It Is Well With My Soul (remake of "When Peace Like a River")

As leery as I am to mess with what is an old favorite, I find myself dissatisfied with “When Peace Like a River.” The hymn has an interesting story: Spafford wrote this after losing his four children at sea, with only his wife surviving. However, like “I Love to Tell the Story,” which doesn’t actually tell the story of Jesus and His love, “When Peace Like a River” doesn’t fully explain why “It is well with my soul.” I put pen to paper, and this is the result. I’m sure it won’t get any use—people don’t like it when you mess with their favorites—but I thought I’d try.

It Is Well With My Soul

1. The Word in the water does wash sins away.
That Baptismal grace makes me whole.
And though I still sin I can faithfully say,
“Jesus Christ makes it well with my soul.”
(chorus) It is well (it is well)
With my soul (with my soul)
It is well, it is well with my soul.

2. The Word of forgiveness comes from Christ Himself—
He touches my lips with a coal.
I kneel and confess all my sins—wretched filth—
And His Word makes it well with my soul. (chorus)

3. His body and blood in the Supper will feed
My spirit and body—the whole.
These gifts—means of grace—they provide all I need
For my soul—thank the Lord!—for my soul! (chorus)

∆ 4. O Father in heaven, I’m yearning to feast
Where sin, death and hell take no toll.
You reign with the Spirit and Christ, our High Priest.
Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord, O my soul! (chorus)


© 1873, 2009 Horatio Gates Spafford, Alan Kornacki, Jr.
11 8 11 9 refrain
Tune: VILLE DU HAVRE
Occasion: Cross and Comfort 

Sermon for 6/7/09 -- Feast of the Holy Trinity (LSB 1-Year)

Sinners in the Presence of God

Isaiah 6:1-8

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.


Sometime about 750 years before Jesus was born, a man named Isaiah received a revelation from the Lord God Almighty. God brought this man into the heavenly Temple and right to the very throne of heaven itself. And so, Isaiah stands before the Maker of heaven and earth—or as we confess in the Athanasian Creed, “the Uncreated, the Incomprehensible, the Eternal”. No sinner can look directly into the face of God and survive; and Isaiah knew it. He knew that even Moses was not allowed to see the face of God. And yet, there stood Isaiah in God’s divine presence.

It is not an easy or comfortable feeling, to realize that you are a sinner in the presence of God. This isn’t some random petty official who can be bought off with a bribe or who would be satisfied with a paid fine. God is the righteous, incorruptible Judge, and we have no defense before Him. The Judge has just one sentence to pass for sinners: death.

Isaiah was one of God's chosen people when the Lord brought him into the heavenly Temple. Still, following the Lord's calling of this son of Amoz into the Kingdom of God, Isaiah remained a sinner and he knew it. “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Isaiah had nothing to offer God to stay the arm of judgment and wrath—no good work, no sacrifice, nothing. His continued existence in the very Presence of God was due solely and only to the mercy and grace of God in Christ Jesus.

You have come here this day to the House of God, to this sanctuary which is a place consecrated to the Lord. You have come here to be in the very Presence of the Lord God. But you are no less a sinner, no less unclean than Isaiah. You dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Do you realize what you have done by appearing here and seeking to be in His Presence? Do you understand what you have said when you added your "amen" to the Invocation? You have presented yourself here invoking His Name, the Name declared unto you on the gracious day of your Baptism: the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. And in doing so, you have left yourself open to His righteous judgment.

Here today, in the Presence of God, you made confession of your sin. You have nothing to offer God to stay the hand of condemnation and wrath—no good work, no sacrifice, nothing. You can only plead “guilty”. Your continued existence here and now in the very Presence of God is due solely and only to the mercy and grace of God in Christ Jesus.

This guilty plea has a strange and unexpected result. After Isaiah confessed his sin, one of the Lord's angels, one of the messengers, flew to Isaiah, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched Isaiah's mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged."

It worked the same way this morning. After you confessed your sin, one of the Lord's messengers, one of Christ's under-shepherds, announced to you, "Upon this your confession, I, by virtue of my office, as a called and ordained servant of the Word, announce the grace of God unto all of you, and In the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." Instead of requiring a live coal be touched to you, the Word of God is sufficient to remove the iniquity of your sin. The sacrifice of Christ on the cross is enough. Instead of the righteous sentence of death, we are shown mercy and are given a full pardon.

Now, with all our sins removed as far as the east is from the west, with all our transgressions forgotten by the God Who knows all things, we are ready to enter into His Presence where we are permitted to sing The Sanctus: “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth; Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.” Then, for those who are prepared, one of God’s messengers takes the very Body and Blood of Christ. He places it in your mouth and says, "Take and eat, this is the Body of Christ given into death for you. Take and drink, this is the Blood of Christ shed for you.” It has touched your lips. Just as it happened with the water applied to you with the Word in Holy Baptism, just as it is with the holy word of absolution, so it is with the Lord’s Supper: your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.

It’s no coincidence that we find Isaiah in the middle of a worship service. You see, that’s what heaven is all about. Every image we have of heaven in Scripture is of the hosts of heaven gathered around the divine Presence to worship God. Whether it’s in Isaiah in his book, the angels as they appear to the shepherds in Luke, or John in Revelation, the hosts of heaven are in the midst of worship, praising God for what He is and what He has done and continues to do for His people. Whether we sing “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth”, or “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to His people on earth”, or “Worthy is Christ the Lamb who was slain” as we did this morning, we are joining in the hymns of heaven, in praise of God. When we gather at the altar to receive the body and blood of our Savior, we gather “with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven.” We have gathered here in the name of the Triune God, invoking His holy name, and even as Jesus promised, where two or three are gathered in His name, He is in our very midst! We stand here in His presence to receive His gifts and to thank Him for those gifts. We stand in the presence of God in this place, and by His grace, we live.

