Devotional Writing - online course

What:  College course (1 credit) as a workshop for spiritual writers

• Course description ... Devotional Writing (Theology 8508) - Examining and practicing the art of writing spiritual devotions.  Includes an examination of core principles regarding the presentation of law and gospel and regarding effective, concise communication.  

When:  Begins June 8 -- ends June 26

Where:  Online

Offered through the Continuing Education program of Martin Luther College

Cost (tuition and fees):  $315

Go to registration page.  In registration process, choose course #THE8508 - Devotional Writing

Some comments from past participants in the course:

• "My experience was stellar.  I never took an online class before, but the instructor made it easy to do so. (Incidentally, I was traveling cross-country during the span of the class and communicated via wi-fi stops.)  Feedback on my writing was  firm and thorough – wrought with spiritual teaching, not critical or condescending. It was a memorable, positive experience that blessed me and elevated my ability to use a God-given gift more fully."                                                                  
• "I think the most helpful component of the course was the emphasis on sound doctrine and the differentiation between law and gospel.  This is truly the heart of theologically sound devotions.  Your style can vary a great deal from the other writers but the theology will be sound and therefore the devotion will be a blessing to others."

Jesus is coming back ... Are you ready?

by Allison Wessel

When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, in the seventh petition we ask God to deliver us from evil.  The Small Catechism explains that in this petition, we are asking God to deliver us not only from the evils of this world, but also to take us to heaven.  In part, it’s a prayer asking for the end of this world to arrive. 

So are you ready to exit this world?  Are you ready to leave behind the old familiar and enter the new and unfamiliar?  As you pray the Lord’s Prayer, do you ever catch yourself thinking: “Quickly come, Lord Jesus, but, please wait until after I graduate from college,” or, “Quickly come, but please, Lord, let me get married first.”  If we are honest with ourselves, sometimes we are tempted to place a greater value on the priorities of this world than on the perfect treasures of heaven.  We find ourselves yearning to have all of the great experiences that this world has to offer.  We think, “There are so many things I have yet to experience in this life, Lord.  Could you hold off your second coming just a little longer?”

As human beings, we struggle with the tension between time and eternity.  We sometimes feel that life is good, because it’s all we know.  We get caught up in all the good things of this life, and we forget that we have something much greater coming to us.  Or, when our faith is weak, we may even fear the coming of the Lord, fearing things that feel unknowable.  We will live forever – how can that be possible?  Our human logic can’t comprehend eternity, so, naturally, the thought of living forever may scare us.

Allow me to offer an odd analogy.  

If you’re familiar with the storyline of the movie, The Matrix, you know that the basic plot is that—some two hundred years into the future—all humanity is enslaved by robots.  The machines use the electricity produced by human bodies to create energy, since air pollution has gotten so bad that the sun’s rays are obscured from the earth’s view.  To enable the robots to use the humans without causing them to rise up against them, they create a false reality into which the humans have been “plugged.”  Those humans who are plugged into the matrix see and live in the world as they know it, which is only an illusion.  They lead a false life, and it’s only after they’ve been unplugged that they can know what the world is really like.

I use this analogy not only to show how much of a sci-fi geek I am, but to make a connection with life on this earth.  This earth’s life can be compared to life in the matrix, where everything we see and know is only a shadow or illusion.  The reality of a perfect life can only be known beyond the grave.  This analogy is flawed, I realize, because those of you who know The Matrix know that, once unplugged, the real world is horribly drearier and the living situation much worse than in the glamorous false world of the matrix.  But the point is that everything tangible in this life doesn’t last forever.  Sometimes, weakened in our faith, that great fear of the unknown will lead us to cling to the things of this life.  In The Matrix, even Neo, who is the savior-character, is reluctant to respond to the call he receives from the real world, urging him to come to grips with reality and wake up.  At first, he wants to go on living as he always has, in the world with which he is most familiar and most comfortable.  He would rather remain ignorant and blind to the truth.  But it’s after he’s been unpleasantly thrust into the real world that he discovers his full potential and becomes The One, the person destined to save the remnant of humans left on earth from the robots.   Again the analogy is flawed, but in a similar way, we are not really of this world and can’t possibly know all that we will become in our true home in heaven.  The Bible says that God "will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body" (Philippians 3:21).  Who knows what that entails?  But it can only mean good, of course.  The apostle John assured us, "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).

We can’t begin to comprehend the wonders and the treasures that God has in store for us.  But we do know that the Lord’s coming will not be a day on which to tremble in fear, or a day that we wish would hold off for a little while longer.  The day of the Lord’s coming will be a day on which to rejoice, a day leading to something better than anything we have here on earth.  Isn’t that what being a Christian is all about, after all?  Our short, little lives on this earth are merely a prelude to the life of perfect bliss that awaits us in heaven. 

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Now, brothers and sisters, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.  While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.

But you, brothers and sisters, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief.  You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness.  So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober.  For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.  But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.  For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.  He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him.  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Let's not make life more difficult for those who've been affected by hurtful sins

A dear friend of mine wrote the following thoughts about life as she's experienced it.  Her message is something we in the church need to consider.

