Today we have 18 year old’s that never knew what it was like not to have cell phones, or even “High Def” TV. They might say, “we’ve never known anything different.”

There’s some other things that are that way too. Namely dating and relationships. I suppose it won’t be long before a young person would say about online dating for example, “I didn’t know any different.”

Marriage is no longer the majority type of household. The rising percentage of single Americans has been headline news for a long time. That includes counting of unmarried households with children. There are counts of unmarried mothers, and unmarried fathers, just to name a couple of the not so new categories. It raises the question, what does singleness mean? The U.S. census, CNN, Washington Post, and many other news outlets and periodicals, have written about this phenomenon.

Guess when the number of married households in the US peaked...some put it as early as 1950. They tell us it has been basically declining ever since. I have an article that I saved from the Atlantic 6 years ago that said, that by 2042 marriage will hit zero. Of course that won’t happen, but if you extrapolated the line it would.

A whole generation “never has known anything different.” But I’m not as pessimistic about this. Marriage is more resilient, even in these generations I’m referring to here. In spite of this data, many young people are choosing to accept more traditional values.

So whereas when I was a kid growing up, the people you knew, including your relatives, and neighborhood were either married or single. If you had kids, you were married. Living together was a scandal. There was the occasional single mom. A single person was either a bachelor or bachelorette. We learned what widows and widowers were. Divorce was something somewhat rare—but it did affect our family. There was out-of-wedlock pregnancies, and “Hanky Pancky”, but it was kept quiet and considered shameful—not always handled well either. They covered our ears—but we still heard about it. But I’ve watched it change every year of my life.

What does it mean to be single then? Today we have what I’ll call the Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner generation—at least that is what is promoted. What about sex? Should I date? How do I find a date? Who should I date? It is my choice. Or it’s in my DNA. I can’t help it. I have a sovereign decision over my life. Who am I attracted to? In this mindset everyone who looks in the mirror young or old may ask, if they are gay or straight, trans, or something in between. This is my identity—right? I’m a part of evolution, and a product of the “Big Bang”--right?

Once you’ve become a couple, (whatever that means) the first question is not living single until married, but cohabitation, or moving in together and then possibly considering a family, and maybe marriage.

Childbirth. Anyone can be a parent. It’s your choice. Or a child can be terminated as a mistake or inconvenience. Other boxes that they can check are “partnered” or unpartnered”. Single people are deciding to have a child and remain single in this worldview.

But the Bible teaches God created you for His purposes as a single individual—you are his. He is our loving Father who gives us meaning and purpose in something outside of ourselves. Biblical singleness is a unique universal gift. It involves your attitudes and opinions about your relationships, as you grow through adolescence. It is learning to strive for purity and chastity. It is learning self-control over all things, including our inner desires. It is learning that we are not capable of these things without grace.

But instead the sexual revolution plows ahead at full steam. Growing up in the 1960’s when so many things appeared on the horizon, I can only look back and now realize that those were really radical times. I didn’t realize it, because it was my world. Though it didn’t begin in the ‘60’s, it certainly came into the current form. It is characterized according to various definitions, as “the liberalization of established social and moral attitudes toward sex, particularly that occurring in western countries during the 1960s, as the women's movement and developments in contraception” and another basically restates the same, but adds emphasis on the pill, “...helped by the introduction of the Pill, an easy and reliable method of preventing pregnancy.” This introduces the term “non-procreative sex”. This is also revolutionary. For the first time in history, sex has been basically reliably separated from procreation or the possibility of pregnancy. Think of it.

In 1971, folk singer, Carly Simon sang this song: “That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be” which illustrates the “real”-ities of the life for so many then and now. It is the hopeless realities of the world void of God.

“My father sits at night with no lights on, His cigarette glows in the dark
The living room is still I walk by, no remark

I tiptoe past the master bedroom where--My mother reads her magazines
I hear her call sweet dreams, But I forgot how to dream--

Chorus:

But you say it's time we moved in together, And raised a family of our own, you and me
Well, that's the way I've always heard it should be--You want to marry me, we'll marry.

My friends from college they're all married now; They have their houses and their lawns
They have their silent noons, Tearful nights, angry dawns
Their children hate them for the things they're not, They hate themselves for what they are
And yet they drink, they laugh Close the wound, hide the scar--

You say we can keep our love alive, Babe all I know is what I see
The couples cling and claw, And drown in love's debris
You say we'll soar like two birds through the clouds, But soon you'll cage me on your shelf
I'll never learn to be just me first By myself--

Well okay, it's time we moved in together, And raised a family of our own...We'll marry.”