Like Isaiah, you also have been chosen by God. He has called you by name, and He has forgiven you by the power of His Name. You need not fear to be in the presence of the righteous God; your sins have been forgiven, and you have been freed to do the work for which God has chosen you. May He continue to grant you peace in His presence from now unto eternity. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

Fond farewells, new beginnings, and waiting--patient and otherwise

This morning I preached for what will likely be the last time at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Mandeville, Louisiana. It's not that I've done anything wrong or that they've lost interest in me or in the Word. Rather, they have gotten themselves their own pastor. So for the last time (again, probably, though I won't say that again), I crossed the Causeway on an early Sunday morning, watching the sailboats get an early start as I drove to the church. This is a wonderful congregation, full of love for the pastors who have served them--both their Called pastors and the pastors who have come from near and far to serve them during their vacancy. This congregation has always been wonderful toward me when I've been there, showing me a great deal of love, paying attention to and participating in the Bible studies I've prepared, hungering and thirsting for the Lord's Supper and for the preaching of the Word. I am going to miss serving them, but I am very happy that they have their pastor. Vacancies are never easy on a congregation. Members disappear. The sick and shut-in don't always get visited by a vacancy pastor who is too often busy with his own congregation or his own work. And while the congregation has an identity on its own, a pastor helps a congregation to form and maintain that identity. So anyway, I preached this morning and administered the sacraments, and that is always a privilege and pleasure.

And then, this afternoon, I was able to participate in the Installation of the new pastor. Since my . . . departure from my previous parish, installations are always rather bittersweet for me. Installations are a time of hope, of potential. A pastor comes to a congregation who has just said to him, "We could choose from all the pastors in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and its sister bodies, and we wanted you." There's no baggage. The pastor has a clean slate and optimism for what he and the congregation can do together. On the other hand, it's not easy as a man not serving as a parish pastor to hear the vows a pastor makes before God concerning his work in that place and the vows the congregation makes concerning the pastor, and avoid thinking about how it all fell apart and how it's been three and a half years since I lived those vows in a congregation as their pastor.

I have hope that I will again be a parish pastor someday. Confidence in that thought is not so easy to come by, but seeing this congregation and this pastor united is a pointed reminder that God is good and that His will shall be done. He's the one who Called me to the Office of the Holy Ministry, and in His time (regardless of the princes of this world), He will return me to parish ministry. So I'll wait and say, "Thy will be done" . . . even if sometimes I'd rather have my will be done.

I probably won't get back to Redeemer very often. It's hard to justify making the two hour trip when there are congregations just as faithful and a lot closer to where I live. But Redeemer in Mandeville will always have a special place in my heart.

Law and Gospel in a gesture

I'm in a rather disturbing conversation right now about making the sign of the cross. I won't go into details, save that it always seems like one of the main objections to making the sign of the cross in Lutheran circles is that people make a requirement of it.

Making the sign of the cross is a wonderfully pious and godly gesture in which the Christian acknowledges the blessings he receives and says, "Indeed, this blessing is for me." But it is not necessary, and anyone who says that it's necessary is living under the Law.

There are few things worse than making a Law out of something that is wonderful sign of the Gospel.

A New Twist on Homosexual Marriage: Conscience Equals Discrimination

Gay Marriage Bill Falls Short in New Hampshire House

The link above will take you to the news story from the Washington Post, but the gist of it is that a bill came before the New Hampshire House of Representatives to legalize "gay marriage". The bill failed by a margin of two votes. Apparently the reason the bill failed was that the governor wanted a conscience clause added so that religious leaders could refuse to marry homosexuals on the grounds of religious conscience, and this was unacceptable to some because it would legalize discrimination. In other words, conscience equals hatred.

This is the way they fight the battle. It doesn't matter why a person does not approve of gay marriage. If a person disapproves, they're automatically homophobes and "gay-bashers". This is the kind of "tolerance" we're allowed to have these days.

When this becomes law anywhere I live--and I'm sure it will--I will no longer perform weddings at all.

Belated and fond farewell

I just found out that an old pastor acquaintance of mine died two-and-a-half years ago. This gentleman pastor, a man who had served all of his adult life and served some more after he retired, had served the vacancy at one of the congregations in served in North Dakota before I arrived. He was a mentor from a distance, I guess one could say, and I learned from him (even though I didn't always show it) the patience of the Office of the Ministry. I guess it shouldn't surprise me that I hadn't heard. I'm not in touch with a lot of people up there anymore, but I'm still sad that he's gone. Nonetheless, I am sure with the certainty of faith that Pastor Theiss is resting in the arms of his Savior.

Sermon for 5/10/09 - Fifth Sunday in Easter (LSB-B)

Test the Spirits

I John 4:1-11 (12-21)

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.


Between Sunday school, Bible study, Catechism instruction and sermons, we Christians spend a lot of time immersed in the teachings of Scripture. Our pastors spend four additional years—and sometimes more—learning biblical doctrine and how the Church has explained that doctrine throughout its history, so we can then teach others about these things.

The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church takes doctrine very seriously. The history of the Church is full of accounts of men and women who died in the face of persecution rather than betray or deny their faith. The leaders of the Church gathered numerous times in meetings called “ecumenical councils” to clarify points of doctrine and to fight the heresies of false teachers, and from one such council came the Nicene Creed which we confessed this morning. Father Luther saw where the Church of Rome had gone astray, and he tried to fix it from the inside. When that failed, he started a new body within the Church where Law and Gospel could be preached in its truth and purity. When in the mid-1800s the Kingdom of Prussia insisted that the Lutherans and the Reformed worship together—two bodies who have similar beliefs but a different understanding of the Lord’s Supper—the Lutherans immigrated to the United States, where they could believe and worship as they chose. In 1847 they founded the body that eventually became known as the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.

That’s a lot of effort put forth on behalf of doctrine. Why bother? What’s so important about the teachings of Scripture that the Church would take such stringent measures to protect them, sometimes even to the point of death? The Apostle John gives us two reasons in our Epistle. First he tells us, “Many false prophets have gone out into the world.” These false teachers would have you believe that Jesus is something other than what He truly is: the Son of God, the only-begotten of the Father, true God and true Man, the Savior of the world. These false teachers would have you believe that Jesus wants you to have worldly prosperity. They teach that Jesus can fix your life in eight simple steps. They teach that Jesus is a moral guide without equal.

