Luther's 95 Theses

[i]

Romans 13:1

King James Version (KJV)

13 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Recently we experienced the 500^th anniversary of Martin Luther’s nailing of the 95 Theses on the church door in Wittenberg. They protested the sale of indulgences that forgave sins for a sum of money. It was money from these indulgences that the most powerful authority on earth at the time used to finish the world renowned St. Peter’s Church in Rome.

Luther, a great scholar of Romans, finally decided that his was the time to react against an abuse of this highest power on earth, not to destroy the power, but rather to bring it to its senses; to get it to seriously consider that its actions were actually taking believers who trusted in it to damnation. His action about tore his own soul from his body. He felt that indeed he was treading very close to violating Paul’s instructions in in Romans 13:1. He obeyed the summons of the church officials to come to Worms, Germany for trial in front of some of  the highest secular and ecclesiastical rulers on earth.

He stood before them after answering their questions trembling because of his resistance to the authorities’ attempt to control his conscience, his being subject to the greatest authority in heaven and earth. Meekly he pled, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” They condemned him and would have burnt him alive except that the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V had given him safe conduct. Luther had already been excommunicated as a heretic. The church demanded that no contract with a heretic was valid therefore he should be burned. But Charles V remarked, “I would not blush as did Sigismund;” the Holy Roman Emperor who had given John Huss a safe conduct and then revoked it.

Instead they issued the Edict of Worms which declared Luther a heretic  and anybody who should meet him could kill him without guilt. But he was granted safe conduct back to Wittenberg.  He was kidnapped on the way home and placed in secret hiding where he finished translating the New Testament into German thus giving the Protestant Reformation a chance to become permanent.

Thank You Lord for taking the future of Your church out of the hands of evil men. Please continue to actively guide Your church!

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[i] https://zeitzeichen.net/archiv/2016_Mai_freiheitsheld-luther

Woe to a Spammer

[i]

Psalm 19:14 

Contemporary English Version (CEV)

¹⁴ Let my words and my thoughts
    be pleasing to you, Lord,
    because you are my mighty rock^[a]
    and my protector.

Several times a day my phone rings. The caller ID gives me a number that is obviously just down the street from me, or a name that sounds vaguely familiar. Who knows it may be a friend or an acquaintance, but not someone who calls me every day. Still a bit skeptical I pick up the phone and say “Hello.” I don’t often give my name anymore. They should know whom they are calling. No answer and then a click. I say “Hello?” I’m much more skeptical now. Then a voice with an accent from half way around the world says, “I’m calling from Microsoft about your computer. We notice that you have a virus…” By this time I would be a total idiot if I didn’t know that this call has only criminal intent. The crook on the other end wants to get on my computer and pull out my social security number, my bank accounts, my credit card numbers, my business contacts, my friends’ and relatives’ details. It has only mayhem for me. The voice has no more connection to Microsoft than I do.

In the past I have responded with venom and hate. I still want to respond with venom and hate. How dare a villain invade my private space so brazenly? I would like to attach the handcuffs right through the phone lines.

What would Jesus do? I know what Jesus did in Matthew 23:13-39: “Woe unto you …” He minced no words. He told it like it was. This was not a sweet; “Blessed are you …” It was not: “unless you are baptized…”  But there was love in His voice. He loved the fraudster; and hated his fraud. He yearned to have the swindler in his kingdom; not of course as a swindler but as His brother or sister. But in the moment it was simply, “Woe unto you…”

I still can’t say “Woe unto you…” with love in my voice and heart, so I simply hang up on them. That’s not being impolite, that’s being kind with regard to the anger in my breast.

What do you do?

Lord I love you, and I try to love the unlovable. Please make me more loving!

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[i] https://en.softonic.com/articles/the-3-best-apps-for-blocking-spam-phone-calls

Encourage One Another

[i]

1 Thessalonians 5:11 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

Once upon a time I was asked to visit high schools loosely affiliated with the university where I was teaching. I visited them and chatted with the teachers of mathematics there. I asked what they were doing and what training they had for the teaching of mathematics. I found that most of the teachers had no real training in mathematics and wished they did. They all indicated that if we had a master’s degree for teaching mathematics, they would come and take it. Their schools had a program that paid for them to take further studies in their fields each summer if they wished to do it.

I presented this request to my department. There was a favorable reception to the idea, and I was encouraged to look into the matter further. I got in touch with the Mathematics Association that was connected with college math teaching and preparation of mathematics teachers. They had a program that looked really exciting, and I spent hours adapting it to what we did at the university.

When I presented this as a possibility to the department, everybody seemed to be opposed to the very idea. I was accused of being non-professional, of undercutting what the university was doing, of causing everyone in the department to have to do more work, of working against the university’s policy of excellence. I received no encouragement whatsoever. The attacks turned personal. Finally, after months of discouragement, I dropped the whole idea.  

Apparently Paul felt this way in Thessalonica. He was chased out of the city by disgruntled people. Later he wrote a short letter to the church there. Eight times in this letter he mentioned encouragement (in the Holman Christian Standard Bible); that is more than in any two of his other letters.

Lord, use me to encourage those I associate with in their walk with You.

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[i] https://relentlessgrowth.wordpress.com/2017/07/07/encourage/

Bullying

[i]

Ephesians 5:8 

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.

Ian[ii] was a big fellow. To my 5^th grade eyes he looked like a giant. For some reason that I no longer remember, he got mad at me and threatened to kill me. Kids do that, of course. They say things that they don’t mean literally. But I took him at his word, and I was scared. Through the last few hours of class, all I could think of was his threat. I learned nothing about what Miss Ranierⁱ was trying to teach me. My future seemed grim. He was much bigger and probably much stronger than I. What could I do?

As kids we had toyed around with wrestling and fighting—none of it serious. We had come upon a grip we called the Indian Choke Lock that we found impossible to break that made our opponent unable to breathe. I decided to put the choke lock on Ian at my first opportunity.

When class ended that afternoon I dashed out of the classroom first. I jumped up on a ledge a mere foot above the bottom stair and waited. As the kids came running down the steps and out on to the field, Ian came running by me. It should have been obvious to me that he had totally forgotten his threat that had haunted me the whole afternoon. But all I could see was what I considered to be my only chance to save my life—to kill him before he could kill me.

Launching myself into the air, I landed on his back and threw him into my Indian Choke Lock. I was surprised how well it worked. He struggled vainly but couldn’t dislodge me; nor could he breathe. He collapsed onto the ground, but I held on grimly. Eventually some bigger kids saw what I was doing and came over and broke my lock on his throat. He gasped for air and walked away very subdued. I stood up quickly watching for any retaliation. None materialized.

Years went by. I quickly learned that physical retaliation wasn’t the way to go. Usually one could negotiate his way out of a big threat, especially with some serous praying about it.

Lord, thank You for the light—the promise that You are with me and will protect me and that to love others is a much better way.

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[i] https://www.flickr.com/photos/calshakes/6189618611

[ii] Not his or her real name