Praying for Salvation and Success in 2010

As I think about the year ahead and my goals I've also been thinking about this verse from Psalm 118: "Save now O LORD; Cause success now O LORD." The words "Save now" give us the Hebrew word "hosanna."

I always thought this verse was a little odd the way it started with salvation and then ended with the focus on success. But now I get it. When I fail in life by disobeying God's commands or just falling short of my own goals let alone God's goals for me, I run to God for forgiveness (salvation). God gives that of course through His Son, Jesus. His perfect life, death and resurrection set me free from all my regrets. But then He also wants me to pray "cause success." I have to get back into the game of life. I have to try again, and as I do I pray for God to bless my efforts. So... Save me when I screw up and help not to do it again (success).

Every day I try to remember three categories of goals: Spiritual (devotions, memory passages, prayer) Physical (eating right/exercising/sleeping), and Vocational (family responsibilities/church work). I'm also looking back and asking for forgiveness where I fall short and asking for success as I move forward.

One of My Grandfathers

A letter to my kids:

When we have the Lord with us we can handle anything.

I was looking through the family genealogy and noticed that your great great great grandfather Dr. Peter Eppler lived in Lincoln Park. I remember riding through that area on the L when we were in Chicago this summer. It's close to downtown.

Peter moved to Lincoln Park from Stuttgart, Germany as a boy. When he was twelve years old Cholera spread through Chicago and his parents died. The disease was so swift that people died very suddenly. Peter was spared because he had gone to see a circus for the day. When he came home, he was told he could not go back to the house. An Irish woman took him in. The only thing they took from the house was a Bible and a hymnal. Everything else was burned. Peter's parents were buried in Lincoln Park. But there is probably no grave stone. In many cases these people were buried in long ditches and were buried as soon as they died.

But these people had their faith in Jesus. St. Paul said, "It is not I who live but Christ who lives in me. The life I live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me" (Galatians 2.20). Remember that when you think you are overwhelmed with life's problems.

Peter married Augusta Schliepsick (daughter of an LCMS pastor). They had a daughter named Dorothea, who married Valentine Walther, who had immigrated from Rostall, Germany (near Nurenburg).

Dorothea and Valentine had a son named Johann Frederick Walther. They just called him Fritz. He is my grandfather and your great grand father. I'll tell you some more about Valentine and Fritz some other time.

My Antonia - Three Life Lessons

I finished reading this wonderful novel and keep thinking about it. Antonia (pronounced AntowNEEa) was an immigrant from Bohemia who's family settled in Nebraska. Willa Cather portrays the hardships of homesteading with incredible clarity... sod houses, extreme cold, trying to live off of rotten potatoes, melons, or whatever you could find to eat. The first lesson of this book is to realize the importance of hard work, survival, as well as neighborly charity. No big government programs here! In fact many Americans today look like incredible babies compared to these first settlers. The second lesson is that ideal love doesn't always work out, but that's okay. I don't want to spoil anything so I won't go any further on that. The third lesson is a little disappointing. At the beginning of the book faith plays a very important role. But as the story moves on the role of faith fades into the background. I wonder if that is a reflection of Cather's personal journey? I wonder if that reflects the waning of faith in a culture that learns how to tame the wild. At first we look to God in all the desperation of survival. But as civilization gets a grip and life becomes a little easier do people find less need of God? Overall this is a great book... Highly recommended.

No Country for Old Men - Post Modern Western

I finished reading "No Country for Old Men" by Cormac McCarthy a few weeks ago. It's one of those books you just can't seem to get out of your head. Spoiler Alert: Don't continue reading if you haven't read the book or watched the movie.

It begins with your basic "good guy/bad guy" theme. A drug deal goes bad. A good old boy stumbles onto a briefcase containing millions of dollars. A psychotic hitman is trying to track him down. The good old boy proves to be more wiley than anyone would of thought. The sheriff is trying to bring the whole matter to justice, and he never gets in the game. Throughout the book he provides laments for the deteriorating culture around us. Near the end of the book a reporter asks him about the increasing problem of crime in his county. His response: "Any time you quit hearin Sir and Mam the end is pretty much in sight." (Anyone from Texas knows what he's talking about.) "You finally get into the sort of breakdown in mercantile ethics that leaves people settin around out in the desert dead in their vehicles and by then it's just too late."