But while they want you to ask, “What would Jesus do?” they don’t want you to think about who Jesus really is and what He came to do. The Preface to the Book of Concord tells us, “Just as while the holy apostles were still alive, it happened that false teachers insinuated perverted teachings into the churches in which the apostles themselves had planted the pure, unadulterated Word of God, so such false teachers were also inflicted on our churches because of our own and the ungrateful world's impenitence and sin.” These false teachers have been around throughout the whole history of the Church, and while their methods may change, their message is the same: the world knows better than Jesus what you need.

It’s bad enough that false teachers present such a message. But we present them with an all-too-eager audience. The old Adam in us wants to believe that Jesus wants us to have earthly prosperity, that Jesus can make your bad grades or your fight without your children go away. But we don’t like to be reminded that Jesus came to die and come to life again because we are sinners who need a Savior. We don’t like to acknowledge that there’s nothing we can do ourselves to make that sin go away. That’s why preachers like Joel Osteen and Jeremiah Wright and Rick Warren are so popular: they say what the world wants to hear, rather than saying what the world needs to hear.

But John also tells us, “Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God.” This is the second reason we take the doctrines of the Bible so seriously: precisely because they teach us exactly what God would have us know. John tells us, “Test the spirits.” But he doesn’t just tell us to do so and then leave us to figure out how. He continued by saying, “By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God.” John wrote this letter in response to a false teacher named Cerinthus, a man who denied that Jesus was the Son of God and so denied that the Son of God died on the cross. He was trying to spread this teaching in the congregation at Ephesus. This is what it means to be anti-Christ: one who is anti-Christ denies that Jesus came in the flesh to achieve and deliver to us full and free atonement for our sins. Sadly, false teachers are caught in their own web of lies. They have reason to doubt their eternal salvation.

But by the grace of God, John does not leave us in doubt. He writes, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” Our Lord Jesus Christ dwells in you through Holy Baptism, and He is the one who destroyed death and the power of the devil through His atoning death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day; and these things give us life. We know—not with a mere rational knowledge but with the surety that faith bestows—that Jesus came precisely to seek and to save sinners.

As you confess Jesus Christ who has come in the flesh, you do so as one in whom that Christ dwells, as one who belongs to Him. And because He has made you His own, you don’t need to worry that you will be overpowered or outnumbered by the false teachers and their disciples. At the Holy Supper in which we will soon partake, you confess that Christ comes to you in His own flesh and blood there, and you make that confession with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven. You do not stand alone, and you are not powerless. For Christ stands with you, and you stand with Him as a member of His bride, the Church.

So test the spirits. You know the Word of truth. You know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who has come into the world. And you know how to test the teaching of anyone who claims to be preaching of God. Does his teaching confess Christ as Savior? Does it confess Christ as both God and Man? Does it confess Christ as the One sent in the flesh to bear our sin and be our Savior? If so, trust that teaching. Embrace it. Hold fast to it. And if not, then get rid of it. Flee from it. Run the false teacher out of your sanctuary and out of your life. They would only distract you from Christ and bring your focus on this world and its prince. Remember: you are of God, little children, and you have overcome the world. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

Pulpit Rider

I don't get to preach every Sunday, but this month and the next few months I'll be pretty busy with pulpit supply. It's not the same thing as being a parish pastor, of course, but it's always a privilege and a pleasure to preach the Word to God's people. Yesterday I preached at Grace Lutheran Church in Houma, Louisiana. I'm a member at this church, and the members know me and generally respect me. I helped serve the vacancy they experienced after the previous pastor left, and now that they have their own pastor, they welcome me joyfully when Pastor Rudnik goes on vacation.

One of the things the people of the congregation especially like about the days when I preach is that I chant. In all modesty, leading the liturgy is one of the things I do best as a pastor, and that includes chanting. I believe it adds to the solemnity and the joy of the divine service, and it serves to dileneate between what we do during the week out in the world and what happens on Sunday morning in the divine service. I don't know if the congregation sees it that way, but I do. Anyway, we used the First Setting of the Divine Service from the Lutheran Service Book, and I don't get to use that very often.

Perhaps the best part of the morning for me, outside of receiving absolution and the body and blood of Jesus, was that I was able to give the Eucharist to my wife for the first time! This is the first time Faith has been able to come to a church where I've been preaching since she became a Lutheran, and it was an occasion of special joy for me. May it always be so.

Sermon for 4/26/09 - Third Sunday in Easter (LSB-B)

Peace to You
Luke 24:36-49

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.


There’s a song that was written in the year 1955, one with which you might be familiar. The first line of the song says, "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." That’s quite a noble sentiment. After all, we all want to experience peace, and we wouldn’t even complain too much if we helped make that peace happen. After all, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Himself says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." And who wouldn’t want to be called a peacemaker or a son of God? But whether or not we care to be an instrument of peace, we are more than happy to be the beneficiaries of peace.

In our text, the eleven disciples and others were gathered on the Sunday evening of the resurrection. They were seeking comfort and peace from each other. But the events of that morning and the previous few days had shaken them. The arrest, trial and crucifixion of Jesus had them scared for their lives. Then the "Mary's" and the other women that very morning had been to the empty tomb, and they had been told that Jesus had risen. Peter had also gone to the tomb and had found it empty. This should have brought joy and peace to the faithful, but this was anything but a peaceful gathering. Oh, the believers probably weren’t fighting amongst themselves, but the room was full of the conflictions of fear and doubt. This was not alleviated by the fact that two of the faithful who had been traveling to Emmaus were telling the gathered believers about how Jesus had appeared to them: how He had walked along the road with them and explained the Scriptures to them, and how He had revealed Himself to them in the breaking of the bread.

While these two were still speaking, Jesus appeared in the midst of them and said to them, "Peace to you." Luke tells us that the believers were terrified and frightened, as though they were seeing a ghost. You can imagine their eyes bugging out of their heads! If anything, the appearance of Jesus among them seems only to have made the situation worse! It didn’t look like the believers were going to be able to find that longed-for peace anywhere.

But then Jesus begins to calm their fears. He says to them, "Behold My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and see." He takes up and eats a piece of fish, proving that He is flesh and blood and bone, that He is, indeed, the same Jesus with whom they spent the last three years, the same Jesus whom they saw crucified just three days earlier. And then, just as He had done with the two believers on the road to Emmaus, He opened the Scriptures to them, explaining how everything that happened was to fulfill the words of the Old Testament, allowing them to see that He was the very Messiah who had been promised to them from the day of the fall into sin. He patiently led them out of their doubt and fear and uncertainty, giving them the peace which only His presence could give them.

