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Your Turn / The Perfect Bible?

« on: May 05, 2023, 04:35:04 PM »

This puppy is more than a tad “spendy” as my kids would say, but it contains the ESV text with the Apocrypha (placed between the Testaments where Dr. Luther put it, but alas without his excellent words of intro, which the KJV also used). It’s beautifully crafted, hand stitched, calfskin leather, a Bible meant to last. If you’ve been frustrated (as I have been) with not having at hand all the books Luther included in his “Bibel”, well, this is the book for you. But I will note, the Apocryphal works include more than Luther included in his (example, 1 & 2 Esdras, 3 & 4 Maccabees, Psalm 151). I was so happy when CPH published *The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Study Notes*, which Edward Engelbrecht of this Forum edited some years ago (and which I was blessed to contribute toward in a small way). But I am overjoyed at having in my hand an ESV with the full Apocrypha in such a beautiful edition. Check it out:

https://evangelicalbible.com/product/esv-diadem-reference-edition-with-apocrypha-black-calfskin-leather-red-letter-text-preorder/

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Your Turn / A crazy speculation on the scope of our prayers

« on: April 26, 2023, 04:27:57 PM »

When I pray Vespers, I often use a form of prayers from Johann Gerhard. It asks:

Merciful, eternal God, Comforter of the distressed, Healer of the sick: let our prayer come before You with whatever anxieties and needs we cry to you, so that all mankind may rejoice in Your help and thank You. May You also graciously forgive Your Christian people their sins, and rescue them from all error and evil. Keep them in true faith and obedience. Give them faithful teachers. May all authorities lead and rule to Your glory and for the common peace. Protect all heads of households along with their wives, children, and household members. Cleanse the air of all pollution, pestilence, disaster, sickness, fires, and war. Graciously avert all the aforementioned, well-deserved punishments from us—or otherwise sustain us through them with Your mercy. Give us fruits of the field and protect us. Take care of the imprisoned. Help those who have been shipwrecked back to land. Comfort the distressed. Grant the expectant mother a happy view of new fruit from her body. Grant health to the sick. Grant grace to sinners to better their lives. And show mercy to all believers in Christ. Impart Your Holy Spirit and eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

I bring it up, because as I was praying this, the thought occurred that I might in fact be limiting its scope. For example, the prayer for the shipwrecked. Am I praying only for those who are afloat somewhere now? Or is it a prayer for all who have ever found themselves so? Or who will find themselves so tomorrow or at some other time in the future? Similarly, “Show mercy to all believers in Christ.” Surely most believers are no longer walking around, breathing.

In Luke 20:38 we read: (NKJV) “For He is not the God of the dead but of the living, for all live to Him.” We live in time. But time as a whole stretches itself before Him and with Him there is no before or after, only His eternal now. There is no “space” before Him between Abraham, Isaac, and us. Given this, what would hinder Him from answering a prayer that was not offered until the 21st century back in the 16th or the 4th and so on?

And I have to wonder if this very idea is not imbedded into the plurals of the Our Father. Surely the “our” and the “us” there embrace the entirety of Christ’s people, no?

As I said, a crazy speculation. But it occurred to me as I was praying. I shared it with a friend today who thought it might have some traction. Any thoughts from Forum participants?

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Your Turn / St. Matthew’s Passion

« on: April 10, 2023, 07:10:07 PM »

Well, this was more fitting for Palm Sunday, but still very worth the listen. It’s only about 1/2 hour. Quite well done. https://youtu.be/591fCQvRjmo

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Your Turn / This is the night…

« on: April 08, 2023, 07:26:08 PM »

Well, people loved by God, we are about an hour and a half from the start of our great Vigil. I pray all the participants on this board have a most blessed celebration of the Lord’s Resurrection tonight and tomorrow (and next week for our eastern friends).

It was a strange and dreadful strife
When life and death contended.
The victory remained with life,
The reign of death was ended.
Holy Scripture plainly saith
That death is swallowed up by death,
Its sting is lost forever! Kyrieleis!