By far and away the psychotic hitman is the most interesting character. At one point he kills a "traditional hitman" who gets in his way convincing the reader that he is truly a new breed. Like the movie "Batman: The Dark Knight," this is an exploration into the depths of evil. He represents evil for the sake of evil. As Paul said, "The for the mystery of lawlessness is already at work" (2 Thessalonians 2.7). Toward the end you begin to wonder whether he is psychotic or principled... But the principles he follows are too evil for anyone to comprehend. They make no sense.

You get the sense that this hitman is the tip of the spear when it comes to the evil of this world. But there are many forms of evil that follow in the gradual degradation of our culture. For example at one point the sheriff is at a conference seated next to a woman complaining about the "right wing" in America. She says, "I don't like the way this country is headed. I want my granddaughter to be able to have an abortion." To which the sheriff replied, "Well mam I dont think you got any worries about the way the country is headed. The way I see it goin I dont have much doubt but what she'll be able to have an abortion. I'm going to say that not only will she be able to have an abortion, she'll be able to have you put to sleep. Which pretty much ended the conversation."

Human beings have always been interested in the problem of evil. Many atheists use it as an excuse to resist believing in God. But this book leaves the reader thinking about, perhaps bewildered by, the problem of evil. I hope that those who are concerned about evil, will look to the unique message of the Christian Gospel. God has confronted evil and in fact destroyed it's power through another concept that is infinitely more difficult to comprehend... The sacrifical love of God in Christ.

HIV Baby

This is a letter from my friend Pastor Roman Heidemann. I just wanted to post it in the hope that a few more people might be aware of the good ministry he is doing in Russia.

HIV Baby

This Tuesday I went to visit Babies’ house in Women’s prison in Nignij Tagil with ordinary visit. I planned to have a usual fellowship with mothers and had prepared discussion of the parable “Pharisee and Tax Collector”. On my way to the prison I figured out possible questions and prepared answers that would be most persuasive. This time I went there by electric train, so I had more than four hours for final thorough preparation.

When I came to prison, I was told that mothers had been waiting for me for an hour already. As a tradition I visited babies whom we help with medicines, clothing, toys and other things we manage to collect or buy if we received donations. I was told that a week ago a new baby was brought to this house and she was born from HIV positive mother. I expressed the intent to see her and when I entered the special room where lived babies who were HIV positive and born from HIV positive parents, I saw her, a nice year old girl with big blue eyes.

She saw unfamiliar people and got ready to cry curving her lips in unhappy shape, but I smiled her and she smiled me back. I asked medical captain who accompanied me about her parents and the officer answered me that the name of this girl was Anastasia and her mother was a HIV positive drug addict and was charged for imprisonment for drug trafficking. Then I asked whether this girl was HIV positive and got an answer that analysis were taken and results would be ready in a month time. I asked the permission to take Anastasia on hands and was permitted to do this. She behaved like she knew me for ages and the first thing she did, she hold my white pastor’s collar. I looked at her eyes and I got a sign! This collar was a remembrance that we were all slaves of sin before Jesus Christ took our sins away. She was like an angel, sent by Jesus, she was miserable, born from deadly ill mother, she was alone among strange people, she may have the same deadly disease. She came into this world like Jesus did. He pointed on our sins, he showed how miserable and lonely we were in this world, how fragile and short out life was. But he also showed us The Way, The Truth and The Life! The straight Way in Faith, the Truth of the Word and Sacrament and the Eternal Life in Him. All that He showed us in suffering, in blood and in death, His eyes were like eyes of this little Anastasia, big and blue, He came to us like a child, but He overcame death, He defeated hell, He rose from the dead and went to Heaven and He gave us Hope!
It was a shock for me to see these eyes of Love and Hope here in this sad room of hopelessness. My thoughts were in disorder, I felt presence of Jesus in the room with the tips of my fingers, I did not know what to do or to say. I just stood near the child bed firmly holding a baby. Suddenly the officer touched me and said that I had been waited for the long time already and took Anastasia from my hands. I calmly left the room and went upstairs to the second floor to the hall where mothers gathered to the sermon. I was like a robot going up and I saw Anastasia’s eyes before me. All high and clever phrases about prepared parable disappeared. I could not recall even one. I sat before mothers and did not know with what to begin, Anastasia’s blue eyes were still before me. Mothers waited for me and also kept silence. Then I touched my collar and asked them “Do you know what that mean?” And I told them about how I was slave in sin, I told them what Jesus did in my life, how he saved me from this slavery and He could save them from slavery too by Face and through His Grace. I told them about this little angel Anastasia and we all prayed for her, for the analysis to be HIV negative.

