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.  

Summer courses, webinar

For those who have an interest in spiritual writing, two workshops will offered online this summer through the Continuing Education program of Martin Luther College.  Look for courses with a THE prefix (for Theology) in the summer course list.  Devotional Writing (THE8508), focused on writing spiritual devotions, articles, stories, etc, will run June 8-26.   Constructing and Conducting Bible Studies (THE8511) is scheduled for June 29 - July 17.   You also might also be interested in a course on Connecting Young Adults to the Church (THE8113), July 15-26, or also a short webinar and discussion on Teaching the Faith (WEB0801), July 27 - August 3.

If you're interested in any of the online summer offerings from Martin Luther College, you can find information at the MLC Continuing Education page for summer 2015.

“I’m a Christian” – What Does This Mean?

by Kyara Grunst

        “I’m a Christian.” This is something I’m sure we would all be willing to say. But let’s ask what our catechism would ask:  What does this mean? What makes us “Christian?” You could say that’s an easy question. Of course it’s Christ that makes us Christian. But again, what does that mean? First, let’s take a look at what Christianity isn’t.

      When I think of a Christian, I will admit that I usually think about a person who does good works. I think of someone who donates money to church and to charities, someone who volunteers a lot, someone who hold doors open for others, someone who does good things. However, this attitude, called legalism, is not, in essence, Christianity. Legalism is all about the law. It creates a “Christ and…” mentality where we feel like we need to add something to the work of Christ. We try to save ourselves by either keeping all of the rules or by making up our own rules.

      Even if the rules we aim to follow are all doctrines of the Bible, we cannot earn our way to heaven by keeping them.  We are not capable of this. We cannot keep all of the laws of Scripture. We break commandments every day, multiple times each day. And so being a Christian does not, ultimately, mean obeying the rules as best as we can to try and earn our way to heaven because that is an impossible task for us.

      Christianity also does not solely mean being a good person. We often think that as we become better Christians, we gain better qualities and we become better people. We think that we need to have a certain number of good traits to be truly Christian. Again this puts the work on us. It is our duty to become better people so we can be better Christians. And again, no. With this mentality, Christianity is about our work, not Christ’s. Besides, what are works without faith?

      So what then is Christianity? Christianity is all about Christ. It is about his work for us. Christ humbled himself and came to earth. He didn’t come as a prince in pomp and earthly glory, but instead he came to us in a lowly manger. He lived a perfect life for us, not sinning even once. He did not give in to any temptation the devil put in his way, but stood firm and resisted them for our sake. He then willingly suffered death on the cross and took upon himself the sins of the entire world. He died for us.

      And that is not the end of the story. Jesus’ death is not meaningless, because he also rose from the dead. Christ gained for us the salvation we could not and cannot obtain on our own. He did what we cannot because he is the perfect and holy Son of God. This is why being a Christian means we are Christ-centered.

      Christ is the reason for everything we do. Because he has done what we cannot, there is nothing for us to do except thank him continually. And so we do just that. We thank and praise him with our lives and with our words and actions. Everything we do is for his glory and to spread the word of what he has done. Our sole work is to preach Christ crucified and risen. Through him, we have become new persons. We were born again in our baptism and have done away with the old self. We are now blameless in God’s eyes because when he looks at us, he sees Christ’s holiness.

      That is what it means to be a Christian. It means living our lives as a testimony to Christ and his saving work. For without him, we are nothing. Instead of asking the question, “What would Jesus do?” we instead ask ourselves, “What has Jesus done?” Our identity as a Christian comes through Christ and through the salvation he won for us. It means that we are firmly rooted in him and in his Word so that our lives are permeated with the joyful message of what he has done. Being Christian means casting aside who we are and what we have done and instead living in what Christ has done and who he is – our loving Savior.

      Being a Christian, then, is not exclusive to a single denomination or group of people. But rather, the church—the holy Christian community—is filled with people from numerous congregations and from every race and people. Ultimately, being a Christian is not dependent on us having the same sort of religious organization or the same norm of worship style. Being a Christian is fully dependent on having saving faith in Christ and in Christ alone. That is what it means to be a Christian.

A Glorious Easter Creed

by Taylor Swanson

Taylor wrote this to be used as a personal reflection for Easter Sunday morning. 
I am glad to share the confession with you via The Electric Gospel blog.