Like the believers in our text, we look for peace all over the place. We look to our politicians to legislate some sort of moral peace and to keep physical peace. We look to our parents to negotiate some sort of family peace. We look may even look to the various religions of the world and glean "the best" of what they have to offer in an attempt to find some sort of inner peace. For a time it these things may, indeed, bring us some form of comfort. But true peace? Nothing we can legislate, nothing we can negotiate, nothing we can piece together from the various religions of the world, nothing we can do at all can bring us true, lasting peace.

But rather than finding peace, peace is something we receive. As He did with the disciples that Easter evening, so He does for us this morning and every Lord’s Day. He blesses us with His presence among us, and He gives us peace. He gives us the peace of the forgiveness of sins in the water of Holy Baptism, in the words of Holy Absolution which are spoken by the pastor as from Christ Himself, in His own body and blood in the Holy Supper. This is true peace, peace which, as Jesus tells us in John 14, which the world cannot give. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus brings peace between heaven and earth. God and sinners are reconciled. Sin is forgiven, death is overcome, and we have the peace of God which passes all understanding.

That is one of the great joys of the liturgy which we pray this morning. Peace is all over the place. We repeatedly pray in and for peace in the Kyrie. We recognize the truth that peace is something we receive in the Gloria in Excelsis. In the Agnus Dei, we confess the truth that in the body and blood of Jesus we will be receiving that peace yet again. And of course, the last word which you hear from the pastor in the Divine Service is the Benediction, where the Lord blesses and keeps you, makes His face to shine upon you, and gives you peace. This peace which we then receive allows us to go out into the world and face our daily lives, our trials and temptations, even as that same peace allowed the disciples to go out into the world, making disciples and baptizing all nations as they went, sharing the message that Christ is risen, that sin is forgiven, that death is overcome. You see, that’s the other blessing of our Gospel reading. The Lord made the disciples witnesses to these things. Having been eyewitnesses, they brought a faithful accounting of them to everyone they came across. And we have that faithful accounting even today, because the Apostles left for us in the words of Holy Scripture the account of how Christ has made peace for us with God. This peace even strengthened the martyrs to face their own brutal murders at the hands of those who sought to silence that peace. Should the time come when you are called upon to renounce your faith or be put to death, the peace of God which the world cannot—and which it has no desire to give—will strengthen you to be faithful, even unto death.

This is a greater peace than we can find from our government, a greater peace than parents can enforce with wayward children, a greater peace than we can cobble together from all the false religions of this world. Our Lord did more than just speak the word of peace. He Himself is peace. It is my privilege today to share that peace of God with you, the peace which the world cannot give, the peace which passes all human understanding. So . . . blessed is the Peacemaker. Yes, let there be peace on earth. But let it begin with Jesus, for He makes peace, and He is peace. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+) and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

Free Speech Questioned in Canada

Remember those Danish cartoons which depicted Mohammed which caused such a furor? It seems a Canadian magazine editor has gone through an interrogation from a Canadian human rights commission for reprinting those cartoons. I know I have spoken with some frustration and even disgust regarding the media, but this man makes me proud to be a citizen of the world and thankful that there are journalists and editors who take their responsibilities seriously.

Below are YouTube videos of the opening and closing statements Mr. Ezra Levant made before the commission, as well as his answer to the question, "What was your intent?"


Opening Statement



"What was your intent?"



Closing Argument



May I be so bold when put to the test, as I'm sure the day is coming even in "the land of the free" when freedoms will be denied and rights be questioned. God willing, I will be one who continues to speak the truth.

Thanks to the Reverend Mike Keith, the Scottish Lutheran, for the heads-up.

I Know That My Redeemer Lives!

The danger of loving the traditional liturgy and hymnody of the Church is that we experience therein a great deal of repetition. The church year is cyclical, and the subjects we talk about at any time of year become appropriate for the daily lives of God's people. This is especially true of the liturgy and hymnody of the Easter season. The hymnody of Easter is also most appropriately the hymnody of funerals and gravesides. Two of the hymns we sang today at Mt. Olive Lutheran Church in Metairie, Louisiana, were hymns that I've sung at funerals. (One of those two hymns was also sung at my Ordination, but that's another story.)

Singing "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" has deep meaning for me, but not only because it's a beautiful Easter hymn. Another reason is that we sang that hymn at my grandfather's funeral. But even more so than that, the hymn is a tremendous reminder of the blessings that the Lord of Life--the Lord of the living--provides for his people.


1. I know that my Redeemer lives;
What comfort this sweet sentence gives!
He lives, He lives, who once was dead;
He lives, my ever-living Head.

2. He lives triumphant from the grave,
He lives eternally to save,
He lives all-glorious in the sky,
He lives exalted there on high.

I know that my Redeemer lives, the firstborn from the grave. He lives triumphant from the grave, triumphant over the grave, over death, over sin. He lives so that I need no longer fear these things, even though they assail me in my daily life. He lives to make His triumph into my triumph in Holy Baptism. He lives, exalted in the heavens and on earth; He lives where heaven meets earth in His Holy Supper, and in Holy Baptism and the Holy Supper I, too, am given faith that I may praise Him in His exaltation.

3. He lives to bless me with His love,
He lives to plead for me above.
He lives my hungry soul to feed,
He lives to help in time of need.

He lives to bless me with a love that is patient and kind, that is not harsh, that does not envy, that rejoices in the truth, that endures all things, that never ends, a love that intercedes for me before the Father, bringing reconciliation to wayward children and their just God. He lives so that His body and blood, given and shed for me, are a meal that feeds me, body and soul, with the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation, thus fulfilling my greatest need.

4. He lives to grant me rich supply,
He lives to guide me with His eye,
He lives to comfort me when faint,
He lives to hear my soul's complaint.

He lives to give me all that I need to support this body and life. He lives to make me to lie down in green pastures, to lead me beside the still waters, to restore my soul, to lead me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. He lives to bring to bear His rod and staff to comfort me. And when the gifts that He gives me are foolishly and sinfully judged to be inadequate, He even lives to hear me complain about it.

