“Harmony in the Church cannot last unless pastors and churches mutually overlook and pardon many things.” – Apology to the Augsburg Confession, Article IV, paragraph 243
Category Archives: Quotes
Quote of the Day
The following quote comes from the book, “Already Gone: Why your kids will quit church and what you can do to stop it.”
Regardless of what’s happening in the Sunday school youth groups, pulpit, and Bible studies of your church, the responsibility for ministry to our kids has never been removed from the parents. It’s time to pick that ball up again and jump in the game.
Higher Things Sola quote
I wasn’t at Higher Things recent conference, Sola. The more I read about it, the more I wish I was. Here is a quote that’s been floating around the Lutheran blogosphere and Twittersphere: “Walking on water with Jesus is not the big deal; drowning in water with Jesus is.” Wow, what a quote! I think I may have to use that in a sermon sometime soon.
Wonderful quote
When I was on vacation a couple of weeks ago, I had lots of time to do nothing while sitting on the plane. I had ordered a book just prior to my leaving, but couldn’t wait for it to arrive. Fortunately, there was an option of downloading the book in PDF form, so of course, I did. I printed it the day I left for my vacation and read the first 70 or so pages of it (it’s only 95 pages) before I touched down in Indy. I would have probably finished it on the flight, but I don’t think they would have liked it if I stuck around on the plane just to finish reading the last 20 pages. 🙂
What is the book you’re wondering? What is the quote you’re wondering? The book is entitled “I Trust When Dark My Road: A Lutheran View of Depression” by Rev. Todd Peperkorn.
The following is a quote from chapter eight of the book entitled “Forsaken.”
God’s Word does what it says. When you can’t “inwardly digest” the Word as you wish, it still does what our Lord promises. When confession is lost upon your lips, our Lord forgives your sins out of His mercy, for He will not let a sickness or weakness on your part deny you what you truly need, namely His healing Word of forgiveness. And when prayers is something that you used to do, the Spirit prays with you and for you, in ways that we cannot even fathom.
I think this is just a wonderful quote all around! It not only speaks about the sickness and disease of depression, but it speaks about the sickness and disease that we all face, that being of sin. Because of our sin, we can’t “inwardly digest” God’s Word. Because of sin, confession is the last thing that we want on our lips because if we confess, that means we did something wrong. Through all of our sin, God continues to be there. His Word continues to be there and His promise of grace through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ continues to be there.
Note: Soon I hope to have a review of this book posted. Watch for it in the future.
Quote of the day
A pastor who serves in the South Wisconsin District has the following quote from Rev. Matthew Harrison during their pastor’s conference:
“We will never talk to one another about serious matters if we fail to show mercy and love toward one another.”
What it means to be ordained
A fellow brother in the office who graduated three years from Concordia Theological Seminary before me has been posting quotes from Eugene Peterson’s book, The Contemplative Pastor. I have it on my shelf from a class that I took during my fourth year at the sem, but haven’t read it. Once he started posting quotes over on his blog, I pulled it off of my shelf and it’s now sitting on my desk, now one step closer into actually getting into my hands. Maybe I’ll pick it up following Easter.
Anywho, here’s the latest of his quotes regarding ordination.
“We are going to ordain you to this ministry, and we want your vow that you will stick to it. This is not a temporary job assignment but a way of life that we need lived out in our community. We know you are launched on the same difficult belief venture in the same dangerous world as we are. We know your emotions are as fickle as ours, and your mind is as tricky as ours. that is why we are going to ordain you and why we are going to exact a vow from you. We know there will be days and months, maybe even years, when we won’t feel like believing anything and won’t want to hear it from you. And we know there will be days and weeks and maybe even years when you won’t feel like saying it. It doesn’t matter. Do it. You are ordained to this ministry, vowed to it.”
“There may be times when we come to you as a committee or delegation and demand that you tell us something else than what we are telling you now. Promise right now that you won’t give in to what we demand of you. You are not the minister of our changing desires, or our time-conditioned understanding of our needs, or our secularized hopes for something better. With these vows of ordination we are lashing you fast to the mast of Word and sacrament so you will be unable to respond to the siren voices.”
“There are many other things to be done in this wrecked world, and we are going to be doing at least some of them, but if we don’t know the foundational realities with which we are dealing – God, kingdom, Gospel – we are going to end up living futile, fantasy lives. Your task is to keep telling the basic story, representing the presence of the Spirit, insisting on the priority of God, speaking the biblical words of command and promise and invitation.”