Have a blessed Easter week.
_______________________________________________________________

On this glorious Easter morning,

we come together in full confidence of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

We confess we are wholly sinful human beings,

dead in our transgressions.

But by faith, given by the Holy Spirit, in the death and resurrection of Jesus, 

we are made alive in Christ.

Our sins are washed away and we shine like the sun in God’s eyes.

On this day we are especially thankful for the resurrection of our Lord.

God the Father sent his One and Only into this sin-stricken world.

Jesus lived a perfect life, was crucified, died and was buried.

But it did not end there.

He rose.

But what does all this mean?

The fact that Jesus rose means that he defeated death and the power of the devil.

It means that we will live even though we die.

Our bodies will be made to be like Christ’s,

perfect and glorious, and raised up to heaven to be with our Savior.

There will be no more pain or sadness and no more death,

for Christ has arisen once and for all.

May we forever sing hallelujah to the Victor over death.

He is risen.

He is risen, indeed. Hallelujah.

When heaven seems silent

We're heading into Holy Week - an annual remembrance of Jesus' darkest hours.  At week's beginning, he was hailed with cheers and acclaim by the people of Jerusalem.  By week's end they looked upon him with revulsion and demanded his death.  During his unthinkable suffering, his thoughts were on us, the people for whom he was living his life, for whom he was dying in ignominy at our hands.  In any suffering we face now, we look to our Lord as the one who has suffered for us, who has redeemed us, who gives us hope.  

Writing to someone she knows is suffering, Jenni Mickelson points to Jesus and the hope we have in him -- even when circumstances seem hopeless.  We know that not only did he suffer for us; he reclaimed his life in victory and assures us of victory.

A letter to someone who is suffering

by Jenni Mickelson

*********************************

For the one who wants to let go…but must hold on: “We walk by faith, not by sight.” 

(2 Corinthians 5:7)

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“I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.
I believe in love even when I do not feel it.
I believe in God even when he is silent.”

-          Etched on cellar wall during the Holocaust
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Dear one, I feel your pain behind the smile, the hopeful words and “musts” and “dos.” You are longing for a present much better than the one you are in. It’s as if you are in a thick mud at the side of a road, struggling in panic like an injured deer, back legs broken, to flee her fear and her pain. You speak of a new day, a new heaven and a new earth, and you pray and you read and you thank. But in the next breath you are crying for another time, another place, another life.

Let me tell you this: Your life has been a prelude to this moment. This moment, when the cross feels too unbearable to carry, the strain too great for your feeble arms, the fear and the agony too overwhelming to endure one more step on the narrow road. God has led you here, to this moment, to follow the blood-stained footsteps of Jesus.

Rejection, torture, anguish – these defined the hours, the days, the years of our Lord here on earth. True God and true Man – and this was his destiny: to be forsaken by his children, to be gruesomely flogged and crucified like a criminal, to hang in the sight of unbelieving onlookers and a Father who put his only Son through the pain of hell – for us.

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?...
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46)

Sin did not waste its time in tormenting our Savior. But sin was not greater. Sin’s wrath did not define our dear Jesus. For, on that early Sunday morning, in the pale of a new dawn, he rose above the grave and received the glory of life. And it is this that he gives us, too, willingly.

When you fall under your cross, let the blood of our God renew you and give you strength. As you collapse under the load, let the power of Jesus’ love and mercy pick your feeble body back up. And when sin finally threatens to impale you with the nails of hell forever, point to the hill at the end of the road – the hill of victory, the hill of God’s Passion. You will live another day. This moment is God’s love letter to you: “Live. Do you see the light of my Son in you? ‘Your faith has made you well’” (Luke 17:19).

“I am still confident of this:
I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord;
be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord”  (Psalm 27:13-14).

Springtime thoughts

March 20th was the first day of spring ... inspiring some springtime thoughts for this blog.

Nurturing Growth

Spring has sprung … and I’m reminded of all that’s amiss in my yard.  The boulevard is more dirt than grass.  There are bare spots and weeds throughout the main lawn.  The bushes in back and hedges out front are part dead, part unruly and overgrown.  The flowerbeds never got raked out properly before winter came; they are mucky mess.   Much must be done to get things growing and going in the right direction.