5. He lives to silence all my fears,
He lives to wipe away my tears
He lives to calm my troubled heart,
He lives all blessings to impart.

He lives so that my laundry list of anxieties about this life and the life of the world to come won't bury me under their weight. He lives so that, every time I sing this hymn and am reminded of all those fears and feel myself becoming overwhelmed in my faithlessness, my tears will not flow without comfort. He lives to bless me in ways that I cannot even begin to ask or imagine--and that in addition to answering each item on that laundry list of anxieties--blessing me with every blessing God has for me.

6. He lives, my kind, wise, heavenly Friend,
He lives and loves me to the end;
He lives, and while He lives, I'll sing;
He lives, my Prophet, Priest, and King.

He lives to be the foolishness that is wiser than my wisdom, a blessing I need and too often fail to acknowledge. He lives and loves me without end. He lives, and because He lives to give me faith, He makes me bold and gives me the words to sing His praise. He lives to proclaim His great love to me, to provide and to be the Paschal lamb, to sit on the throne above all thrones, to be the One before Whom all knees shall bow and tongues confess.

7. He lives and grants me daily breath;
He lives, and I shall conquer death:
He lives my mansion to prepare;
He Iives to bring me safely there.

He lives so that I have life--not only eternal life, but the blessings of a life on the earth for which He was the Word of creation. He lives, and because He has conquered death, so shall I. He lives, and thus He has fulfilled His promise to prepare a place for me. He lives to stay by my cradle til morning is nigh; and when morning has come nigh, He will take me to heaven to live with Him there.

8. He lives, all glory to His name!
He lives, my Jesus, still the same.
Oh, the sweet joy this sentence gives,
"I know that my Redeemer lives!"

He lives, and He has given me the faith to believe and the tongue to confess His great glory. He lives, the Lord who does not change, who remains eternally constant in all things. He lives, and the knowledge that He lives is my greatest blessing, my greatest joy, my only true comfort. He lives . . . and that's all that matters.


"For I know that my Redeemer lives,and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me!"

A bit of humor for my knitting friends

I Knit and Purl
(to the tune of "I Kissed a Girl" by Kate Perry)

I used to mock my mother’s hands.
Her hobby bugged me.
She said her needles stopped time’s sands
And kept her mind free.
She told me her method—
“Why don’t you try it out?”
I did it like she did,
And now I can shout—

I knit and purl and I like it.
I even use a yarn swift.
Knitted and purled just to try it,
And now I don’t want to quit.
Guess I was wrong.
My mom was right.
Finished my blanket tonight.
I knit and purl and I like it.
I like it.

The first step is called “casting on”.
It’s the beginning.
And by the time your yarn is gone
It’s like you’re winning
It’s not just some fool’s game—
It’s very practical.
I made you a sweater.
I’m one domestic gal.

I knit and purl and I like it.
I even use a yarn swift.
Knitted and purled just to try it,
And now I don’t want to quit.
Guess I was wrong.
My mom was right.
Finished my blanket tonight.
I knit and purl and I like it.
I like it.


We knitters learn the garter stitch
And while we’re knitting we can bitch.
I think my fingers have the itch.
Too good to deny it.
And I am glad I tried it.


I knit and purl and I like it.
I even use a yarn swift.
Knitted and purled just to try it,
And now I don’t want to quit.
Guess I was wrong.
My mom was right.
Finished my blanket tonight.
I knit and purl and I like it.
I like it.

What I figured out this evening

I watched Dave Letterman this evening, and his guest was Bill O'Reilly. Their discussion gave me food for thought. I used to watch Letterman every night when I was in high school and through my first couple years of college. Nowadays I watch The Factor with Bill O'Reilly.

I think the difference is that I've grown up and I've started thinking for myself. Letterman used to be good enough for me. I just wanted to be entertained. Now I like my entertainment to have some substance to it.

Sermon for 3/22/09 – Fourth Sunday in Lent (LSB-B)

Sin and a Pole
Numbers 21:4-9

Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.


The children of God found themselves dissatisfied with God’s ways of providing for them. He had delivered His people from slavery in the land of Egypt. He provided food and water in the wilderness. He had protected them from and given them victory over their enemies in their wilderness wanderings. And yet, they were dissatisfied. They were impatient, and they made no bones about expressing that impatience to Moses. They even went so far as to say that they would rather be back in Egypt, living in slavery than continue their detour through the wilderness, forgetting that they had begged God to deliver them from that slavery. God had always provided for them when they asked for what they needed. All they had to do was to ask. Instead, they grumbled about Moses; but since Moses was merely doing what God had ordered him to do, the Israelites were really grumbling against God.

I know that sounds preposterous to us who rely on God for “clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children”—“all that we need to support this body and life.” Certainly the congregation of the faithful today would never think of complaining about the way God does things, would we? Except . . . we do. Why would God send us a snowstorm when we’re still getting over hurricanes? Why would God allow His children to suffer while the minions of evil seem to thrive? Why would God announce and deliver the forgiveness of sins through sinful men and ordinary, boring things like water, bread and wine? In the end, we are no better than the Israelites of old. We demand better from Him, as though He has been holding out on us. We do not trust in God. And as you know from Luther’s explanations of the Ten Commandments, this is the essence of sin.

As the Israelites found out, the wages of sin is death. And as bad as the Children of Israel thought things were, they can always get much worse when God withdraws His grace. God sent among them snakes—poisonous snakes. The snakes bit the people, and the people began to die. Now, it’s no coincidence that the instrument of judgment was snakes. The Israelites knew all too well the connection: how Adam and Eve trusted the serpent in the Garden rather than God, and how that led to the judgment of death. God meant to remind His children of the connection between sin and death. And that’s what we would have to look forward to, if that had, indeed, been the end of the story. Our lack of trust in God, our grumbling against Him, our sin—these things make us deserving of the same death sentence that the Israelites received.