Songwriters: Jacob Brackman / Carly Simon

Look at that last line before the last chorus. That’s biblical singleness. God want’s to teach us to be “just me” His way as His child.

What do I mean by “ideals”? It’s the distinction between the real, or reality of life, dirty diapers, the smells and fluids of life on the one hand, and ideals of peace tranquility and joy on the other. Is there such a thing? This is a good place to pause and reflect a bit. Many reading this are like me, who have seen the changes. Others would say, “I didn’t know anything different.” Let’s continue in another issue and call it Part Two, which will deal with God’s plan—a Biblical Sexual Ethic with His ideals and model for the family.

Does God care about the real? Absolutely. He makes lemon-aid from lemons. He has transformative power over the past. Look at Mary Magdalene as an example. God, meets you wherever you are, and says, I have something better. Maybe you’ve never known anything different, that’s okay. Many people don’t even realize that they have, or are in the process of embracing a sinful sexual ethic. Just because “I really didn’t know anything different” doesn’t mean there isn’t something different. That’s the good news.

God created you as a single soul for His purposes—you are his. He is our loving Father who gives us meaning and purpose in something outside of ourselves. There are two very different paths today that are battling for predominance. Which will you choose?

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

###

[disregard below]

He is sovereign, not you (or I). (That sovereignty extends over not only your life, but also the whole universe.)

Let’s revisit something else, its called the Biblical Sexual Ethic. And it really doesn’t look very much like what we listed above—at all.

So the big controversial point: Many people don’t even realize that they have, or are in the process of embracing a sexual ethic. Just because “I really didn’t know anything different” doesn’t mean there isn’t something different.

God created you for His purposes as a single individual—you are his. He is our loving Father who gives us meaning and purpose in something outside of ourselves. He is sovereign, not you (or I). (That sovereignty extends over not only your life, but also the whole universe.)

God created, and commands the moral law, which was followed, embraced, instituted, and endorsed by our Lord, which falls upon all people, of all places and of all time, which is the ten commandments.

While the sexual revolution is complex and unforgiving, the Bible is simple and God is gracious, loving and forgiving. But at the same time insistent about His Law.

God made them male and female. (Genesis 1,2)

Singleness is a unique universal gift. What is biblical single-hood? It is childhood—naivety, a type of “innocence”. It involves your attitudes and opinions about your relationships, as you grow through adolescence. It is learning to strive for purity and chastity. It is learning self-control over all things, including our inner desires. It is learning that we are not capable of these things without grace. As were Adam and Eve, it is our solitary identity before God. It is the condition of our soul. We come into the world single, and are judged as single individuals. Many return to singleness at the end of life.

Adam and Eve, literally single man and woman need to become “one flesh” in the marriage bond where they experience the beauty of being one, “flesh”. The souls do not become one flesh.

Marriage is distinctly Christian, (also practiced universally throughout the world). It is a picture of redemption and Christ and His bride the Church. Sexual union within marriage is ideally a beautiful pleasurable bond with an end outside of itself.

Children are a heritage from the Lord. Seen as mere biological “choices” of the expression of rights in the sexual revolution, they are to be prevented, and then possibly eliminated by whim and circumstance.

Instead they are true miracles from heaven, ideally conceived in love, and as David says, “Your formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made...your eyes saw my unformed substance; and in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139:15)

We spend too much time only looking at the “reals” the hardships of the family, and neglecting the ideals of the family.

There is no “childhood” anymore, because these things are being forced upon children at earlier and earlier ages. Children that don’t even know what “sex” is are being hit with sexual vocabulary and even images. We dealt with that too, but it was in the barnyard with the animals or walking in on aunt Betty, or Uncle Bill in the bathroom. Sadly, there was creepy things done by a few people too, as there is today.

Is there a moral component, a right or wrong to all these ‘choices’ we are categorizing today? Well, again, we have to turn to the pages of the Bible. Emphatically yes.

What we are talking about is the sexual revolution. Albert Mohler is correct when he makes this distinction. The Federalist “Is sexual autonomy worth the cost of human lives?” by Noelle Mering “The promise of the sexual revolution is that sex can be meaningless. Indeed it has to be

meaningless to preserve our autonomy. If it has intrinsic meaning independent of what we want it to mean, then that might signify that we have duties independent of our autonomy.” This society insists upon treating everyone as completely autonomous. Is sexual autonomy worth the cost of human lives?