When our yards need tending, we tend to labor with springlike eagerness.  Do we work at relationships with human beings with as much energy?

Maybe a connection with a coworker is gnarled and thorny.   Rather than avoiding contact, might you pay more attention to each other and prune away places where you get twisted around each other?

Maybe roots with family have gone dormant and your love has browned.  What watering can you do to rejuvenate family ties and green things up?

Maybe a student’s performance has been poor – not much is budding or blooming.  Will you let that student wither away or do all you can to prod him, cultivate his interest, nurture learning and understanding?

Jesus once told this parable (Luke 13:6-9): 

“A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any.  So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ 

 “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it.  If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Jesus’ words point specifically to our spiritual condition and the Lord’s patience in dealing with us.  God grant us the patience to be nurturing and supportive with our fellow human beings – first and foremost in regard to spiritual growth, but also in the day-to-day aspects of our relationships as the Spirit strives to awaken new life in all that we do.

-          David Sellnow

A year's worth of posts

Today marks the one-year anniversary of this blog.  A year ago in March, The Electric Gospel in this format began with articles by Mariah Wild (who since has married, so now Mariah Kneser) and Kaylee Messman.  Since then, a few dozen posts have been made over the course of the year, featuring devotional writing from students of my classes.  The range of material has included poetry and song lyrics, a personal creed, deeply personal confession, and more.

If you've only begun following this blog recently, you might look in the right column of the main blog page for the "Blog Archive."  You can click month by month to view the past year of postings.

Summer course offerings

Last summer this blog featured the work of participants in a Devotional Writing online course that I teach - for example, an article on "Body Building" by Tracy Siegler.   (By the way, you might look for another item from Tracy, "My Refuge," dealing with the subject of depression, as published in January 2015 issue of Forward in Christ magazine.)

I will be offering the Devotional Writing workshop again in summer 2015, as well as a companion online course on Constructing and Conducting Bible Studies.  And I'll have a summer webinar on Teaching the Faith too.

If you're interested in online summer offerings from Martin Luther College, you can find information at the MLC Continuing Education page for summer 2015.

- David Sellnow

Giving up ourselves for others

by David Sellnow

Have you given up something for Lent?  That’s historically been a Roman Catholic custom, but a lot of Christians of various varieties use Lent as a time to set aside things of this world and focus on faith.  And nowadays the practice of giving up something for Lent has been adopted by many non-religious people too.    31-year-old David Powers of Los Angeles, disc jockey and band member and medical marijuana seller, hasn’t participated in church since he was in high school.  But as a personal thing, during Lent he gives up his own marijuana use.  He says, “Lent has been a great excuse for me to take a much-needed break from pot, and I have learned that I really don't need it to get by. … I think that the idea of giving up something that you love, especially something that isn't especially good for you, once a year, is a really good idea that everyone could benefit from.”[1]

David Powers’ approach – give up something you love for a while – is a popular approach.  According to the ultimate source of truth on what’s happening in the world – Twitter – the #1 thing that people are giving up for Lent is chocolate.  Fast food and junk food rank in the top ten also.  Oh, and the #2 thing people are giving up, according to Twitter, is … Twitter.[2]   So, well, maybe that’s not an entirely reliable source of truth then.

I don’t want to trivialize the habits of those who give up something for Lent in a serious-minded way as a part of a Christ-centered devotional focus.    After all, as a very gospel-focused man once said, “Fasting and other outward preparations may serve a good purpose.”[3]  But I do wonder if the whole concept of me giving up something for a while to try to be a better me is missing the point of what it means to live a life of faith.

What if instead of me giving up some small thing (like chocolate or junk food) for six weeks, the Lord asked me to give up my whole self for my whole life?   What if living as a redeemed and reborn person in Christ meant, in my relationships with others, having “the same mindset as Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5)?  That for you it means you “do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit” but instead you “value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you looking to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3,4)?   That is, of course, exactly the sort of life Christ calls us to live as his people —

• Christ, who himself came not to be served but to serve; 
• Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for many (cf. Mark 10:45); 
• Christ who, as the apostle Paul reminded us, “gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good” (Titus 2:14).

My brothers and sisters, redeemed people of God in Christ, rescued from our own sinfulness and set free to live in love by the strength of Jesus’ love for us, we are called to give up ourselves, to give up our selfishness, to give up our me-first attitudes … and to do so not just for Lent but for all our days.