But even now, hearing this story, we’re questioning God! Was it really necessary for God to send poisonous snakes? Did they have to be deadly? Where’s this supposed mercy for which God is so famous? But that’s the thing. Instead of writing them off, God used these snakes to call His people to repentance. That’s what the Law is meant to do. As we hear so often in the funeral liturgy at the graveside, St. Paul writes to the Corinthians, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.” So the Lord showed them their sin, and this did exactly what it was supposed to do: it brought the people back and turned them around. They went to Moses and confessed their sin—their lack of trust, their lack of faithfulness. And then they asked Moses to pray for them, that the Lord would deliver them. Moses did exactly that.

If that sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve done the same thing this morning. We’ve come to this place from a number of different places and conditions, but the one thing we all have in common is that we’re poor, miserable sinners. Recognizing your sinfulness, you came here to confess your sins, to repent of them, and to ask God for forgiveness. Our consciences are heavy-laden with our sin, and only the grace of God can remove that burden from us.

The Israelites found that out when God gave Moses a seemingly strange command: “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” Despite the strangeness of the request, Moses obeyed without question. After all, he had seen God provide water from a rock and manna from heaven. He knew that God’s Word would do exactly what He said. So Moses made the serpent and set it on the pole. Without the command of God, this would have been idolatry. But the power of the cure was in the Word of God. God said that those who looked on the brazen serpent would be cured, and that’s exactly what happened. Notice that God didn’t say the serpents would stop biting. But the bites no longer had any sting. It didn’t matter how many times the snake bit. The people looked at the serpent on the pole in repentance and faith, and they lived.

This was a temporary cure for a temporary disease. It took another pole with something greater hanging from it to bring to us a full and holy cure. In our Gospel reading, Jesus tells us that He will be lifted up just as the snake was lifted up in the wilderness. Some people think of being lifted up as being glorified, and sometimes that’s the case. But it would not be so in this case. True to His Word—for God always keeps His Word—Christ was lifted up on the pole of the cross, lifted up in shame and disgrace, lifted up to be mocked and spat upon, lifted up to die. What happened in the wilderness happened in an even greater way on Golgotha. Jesus took the very sin that was killing us and bore it Himself upon the cross, so that all who look upon Him in faith would live—and not just for a time, but for all eternity.

Earlier I read to you from Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, a passage which is often read at the graveside of those who depart in the faith. Paul writes, “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.” But he doesn’t stop there. He continues by saying, “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” God doesn’t stop when He sends the snakes that trouble us. He provides relief, pardon, peace, forgiveness, and life through the body and blood of His Son. He promised from the moments after the first sin in the Garden that He would send a Savior, and He kept his promise. We can count on God to keep His Word, even when we don’t keep ours, even when we grumble against Him. God is faithful, and those who look upon God in Christ through faith will live forever. In the name of the Father, Son (+), and Holy Spirit. Amen.


The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.

"The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology" by Charles Porterfield Krauth

When I was on my vicarage, I spent a lot of time poring over (and lusting after) my vicarage bishop's library. I have been able to reproduce much of that library in the years since then, but for the longest time I was unable to acquire The Conservative Reformation and its Theology by Charles Porterfield Krauth. I gave some thought to acquiring it through less than honest means--read as: photocopier--but I contented myself with a number of other books and hoped that someday I'd find it through a used bookstore of in the library of some retiring pastor.

Then Concordia Publishing House decided to reprint this volume, and I obtained for myself a copy. The unfortunate arrival in Louisiana of hurricane Gustav gave me the opportunity to start reading this weighty volume, and it has been a true blessing to me. I've only read about half of it in the past six months, but reading it has re-kindled in my the joy of theological learning. I've spent much of the past three years pining for what I've been missing outside of parish ministry. God only knows when or if I will return to parish ministry. As I wait and as I serve area congregations as a pulpit supply pastor, this book has helped to bring some theological depth back into my thinking, which in turns feeds the sermons I preach and the Bible studies I lead.

Let me share with you a quote that reminds me of the pastor and the man I want to be: "But, with all, and in all, and above all, we wish to send forth men, who shall be living illustrations of the power of the gospel they preach; men, who shall show the oneness and stability of a true faith, ready to yield preferences to secure principles, to make the sacrifices of love to the consciences of the weak in things indifferent, and to stand as the anvil to the beater under the strokes of obloquy and misrepresentation. We wish men, who will have the mind of Jesus Christ, thrilling in every pulse with love to souls . . ." (p. 178)

I don't know that I've been that man, that pastor. I don't know that I can be that pastor. In fact, I know I can't be that pastor. I repent of those failures. God willing and God helping me, I can but strive to be that pastor, to repent when I fail, and to rely on the power of the Word of God to do what I cannot.

If you haven't already done so, whether layman or pastor, do pick this book up and read it. I can heartily recommend it, and I commend Concordia Publishing House for reprinting it.

Now if I can just get up the nerve to see if they'll print my novel . . .

5 Things

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ/Blog and elaborate on the subjects given.

You can ask questions about the post without me giving you 5 subjects. If you do want topics, please ask for them.

I received my topics from Rev. Charles Lehmann at http://chaz-lehmann.livejournal.com/

1. CLTS (which stands for Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary)
2. John Frahm III
3. New Orleans
4. Having a family
5. Being a pastor

Here are my responses:

1. CLTS: Unlike most LCMS pastors, I attended neither Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, nor Concordia Theologica Seminary in Forty Wayne, Indiana. Instead I attended Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary in St. Catharines, Ontario. One of the biggest reasons was that I could live at home and commute, thus saving money on room and board while keeping the job I'd held for the previous five years, since St. Catharines was only about 45 minutes from home. I knew from the beginning that I wouldn't attend the seminary in St. Louis. The academic reputation of Concordia, St. Louis, was such that I had no interest in attending there. I just don't have the academic credentials, and the arrogance I perceived at the time was just too much to be borne. I gave serious consideration to Fort Wayne. One of my friends would be going into his final year when I started my first year, so I knew I'd have at least some connection to the seminary. But there were rumors going around Bronxville during my last year that the LCMS was going to try to close down the Fort Wayne seminary, and I didn't want to start there if there was a possibility I could end up in St. Louis anyway. Unfortunately, the campus visit that I had planned to make with my best friend to visit both the US seminaries was cancelled due to a well-timed snowstorm during Christmas break, so I didn't get to experience either of them at the time. I have since rectified that lack, but I had nothing to convince me that either of the seminaries would suit me.