I know that everything is in God’s hands. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let’s pray for little Anastasia, may our Lord and Savior be merciful to her and give her the most precious gift in the world – His Love and His Healing! Let’s pray…

We appreciate your prayers, we need them most. Support our Babies in Prison ministry, check us out at www.stgertrude.ur.ru

Roman Heidemann
Pastor

Evangelical-Litheran Parish
of St. Gertrude

46, 123-B, Kuibyshev Str.
620026, Yekaterinburg
Russian Federation

Tel/Fax: +7-343-262 3386
Mobile Tel: +7-902-262 0533
E-mail: stgertrudeparish@yahoo.com
Web: www.stgertrude.ur.ru

When Will Evangelicals No Longer Recognize the Differences Between Christians and Mormons?

I thought I had found an interesting movie on Netflix... "The Other Side of Heaven." The description said it was about a missionary in Tonga writing letters to his girlfriend in the USA. I didn't notice that the main character was "Elder" John Groberg.

The movie opened with a scene from Brigham Young University in the 1950s. My suspicions were immediately aroused. Soon I realized this was the perfect motivational movie for all Mormon missionaries. A dedicated young man devotes his life to 2+ years of missionary service. He overcomes one obstacle after another and remains faithful to his girlfriend and to his church superiors. I thought about sending it back, but then I realized it might give me some good insights into the Mormon faith.

Wow, was I right! It's one thing to learn about Mormonism from ex-Mormons and from those who study their official teachings. It's another thing to learn about it through a film that truly presents what they think is the heart of their religion. It reminded me of Paul's words "whose glory is in their shame" (Philippians 3.19)

What was so shocking about this movie? It certainly wasn't the moral character of the Mormons. Christians could take some notes on this. It wasn't their tenacity and perseverance either. The shocking thing about this movie is the Mormon definition of "Gospel." The "preaching of the Gospel" is the main focus of this movie. But what is that definition according to Mormonism? Not once in that movie (to the best of my remembrance) is Christ the crucified for the forgiveness of sins mentioned! At the beginning, the boy's father quotes John 3.16 with a classic Mormon interpretation: I'm giving up my son just like God gave up His Son." He turns the Gospel into a Law. God sent Jesus to be an example for us to follow. That's what saves us... following His example.

John's first sermon was hilarious and sad at the same time. He taught them that God was giving them all the opportunity to be God's servants. However, he had trouble with the language and actually said that they all had the opportunity to be God's "outhouses." What's sad about this is that John presented a Gospel that says, "I (God) love you enough to tell you who I am and let you have the opportunity to try to become like Me. Follow My rules, and you can do it."

Here's another new twist that Mormons are into... The island that John goes to already has a "minister." You can't tell what denomination he represents, but he is definitely opposed to Mormonism. However throughout the movie John is kind to him and eventually wins him over so that you get the idea there really is no difference between Mormonism and Christianity. I don't think that would have ever happened in the 1950s, but that is definitely the new marketing approach that they are using to sell people on their version of the Gospel.

Here's the really sad thing as I think about it: How many Christians today would really see any difference between what they hear on Sunday mornings and what Mormons hear? I don't hear Christ the crucified for the forgiveness of sins being preached very much today even in so-called Christian churches... even in some Lutheran churches! This is exactly what Paul was warning about when he said, "O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?" (Galatians 3.1).

Christians need to get back to God's word in Christ before they slip all the way down the slippery slope of the Mormon Gospel... "It's all about me doing what I'm supposed to do to be good and get rewarded." Or, at the end of that slope they will find themselves on the other side of hell.

The Final Days of Sophie Scholl

Sophie Scholl was a Lutheran who saw through the veneer of Hitler's nationalistic pride to the true evil lurking below. Along with her brother Hans and a friend she was put to death for printing and distributing leaflets calling for the peaceful resistance of the Nazi madness. On February 22, 1943 they were convicted and a few hours later beheaded at Munich's Stadelheim Prison.

The movie is all in German with English subtitles. There is a lengthy and somewhat tedious interrogation... but I suppose that is realistic. The most interesting aspects of the film for me were Sophie's tenacious grip on the truth regarding the evil of the Third Reich and her firm faith in God. The prison pastor's blessing just before her execution was powerful and very Christ centered.

The movie made me think about the evils of my culture. Am I truly aware of them, and am I doing anything about them?