The apostle Paul talked about giving up ourselves—putting ourselves in second place in relationship to others—in regard to matters we refer to as adiaphora, matters where there is not one absolute way in which we must view things or do things. In “disputable matters,” as Paul termed them, the important thing is that we give up our own ambition to be always right or always in charge or always getting our way and live in love and consideration of one another.

These are selected verses from Paul’s letter to the Romans (14:1 thru 15:7):

• Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. ... 
•  For none of us lives for ourselves alone,and none of us dies for ourselves alone.  If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
• You, then, why do you judge your brother or sister? Or why do you treat them with contempt? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. ...
• Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ...
• Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. .  We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.  Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.  For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: “The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me.” ...  May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
• Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

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[1] Gabrielle Canon, Celebrating Lent: Why Non-Religious Millennials are Choosing to Sacrifice,” Southern California Public Radio (March 29, 2013).  http://www.scpr.org/news/2013/03/29/36612/celebrating-lent-why-non-religious-millennials-are/

[2] http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/march/what-to-give-up-for-lent-2014-twitter-reveals-top-100-choic.html?paging=off

[3] Martin Luther, Small Catechism – “The Reception of Holy Communion”

Cleansed by Christ

Life has been busy lately.  If you're a follower of this blog, I thank you for your patience -- it's been a month since I added new content.  I hope to have a new crop of student writing to feature here in the weeks/months ahead.

In one of my classes, I gave students this essay prompt:

• A friend of yours is struggling with both hatred and self-loathing.  She had dated a guy for three years and they had become close, very serious.  He had always pushed the physical side of their relationship, and eventually she yielded to him and their relationship became a sexual one.  Actually, she also had welcomed that part of the relationship because it made her feel loved and valued.  But then it seemed like the boyfriend tired of her.  She found out he actually was pursuing other women too (including sexually), and then he broke off the relationship with her.  Now she is struggling against constant feelings of hatred toward him, wishing all sorts of evil and harm would happen to him.  And she’s full of shame and disgust with herself, feeling like she will forever be a “slut” (as she now thinks of herself). Write a letter to your friend that talks about repentance and forgiveness and encourages her in her spirit in Jesus.  Help her find a way to move forward with an understanding of how repentance works and how our lives are changed by the gospel of forgiveness in Christ.

The following devotional piece was written in response to the essay prompt.   

Dear Ashley

by Alison Wine

Hey, beautiful!  I'm writing to you because I know how bad things have gotten recently.  It breaks my heart to know how much you are suffering.  I want to remind you of something:  God loves you more than you can understand!  He has loved you with an everlasting love.  No matter what you have done or thought, or felt, God has loved you always.  He sent Jesus to die for all those thoughts, feelings and actions -- for all of your sins.  I know how heavy your heart is about what you had done.  The sorrow you feel is the first step toward repentance.  Now let faith take over.  You are forgiven of all that you have done wrong.  Jesus' blood covers up your every sin.  You are his child.  Period.  Is God's child a slut?  No.  Does God think of you that way?  No.  Should you think of yourself that way?  No.  You are holy and blameless in God's sight.  Rejoice in this fact.  God doesn't need you to be perfect.  He is perfect for you.  You can release the weight you've been carrying around .  Unpin the "scarlet A" from your life.  Throw that stain away.  Look at yourself the way God does -- as his beloved, forgiven child.  And you now may live in that way.
 

Now, Ashley, about Alex.  I understand how angry and hurt you are about what he did.  It is truly terrible.  But does the hatred for him that you are carrying around in your heart help you in any way?  No.  Carrying hatred in your heart is never good.  God tells us not to let the sun go down while we are still angry.  Alex may not be sorry for what he has done, but you don't do him or yourself any good by harboring hatred for him.  What keeps you from letting go of your hatred toward him?  Your pride?  Your sense of justice?  Or your own sinful nature?

Pray about this, Ashley, Forgiving Alex will hurt, but ultimately will make your life better.  Release the hatred from your heart and have that void be filled with Christ.  Take your time; forgiveness doesn't mean you instantly will forget or that what he did doesn't matter.  But it does mean that you are aligning yourself with God's will, and being guided by his love.  

I love you, Ashley, and so does God!

Your friend, 

Ali