Concordia Lutheran Theological Seminary, on the other hand, had a lot that appealed to me beyond its mere proximity to my home. The small class size assured me that I wouldn't be able to lose myself in a large classroom and just sneak by. I knew I needed to be under pressure to perform, and in a graduating class of six, I had nowhere to hide. I also appreciated the fact that a small student body would tend to be more like a family. I was seldom disappointed in that aspect, though my second year of seminary nearly drove me away from the Ministry altogether. (But that's a story for another time.) Since I wouldn't be living on campus--since there was no place on campus for us to live--I wouldn't have the distractions of dorm life. And when I visited the campus, I was met by Dean Roger Humann, a man who impressed me with both his eminent competence and his gentle humility.

I was a little disappointed with the lack of options for electives, as I would love to have been able to take some course work on campus ministry and some further electives on liturgical theology. Also, I didn't exactly hit it off with some of my professors from the beginning, especially some of the adjunct professors. But all in all, even with a very stressful second year, my seminary experience was wonderful, and I can honestly say that it prepared me fairly well for parish ministry. Oh, there are things that no seminary class can prepare you for--like the challenges of serving a dual parish in rural North Dakota, for instance--but I don't feel I missed out on much by going to St. Catharines instead of Fort Wayne. Maybe living on campus in Fort Wayne might have been better for me in some ways, but I think that was balanced nicely by the fact that I worked 30 hours a week during seminary, preparing me for being on call 24 hours a day and working 50 to 90 hour weeks at times.

2. John Frahm III: John was in his last year while I was going through my horrible second year at St. Catharines. To be honest, I didn't really like about half of the Fourth Year students at the time, though I've gotten to like them better in the years since. But John wasn't one of those guys. I liked John . . . despite his annoying tendancy to cheer for the Minnesota Vikings. I liked the fact that he threw around German words and phrases rather than Latin words and phrases, even if I couldn't understand those any more than I could the Latin. I also liked the fact that he was approachable. But what I liked most about John was his Lutheran orthodoxy. I think I learned more about what Lutherans believe beyond the basics from John than I did from my teachers that year, probably because I was so miserable in classes that I wanted to stop paying attention. I don't know who gave it to him, but John had earned for himself, and rightly so, the nickname "the Boombox of Lutheran orthodoxy". He knew his stuff, but he wasn't an a$$ about it the way some could be. John was a good friend at a time when I really needed one, and though we've not been as close in days since, I will always appreciate John Frahm as one of the main reasons I survived seminary.

3. New Orleans: I've lived in southeastern Louisiana for over three years now, and in that time I've preached all over the place, including New Orleans and its immediate environs. I've also visited the city a number of times for a number of reasons, both for business and for pleasure. Though there's so much more I want to experience there, I've come to love what I've seen. I could ride the riverboats every day (as long as I wore sunscreen and a hat). St. Charles Avenue is a beautiful drive at any time of the year. The restaurants are wonderful. The people are (usually) friendly. There's so much atmosphere, so many sights to see, so many little shops and hidden delights. No matter where I go in life, I think a little piece of me will always stay in Louisiana.

4. Having a family: I spent a lot of my life as a single man. I didn't even date that much. To be honest, as much as I wanted it, I didn't think I would ever get married, much less have any children. When I met Faith, it surprised me how easily and how quickly we hit it off. That she brought with her a child from a previous relationship caught me off guard, I will admit, but Alexis and I seemed be able to coexist. In the space of a year I went from being completely single to being married with a child, and in another year we had a total of three children. I'd like to be able to say that I'm a good father, though my lack of patience probably puts that beyond the realm of possibility. But I'm a caring and loving father, even if I'm not always doing or saying the right thing. I love having a family, as much of a pain in the behind as it can be sometimes. Maybe things might have been easier if I'd stayed single or if we didn't have any children, but there's no way my life would have been better.

5. Being a pastor: I've been a pastor for nearly 9 years now, and I've experienced a little bit of everything. I've seen what a loving congregation can do to make a pastor's life easier. I've seen what dissatisfied parishioners can do to a pastor and even to his wife. I've learned the kind of love that I never thought that I could have for people, being as introverted as I am. And I've learned that there's things I never want to experience again. All that being said, I love being a pastor. There are things I could do better. There are difficulties and frustrations that sometimes make me want to rip out my goatee. There are some people who can be so cruel that it can almost make you want to brain them with a processional cross. But when it comes down to it, I can't picture myself wanting to do anything else. Oh, I've been forced to find something else for the time being, but I am, first and foremost, a pastor. Well, I am first and foremost a child of God. But I am not a recreation center manager. That's just something I do. I am a pastor. As it is with fatherhood, there are undoubtedly those who are better pastors than I am, people who have a firmer grasp of theology, people who are more loving, people who are better preachers, people who are better at visiting the sick and the shut-in. But I love all of it. I love the hard work and long hours. I love the struggle with a difficult text. I love the vaguely sick feeling I get every time I step into the pulpit. I love that Christ uses me to speak His absolution and feed His body and blood to His people. I truly believe that God chose me to be a pastor, as awful and as terrifying as that Call can be at times. And I'm glad He did.

Living Together Before Marriage

I'm always intrigued that people think it's better to live together as a prelude to marriage than it is to just get married. I know the arguments--the three major ones, at least. The first one goes something like, "It's much better to pay for a moving truck than it is to pay for a lawyer." Aside from the Scriptural, theological and moral arguments--and rest assured, I know plenty of those--there's a good reason not to go the living together route. Living together gives you an automatic out. Living together is not a real commitment. When you're free to go at any time, you don't face a true test because you don't have to face a true test. When the first sign of struggle or of hardship approaches, it's too easy to walk out the door without a look back. True commitment is signing on for the long haul, knowing that the hardship is coming, and resolving to stick it out "for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health". Rather than expecting to pay for the moving truck, why not expect the best and make it work without the moving truck or the lawyer?

The second argument has to do with sex. "Don't you want to know if you're compatible?" Tell me something. Does one of you have Tab A? Does the other have Slot A? Poof! You're compatible. Your preferences are negotiable, and part of the marriage relationship is learning what you like and how you work together. Trial and error, experimentation and hard work will go a long way to helping you learn to make your partner happy and helping your partner learn to make you happy. That's not just true about sex, but it is true about sex.