There are two very different paths today that are battling for predominance. Which will you choose?

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

###

Copyright 2019

The Upcoming Wedding

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

I grew up hearing many wonderful things from the pulpit. But few were as great as this:

And I heard, as if were, the voice of a great multitude, as the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, “Alleluiah! For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Then he said to me, “Write; blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!”

Revelation 19:6-9

I heard about the marriage supper of the Lamb over and over again. You've no doubt heard the language or terminology referring to the church as the bride of Christ. (I invite you to try to tackle the book of Revelation either for the first time, or a second or third. Try using a book, or commentary as a guide. Or perhaps your Bible has some helpful pointers and comments. Keep in mind that as sincere as the various authors are, their interpretations are at best “guess-timates”.

From my own experience, chapters 1-4, and 20-22 are pretty straight forward, leaving the fifteen chapters in the middle somewhat mysterious.)

Its kind of interesting historical note that Christ Lutheran's first affiliation the Iowa Synod, held chapter 20 (the 1000 years or millenium) as an open question. Lutheran's have always debated whether the 1000 years spoken is a literal future time, or figurative. Today they definitely lean toward figurative.

The events of Revelation 19 are yet future and take place up in heaven in the familiar setting before the throne, and the twenty-four elders (see Revelation 4 and 5). Again, just a reminder, we will all participate in this, so pay attention.

So much of the end times discussion focuses on judgment, and it rightly should. But also there is the salvation and glory awaiting the Christian. The Devil wants to water that down as much as he can. As a result, we think, only in two dimensional terms, heaven and hell; and heaven is just an undefined eternity of harp playing. Hell is hardship, even suffering on this earth and possibly some punishment below somewhere. Hell is undesirable, but the Devil's characterization of Heaven is like the boredom of sitting in church for all eternity.

And death is the real culprit, at least in our current mindset, ending our life down here followed by decay and darkness. Life here is perceived as all there is. The Apostle Paul begs to differ in 2 Corinthians 5.

Whatever your influences, attitudes and opinions are regarding the hereafter, the Bible does have a lot of clear things to say about the future.

First of all the Bible speaks authoritatively about the future. That's the nature of the Bible. It seems obvious and like we don't need to say it, but we do. And if you think about it, we will not be dead, or indisposed, but will be active participants in all future events in Scripture.

To be able to accurately predict the future is the ability of God Almighty alone. The devil has not that ability, even though he is very clever.

Second, the Bible is clear about heaven and hell. Every New Testament author has written clearly about the afterlife. It is a clear apostolic consensus. And every one of the church fathers has concurred. This is why it is written in each of the Creeds of the Church.

Third, Hell is always described in serious terms with strong universal warnings. This is also a mighty motivation for the worldwide missionary effort. Rev. Maynard Force a pastor and professor at the Lutheran Bible Institute years ago writes in his paper entitled “Assurance” published by the Lutheran Evengelistic Movement in 1945,

“The unbeliever is given a serious classification in God's catalog of sinners. "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."(Rev. 21:8). Notice that the unbeliever is put in the same class as "murderers and fornicators.'' They are together doomed to eternal damnation.

Quoting again from Dr. Walther, we read, "It would be awful if any of you would have to retire this evening with the thought in his heart: 'I do not know whether God is gracious to me, whether He has accepted me as His child, and whether my sins are forgiven. If God were to call me hence tonight, I would not be sure whether I should die saved.' God grant that no one of you will retire in that frame of mind; for he would lie down to rest with the wrath of God abiding on him."

Hence Jesus' most famous statement in John 3:16. Say it from memory. Hell is not suffering on this earth, or hardship. It is clearly the lake of fire the second death—not annihilation as some believe.

And this brings us to Revelation 19:9 “...write blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!” Consider this your invitation. “And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take of the water of life freely.”

This is not aimless solitary harp playing sitting on a cloud. This is a serious existence in the presence of our Lord Jesus, at the marriage of the Lamb to the church His beautiful bride. We don't have to wait for death to serve Him, it begins now with the time left on this earth.

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

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...God Shed His Grace on thee.

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

The choir sang a beautiful rendition of America the Beautiful on memorial day weekend. I’ve heard that even some of our patriotic songs are politically incorrect. I suspect America the Beautiful is at the top of the list.

“O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties Above the fruited plain.

America! America! God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea.”

