Thank God for affliction

I was reading a section of Luther's Table talks today. The writer was describing how Luther would do visitation of the sick. After inquiring as to the health of the patient and how the treatment is going it says that Luther would ask several questions. One of the first questions was how has the patient borne himself while sick. Has he/she been patient towards God. Luther wanted to know if the sick person was bearing with his affliction patiently, because God had sent it out of fatherly goodness and because that by his sins he had deserved such illness and the patient should also be willing to die if it pleased God to take him--then Luther would praise this as a proper disposition and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Can we thank God for our illness and even more claim that God is good because He gave it to us and even more so that we deserve it. Luther is not advocating a position that says if you sin, God is going to punish you for that sin directly, ie he is just waiting to slap your wrist. What he seems to be saying is that in a sinful world and as a sinner, we should not be surprised when illness and affliction strike. All of creation groans after all and death only came because of sin, illness being one of the primary causes of death.

I have found that when we get sick, we turn to God more readily. When we can no longer manage on our own, then we see our need for God. Becoming dependent due to illness or defect can be a great blessing, because it forces us to rely on God. If we can move beyond the "Why me?" to the "What is your will?" we will find blessing in every affliction, illness and adversity.
Soli Deo Gloria

The treasure and the pearl

This sunday in church we read from the Gospel of Matthew about the man who finds a treasure and hids it, then goes back and buys the field it was in. The next parable was about a merchant who finds a great pearl and he sells all that he has to buy it.
These parables are about God and not about man. In a parable, we are to learn something about God or His kingdom. God is the actor and we as humans are the receptors. In every parable before and after this it is clear that God is the one acting, it does not make sense within the context of the book and chapter to reverse the roles. The man and the merchant are both God. The treasure and the pearl are both us. We are the precious thing that God gives up everything for. He finds us so wonderful that the Son gives up His life to purchase us.
Why does he do this? Not because of anything that we have done. Scripture makes it clear that we did not love Him, but that He first loved us. We are dead in sins. Dead men can do no good deeds. Dead men can't do anything for that matter, good, bad or indifferent, they are dead. God finds us valuable, because He created us and for no other reason than that. He loves what He creates and desires to be in relationship with us.
He does not force the relationship, that would just drive us farther away. Think of any unwanted advances from people in your life. If it is not desired, it is not a pleasant experience. So God woos(wooes?) us. He shows us how faithful He is. He shows us how loving He is. He shows us how caring He is. So that we might love Him in return. He desires all to be saved, but not all desire Him. He allows that, in the hope that some will turn to Him before the end.
In the end however everyone will turn to him, willingly or unwillingly. I am thankful that I am in the former, and I pray for all who are currently in the latter. Don't resist, you are more precious to God than life itself.
Soli Deo Gloria

I have begun to post several times in the past six months and then stopped short for one reason or another. Mainly I have seen some other blogs where the comment section gets pretty vicious, even on "Christian" blogs. I guess I don't have to worry about that if no one reads this and/or comments about it.

One ideal that I have about this blog and my personal life in general is to concentrate on what I believe to be true rather than try to show where others are false. I began to take this approach after hearing a story about people trained by the government to recognize counterfit money. According to the story they never looked at a counterfit bill, only the real one. They spent so much time on the real one that a small mistake in a false one would be obvious to them. I think that should be true with our Christianity as well. Few of us (myself included) study the Bible and its teachings well enough to be able to easily point out the false teachings.

This is sad, because it is exactly what we are called to do, be ready in season and out to give an account and as pastors one of the requirements is to be able to teach sound doctrine and refute false doctrine. I believe that I can accomplish this best by focusing on the truth, then when the father of lies tries to get something past me, I have the sure Word of God ready at hand.

Therefore I will endevor to speak only of what I know and allow the natural contrast of what is different to speak for itself.

As a favorite t-shirt slogan says "Eschew Obsfucation!"(Avoid Confusion).

Soli Deo Gloria (to God alone be the glory)

An Introduction (of sorts)

"It's better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick."I have no idea where I first heard this phrase, but it has been stuck in the recesses of my brain for a long time.

I like the phrase, it reflects a view of life that is very realistic. Almost anything would be better than a poke in the eye, so in some ways it sets the bar pretty low. On the other hand, life is hard and if you don't learn to deal with it and have a sense of humor about it, life is going to be even more difficult.

I am a Lutheran and I think that this title reflects in some way our theology. I can't articulate exactly why I think that at the moment, but it will come to me. Keep your eye on this site for updates, but be careful of the stick.

I also chose the title because I am tired of people mispronouncing my name. I figure this way people will be predisposed to getting it right. Poock is just not a name that comes natural, unless you are German or Dutch. If pronounced properly in those languages I believe it sounds like you just hurled or something, so I will stick with the American pronunciation. I just did a spell check and the only thing that was flagged was my name. You would think I would have added it to my personal dictionary at some point, but I am something of a Luddite and don't really like to mess with technology much. More to come on that topic as well.

Soli Deo Gloria