TURNING OUR THOUGHTS TO GOD

"Everyone has noticed how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us . . . Our as a friend of mine said, 'We regard God as an airman regards his parachute; it's there for emergencies but he hopes he'll never have to us it.'"  C.S. Lewis, Men' Devotional Bible

THE CERTAIN GOSPEL

"Christian certainty is not found in persons, feelings, sentiments, reason, positions, human actions, laws, social arrangements or even the ten Commandments. These all must serve the Gospel. They remain in their own created domain, functioning as God intended them to function.They have no claim on the Christian conscience. And they certainly were not intended to--nor in fact have any right to--be the source of certainty in our relationship with Almighty God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit. As soon as they make any claim for or against our eternal salvation, they must be put back in their place, even ignored. Why?

"St. Paul gets to the crux of the matter at Galatians 2:16:  'A person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ.' On this verse, Luther commented, 'A Christian is not someone who has no sin or feels no sin; he is someone to whom, because of his faith in Christ, God does not impute his sin.' Luther continued, 'Th first step in Christianity is the preaching of repentance & the knowledge of oneself. The second step is this:  If you want to be saved, your salvation does not come from works; but God has sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. He was crucified & died for you & bore your sins in His own body.'"  Rev. Matthew Harrison, The Lutheran Witness, Oct. 2020

HOPE

"The three prongs of Christian life are faith, hope, and love. It is easy to emphasize faith and love whilst ignoring or neglecting hope. Yet hope is essential and unyielding. As the writer of Hebrews proclaimed, "We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf." Christian hope is infectious; it is real, it is secure, and it is a valuable signal to a world full of shallow hopes or no hope." Stuart McAllister, Slice of Infinity