Instilled in me from earliest ages from my father to all the other adults around me including the school and church was this respectful patriotism for our country. No one, no one, in this group was blind to the problems we saw on the evening news and read about in the newspaper, nor were they naive to their solutions. It was God and country, in that order.

The song America the Beautiful and my boyhood patriotism, spring from values of freedom, liberation, bravery, service, hard work and love of God and service to your neighbor. What could be wrong with that?

There is even a term coined for it now originating, I suppose, from the invisible politically correct handbook, that term is “American exceptionalism”. What is implied negatively today is superiority, power and privilege. When I first heard it, I had to ask around. Apparently it has been in use on college campuses for a while. My bad, its been nearly 35 years since I’ve been in college. If you look it up, the actual wording used in the definitions aren’t that bad. It is very carefully worded. Karen Tumulty of the Washington Post says it best in a September 12 2013 article, “It is actually an old idea, one that until recently was rarely talked about outside of think tanks and academia.”

It should be a neutral term, but judging by where it was coined, it is not. It often implies a negative connotation, for those who use it.  In spite of the fact that there are two different types.  According to Trevin Wax of the Gospel Coalition in a Feb. 2016 article, Conservatives tend to emphasize patriotism and the uniqueness of American values. Greatness is part of the past on which we build.

Liberals tend to see “exceptionalism” as ...a way of atoning for the ways we have fallen short in the past and still fall short today.  Also are failing in terms of policy, education, and in other ways in comparison to the world.

Along with this is the notion that patriotism is a breaking of the first commandment. Again, two words, God and country—in that order. Patriotism is honoring. We are to honor others. Give honor to those whom honor is due, Rom 13:7 (authorities). We are to honor our parents, elders, the poor, our own bodies, widows. Most of all we are to honor our exalted Lord Jesus Christ, Heb. 2:7,9.

Any nation is blessed by God only inasmuch as they are followers of God. Psalm 33:12 “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.”

Historically, life in America quickly became corrupt and godless, as any population in any place or time in history. There was many bad things from the beginning. The brutal slavery and treatment of blacks and others is an example. My own ancestors saw first hand the brutality of the Indian wars and massacres of the 17^th century. The natives were manipulated by the British, and promises broken by our own government. There were many other evils right from the start, but God heard the prayers of his people for revival and renewal and sent the first and second and third awakenings, using Whitefield, Edwards, Wesley and others.

At the very start, God honored our early forefathers’ faith and trust and devotion to God. Others who may not have expressed personal faith, acknowledged their Creator. George Washington did kneel and pray at Valley Forge.

Recent presidents have referred to American Exceptionalism including Donald Trump with his “Make America Great Again.” motto. This is doubly offensive to his opponents because of the term America, and the last word “again”. Barack Obama said America was exceptional, but that was because we were a work in progress, and he apologized for our mistakes around the world. But the 

most famous presidential reference was Ronald Reagan in his farewell address in 1989, where he quoted the John Winthrop’s sermon known as the city on a hill.

City on a hill. What a picture. That was coined by English Puritan lawyer, and future governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, John Winthrop. He wrote it in a speech, or sermon, still while on board ship. He talks about the responsibilities of a new nation that was still in its infancy. You can easily look it up and read it. He does paint a picture of this new nation in that way, as a city on a hill, but it’s a conditional “if” from Deuteronomy. Moses warned Israel, then in their infancy about God’s warning of judgment if they forsook God. God’s blessings of Israel in the promised land are all conditional.

It occurs to me that I haven’t given you my definition of how America is exceptional. If you are still reading, I’ll let Abraham Lincoln do it. God has been merciful to us as a people. Abraham Lincoln the 16^th president, issued this proclamation on March 30, 1863 while the nation was in the throes of the civil war, and the south was prevailing designating April 30, 1863 (just seven years before our church opened), as a national day of humiliation, prayer and fasting.

“Whereas, the Senate of the United States devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation: And whereas, it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history: that those nations only are blessed whose God is Lord:

And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisement in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious Hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.

Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us!

It behooves us then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.”

This is why our country is truly exceptional. Any country that puts God first. It’s God and country period. God have mercy on our nation.

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

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The Ten Commandments

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

What are they? Are they relevant to society? Are they relevant to you personally?

I did a quick search of the Ten Commandments and as far as popular news reports, its about whether they should be displayed on public property. Here's a recent example...out of the Santa Fe New Mexican...