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My Life as a Child of Divorce

Author’s name withheld

I am a product of divorce.  It has surrounded me my entire life.  As a child, it defined me.  As an adult, it scares me.  In the United States, an estimated fifty percent of marriages end in divorce.  That means when you get married, there is a high chance it will fail.  In our churches, we believe that there are two biblical causes for divorce: malicious desertion and marital unfaithfulness.   The divorces that impacted me fell into such a category.  It didn’t matter though.  In the church I was treated differently because of them.   My parents were divorced – so of course I must be a troubled child.  At least that’s how everyone made me feel. 

I was too young to remember my parents getting divorced.  As I started school, however—a church-sponsored school—I started to notice that I was being treated differently than the other students.  For one, I was new and the other kids just kind of looked at me funny.  Second, I was always naughty.  Maybe I played into the assumptions, sure.  If I was going to get reprimanded, might as well get to enjoy what I would be scolded for.  This was first grade.  As school continued, it got worse.  Although I did make friends, you would never hear me talk about my parents and their being divorced.  I knew divorce was bad, and I would get embarrassed and worried for my parents spiritual lives when we would talk about the 6^th commandment in school.  “You shall not commit adultery.” Divorce means adultery.  It would click in my head, and I would sit there and not say anything about it in class. I sometimes wonder if my teachers ever noticed that it bothered me. 

Time moved on and I ignored things and was still “talking too much” or “not listening.” I would dread the talk on commandments but school was school. It was normal. 

In my 6^th grade year, my mom got married again.  He was a great guy;  my sister and I really liked him.  But later, we found out he was a struggling drug addict.  In 6^th grade, you are just turning into a teenager; you’re awkward, and you care way too much what your friends think.   As selfish as it is, I didn’t think too much on the fact that my family was falling apart but more at the idea of my mom getting ANOTHER divorce.  I was embarrassed and sad, wondering if my mom would be okay to go to heaven.  I heard not a word from anybody in my church or school about it.  It seemed it wasn’t to be talked about.  I look back and wonder why no one could have made it clear to me that I was okay, that my sister was okay, that my mom was okay.  This man’s drug addiction, which he chose over us in the long run, was him not doing his marital duties.  He essentially deserted us.  The comfort I would have had in hearing that sort of understanding from the church would have changed my life, I think.  But no, I avoided having friends come over, avoided ever talking about my family.  And when the 6^th commandment came around in class, I remember not wanting to go to school that day. 

I went to school that day.  No one clarified anything to me or comforted me or anything.  To their credit, maybe they didn’t know I was struggling with such things, and maybe I should have asked.  But what twelve-year-old is going to raise her hand in class at a religious school and say, “Is my mom’s divorce okay?”  That would never happen. 

Eventually I came to my senses a little.  I looked into it myself and started putting things together.  I realized, my mom’s divorce was biblically sound.  Still, that didn’t mean I wasn’t treated differently.   I went to a Christian high school, and not many people there had divorced or separated parents.  Even though I started to get my school life on track and realized I didn’t have to be the wounded, naughty student, it didn’t stop certain things in my life.  I had a serious boyfriend for about two years, who ultimately broke up with me because my parents were divorced.  He said he “just couldn’t deal with it and felt like he could never marry me.”   Couldn’t marry me … we were just kids in high school!  But it showed me again how divorced persons are perceived as having committed some heretical sin.  My boyfriend knew the whole story and still felt that way.  It is infuriating. 

Divorce is hard on children.  As a small child and even as a teenager, dealing with your parents splitting and the conflict and assumptions around you – it is really hard.  I always wanted to be the pastor’s daughter whom everyone loved and had “no problems.” As silly as that is, it was impossibly hard to think that you will always be looked at like you’re sinful because your parents are divorced. 

God knows that mistakes are made.  I’m not saying he approves or is okay with sin, but he knows we humans are sinful.  Sometimes divorce can be looked at by some people as about the worst of sins.  Why is that the case?  One sort of sinner is not better than another.  People who get divorced—even not for biblical reasons—can be forgiven.   Our focus shouldn’t be on the stigma of certain sins, but on the repentance and faith of the sinner. 

Now the real question is: What can we do about this?  It goes further than just divorce. What about the people who struggle with other challenges and sins?  People who are judged for their circumstances can be turned off by such judgment.  I’m not saying to accept people in their sins, absolutely not.  But we need to show patience and understanding.  Both law and gospel need to be applied.  Struggling sinners are forgiven because Jesus died for them.

Also, do not make assumptions.  You do not know the story behind a divorce most of the time.   Do not assume everyone who is divorced came to that position by pursuing sin.  Some have been deeply hurt and sinned against.  And we have no clue what is in another person’s heart. Approach persons with support and with loving words.  That could be all they need to begin healing.

The point of this article is not to complain about how challenging my childhood was or how everyone around me handled things wrong.  That is not true.  Although my childhood had rough spots, it was not horrible.  I am writing this to raise awareness of things that could be happening if we are open to helping one another.  Life is hard; we are sinful people.  What is most important—in fact, the ONLY thing that is ultimately important—is what Christ did for us.  “God gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).    Let us praise our Lord above for being a gracious loving God who forgives all sins.  And let us seek to help and forgive each other, rather than making life even more difficult for those who’ve been affected by hurtful sins.