And the third argument is that living together is the best way to get to know someone on the way to getting married. If that were true, no one would ever have gotten married in the first place. If you do it right, getting to know someone takes a lifetime. You only start in dating. The rest of it is done in marriage. And sure, you want to know before you get married what a person is truly like. But if you think you'll get that from living together, you're wrong. What you get in living together is a skewed picture, the doctored picture that's been touched up so you don't' see the blemishes. And when you do see the blemishes when you're living together, it's all over.

You want a trial? Commit a crime. You want a test? Go to college. You want a real relationship? Find someone of the opposite sex who loves you, who cares about you, and who is willing to stick with you no matter what. Then marry them.

Happy Valentines Day. Go love somebody.

Retirement

One of my pastor friends made a comment about his retirement date, which is projected to happen around the year 2040, and it got me to thinking about my future. When I was a new pastor, I'd given that some thought . . . though what a 25 year-old is doing thinking of retirement is beyond me. Anyway, after some consideration, I'd come to the conclusion that I probably wouldn't retire. The work is too important, and if the Lord wanted me to stop, He'd bring me Home.

I've been thinking about this in light of the current "clergy shortage" in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod which apparently precipitates the need for programs such as DELTO and SMPP. According to the January 2009 edition of "The Lutheran Witness", we have 9,164 pastors in the Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod, 5,356 of whom are serving parishes right now. Remembering for the moment that some of those pastors are serving in congregations with two or more pastors and others are serving two or more congregations, that leaves approximately 811 congregations without a pastor and 3,808 pastors who are not serving a parish right now. So my question is, is there truly a pastor shortage? My former district president told me in no uncertain terms and in capital letters, "THERE IS NO CLERGY SHORTAGE." He was was mistaken about a number of things, but I don't think he was wrong about this. Of the 3,808 pastors not serving a parish right now, there's no indication of how many of those are retired/emeritus and how many of those are CRM or inactive pastors who remain on the clergy roster. But between those 3,808 pastors, are there truly not 811 pastors who could not serve those congregations without a pastor? I know I just turned down a Call to a congregation that needed a pastor, and I'm one of those 3,808, but that does not mean I'm unwilling to serve. And I know I'm not the only guy in this circumstance.

I don't have any beef with the brother who is looking forward to his retirement. That's a decision every pastor must make for himself, and I can't fault anyone who feels they need to step away from the strife. The life of a pastor can be worrisome, and even the best of situations can be exhausting. I've seen both sides of this now. I've seen the Ministry in good times and in bad. I've seen pastors treat their congregations like they were children . . . or worse. I've seen congregations treat their pastors like hirelings . . . or worse. But I've seen congregations love their pastors through horrible family situations and worse, and I've seen pastors sit at the bedsides of their parishioners for literally days on end. Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, pastors have a responsibility to preach the Word. And I plan on doing so until the day I die.

My decision concerning the Call to Grace, El Paso

Since by now it has been announced to the Grace congregation in El Paso, Texas, I can now announce it publically. I have regretfully decided to decline the Divine Call to serve as their pastor. It was not an easy decision to make, and my heart bleeds for the Grace congregation. Please pray for this congregation, that they may receive a faithful pastor and persevere under difficult circumstances. They are not receiving much support from the people whose job it is to support them, and that made the decision to decline that much harder.

I imagine there are some people out there who can't understand why I'd decline a Call when I desire one so desperately. All I can say is that I honestly believe that the Lord wants me to be where I am right now. That could change tomorrow. Who knows but God? I'll leave that up to Him.


Thank you so much for your prayers for me throughout this process. God is good, and He will provide--both for me and for Grace.

Strange Days

Well, today is the day. I joke about President-Elect (or maybe by the time I post this it will just be "President") Obama being the Second Coming of Christ, and even today I joked about him parting or walking on the waters of the Reflection Pool in Washington DC on his way to the inauguration. I don't take talk of Barack Obama being the new Messiah as seriously as some of my Democrat associations do. However, I do hope he succeeds as President, if for no other reason than that I'm selfish. I don't want our economy to complete its downward spiral by completely crashing--and yes, I know we're on our way there, anyway. I don't want us to be the target of numerous terrorist attacks. I don't want the United States to become weak militarily. I hope President Obama overcomes his lack of experience. More than that, I hope he overcomes his lack of respect for life, especially that of the pre-born. He has a lot to prove. A lot of people put a lot of faith in him, and for the sake of our nation (and for my own sake), I hope he doesn't disappoint. So yes, today is a great day. The election process of our democratic republic has succeeded yet again, and we have brought to office another President of the United States of America, a Commander-in-Chief for our Armed Forces, a Chief Executive. Though I will treat him with a lot more respect than President Bush ever received from his detractors, don't expect me to be excited about the man we as a nation picked. After all, I voted for the other guy. However, congratulations, President Obama. You will be in my prayers.

As he leaves office, I would like to thank President Bush for his service to our nation. Less than a year into his presidency he faced the greatest test any of our elected officials has ever had to take, and he passed. He took a nation at its lowest point and gave us hope and confidence that we could overcome. It has been 2,689 days since we've faced a terrorist attack on domestic American soil, and much of that is thanks to the fact that President Bush had the chutzpah to make the difficult decision to send our fighting men and women to the Middle East to seek our terrorists where they were instead of waiting for them to come to us. Yes, the economy has taken a nosedive on his watch, but there is plenty of blame to be shared, especially with Clinton who pushed for mortgages to be given to people who could not repay them. I was very proud to call President Bush "my President". I'm one of the 29%. And even if I weren't, I would have spoken of and treated him with a lot more respect than he received from the media and a majority of our nation.

On a much happier note, this past Sunday my wife became a Lutheran, and we were able to receive Holy Communion together for the first time. I am very proud of my wife. After the way she was treated by those who called themselves Lutherans at my last congregation, Faith would have had every right to tell me, "I'm sorry, dear, but if that's the way Lutherans act, there's no way I will ever become one." I wouldn't have forced her to become a Lutheran under any circumstances. She made the choice herself, and I am very happy to have a Lutheran wife.