Group calls on city to remove Ten Commandments monument

By Tripp Stelnicki “The New Mexican,” Jan 9, 2018 Updated Jan 9, 2018

“A nonprofit organization in Madison, Wis., is calling for removal of a Ten Commandments monument from a Santa Fe city park, saying the 6-foot-tall granite tablet is an “inappropriate and unconstitutional” remnant of the Cold War era.

“The government has no business telling citizens which god they must have, how many gods they must have, or that they must have any god at all,” the Freedom from Religion Foundation said Tuesday in a statement.

The group calls itself the nation’s largest association of atheists and agnostics.

The longstanding Ten Commandments monument sits in front of a fire station in Ashbaugh Park on Cerrillos Road.

“Santa Fe’s monument drew some attention for its inconspicuous stature last year after the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district judge’s ruling that the city of Bloomfield, N.M., had to remove a Ten Commandments monument from in front of its City Hall. Pagans in Bloomfield had challenged the legality of a monument on government property promoting a religion, and the case drew national attention, while Santa Fe’s stone tablets sat unnoticed.”

So the Ten Commandments are a subject of controversy on this civic level. This goes back to the Supreme Court's first ruling in 1980 a Kentucky statute which required the posting of the Ten Commandments in public schools. In Stone vs Graham SCOTUS ruled 5-2 that it violated the establishment clause in the constitution. Not to be confused with Madalyn Murray O'hare and the SCOTUS ruling in 1963 which ended mandatory prayer and Bible reading in public schools.

By the way, on the subject of religious liberty, and the constitution, do you know what is meant by the establishment clause and the free exercise clause?

So much for the civic controversy. How about the general attitude toward the Ten Commandments by the average person on the street? Some may, like the rich young ruler in Mark 10, and Luke 18, say they try to keep it “from my youth...”. And others may blatantly disregard all aspects of the law.

Most however try to find peace somewhere in the middle where they keep some parts of the commandments but quietly and conveniently ignore others. This is the personal side of the Ten Commandments.

Whether its civic and society in general, Supreme Court rulings about their display in schools and court houses; whether it is people's attitudes about them, or your own personal attempts at keeping some or all, of the Ten Commandments, what is their relevance and place in our world today?

Well they are still in the Bible. They were given to Israel following their slavery in Egypt. They, along with the Mitzvot a group of 613 other commands in the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy) given to the nation of Israel and followed by Jews today, seen by some as also binding upon followers of God.

They define right and wrong.

They serve as a basis for our nation's laws.

They form the basis for our morals.

They define what sin is.

They reveal the holiness and righteousness of God.

They reveal the path to holiness and way to please God.

They are holy and righteous and good. (Rom. 7)

There's one problem. We can't keep them. James, the brother of our Lord, states if we break one of them, we have broken all of them. (James 2:10)

They provide no power to the user to aid or assist in righteousness.

They continually accuse us of evil.

They create conditions to which we must live and please God.

They create a stronger desire to sin. (Rom. 7)

They create a hatred toward a holy and righteous God.

The law is still essential, and fully in existence in all its glory and power, unchanged from history past through the end of time.

This brings us to the heart of our theology, grace alone. How are we saved? It is through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Peter's words in Acts 15:11). God imparts through grace, everything the law demands, all its righteous regulations, everything in it's pristine glory—to the broken penitent sinner in Christ. The sinner is actually dead, and unable to even lift himself up, receives the promise and comes alive. Having died then to the law, it no longer has any jurisdiction over her. No more demands, no more conditions, no more accusations. The reborn revived Christian now welcomes the Law as a guide and a rule for instruction.

The Law is essential for everyone must realize they are a sinner with no hope to attain righteousness to please God alone. And in despair we turn to Calvary, where One who was, and is righteous, who already met those legal requirements, willingly hung on the cross to pay the debt of our sins so we can be free.

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

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The Essential Chapter

By Rev. Tom Tuura

Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church

Listen again to the familiar verses of one of the most familiar Christmas carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem

v 3

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven,

no ear may hear His coming but in this world of sin where meek

souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.

v 4

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray,

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Immanuel.

Oh lets not hurry away from the stable just yet., Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne

v4

...but with mocking scorn, and with crown of thorn, They bore Thee to Calvary

O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; There is room in my heart for Thee.

But now as we look into 2018, one of our favorite hymns “How Great Thou Art” v3

...That on the cross my burden gladly bearing

He bled and died to take away my sin;

Before we leave Christmas behind, there is one theme from the heart of the Carols, that we should perhaps take with us into the new year. Its not the beautiful music, or the soothing sentimentality, or even the various biblical themes, of shepherds, and angels, and Bethlehem—all of which are good; but rather it is the message of the forgiveness of our sins. Have you been to Calvary? Have you been to the foot of the cross and laid your sins there?

David, the great King of Israel of the Old Testament was a follower of God. However in the middle of his life he had a serious stumble. And the result of that was what is recorded in Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is now famous with the penitent ever since because it is a chapter of deep sorrow and contrition over something terrible one has done, the pleading for mercy, and then receiving that forgiveness.

Peter, Mary Magdalene, and Paul, are just a few who truly knew what it was to have their sin forgiven and who also have a Psalm 51 chapter in their lives. What a change they experienced!

Hymn writer James Nicholson 1828-1876 also wrote of this experience, Whiter Than Snow (Ambassador page 425) He writes: “Come now, and within me a new heart create: to those who have sought Thee, Thou never said NO, Now wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” Words straight out of Psalm 51.

Do you have a Psalm 51 chapter in your life? Do you know what those other verses in the Christmas Carols are about? The Psalm 51 chapter is mandatory according to our Lord. (Luke 13:3,5) Wonder why nothing is happening in your spiritual life? First check for your Psalm 51 chapter.

How many of us who claim to be forgiven, indeed are forgiven, walk around like nothing special has happened? We walk around as if we've just run to Walmart and picked up some pain medicine. Its just another transaction of many. Think about this. We should be walking around like we've just been cured of an incurable illness! The sky should be brighter, the air fresher, the rain purer. Am I overstating this?Of course our loving God and Savior has granted forgiveness to all sins, every single one. But it highlights our climate today, of a repentant-less relationship to God, and a sin-less salvation.

What is sin? Past generations, are accused of being too “parochial” about sins. Many things were labeled as sins. This was a sin, that was a sin. There were sinful places, and sinful things to put before your eyes. And the list goes on. I believe there is genuine confusion with people about what sin is. Sins have been redefined. Sin is now poverty, its now committed by corporations and people in power. Sin is committed by the wealthy, in their attitude towards the poor. Sin is abusing the environment. It is no longer really an individual or personal thing. How many of the Ten Commandments are not just broken, but completely ignored? When average people do “sin” it is often explained, away, as victimhood, or illness. Yes there is confusion about sin.

But the Bible and our consciences are clear. There are several lists to be warned about, Gal 5:29-21; Eph 5:3-15; Col 3:8-9. Romans 3:9-23 Read some of the sins in the church in Revelation 2 and 3.

An ABC News poll from July found that eighty-three percent of Americans say they are Christians. Are some of these are “sin-less” and “repentant-less” conversions? Only God knows, but there is only one way into God's family, John 1:12. There are a lot of man centered “conversions” today that lack a Psalm 51 chapter. Man centered conversions are for various motives, and are outwardly exciting. Man chooses, man selects, man decides. And the motives are all over the map.

Back in my youth, I saw much of this type of phenomenon. It was heartbreaking. This is the seed sown in the rocky soil, it springs up quickly, but because it has no root dies. This is the seed sown on the path, where the birds came and ate it up, and the seed sown in the thorns. Kids would come to our youth group because of a cute girl or guy or even just an emotional experience, or as a fad, and it was cool, but then would fall away. When men and women don't grasp their sin, they can't and won't confess it—no Psalm 51.

But God centered, or God authored conversions, are the seed sown on the good soil. These all have a Psalm 51 chapter, without exception, because God through His Holy Spirit is authoring a deep conviction of sin and His own loving voice calling them to Himself through the Word. And like David, Mary Magdalene, Peter, and Paul, they fall in love with their dear Savior who died on the cross for their terrible sins.

So many reply, “..Isn't God forgiving, and kind? Isn't God--love?” “After all, God will understand.”

It's good we remember the loving attribute of God, but we forget the other aspects of God, holiness, justice, and judgment. While “...God so loves the world...” John 3:16, He hates sin, (Isa. 59:2).

There needs to be a deep work of conviction of sin in our hearts, a Psalm 51 chapter to give us the joy and hope we've sung about in the Carols just a few weeks ago, and which we will, Lord willing sing in 2018 and beyond, “where meek souls will receive Him still, the dear Christ enters in.”

That’s my view from the Blackberry Patch Pulpit

Pastor Tom

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