Quotations

On Chastity

August 27, 2010

God wills that the light of chastity shine in our entire body and all of our members. -Martin Chemnitz, Loci Theologici, Sixth Commandment

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Do you want a technician or a physician?

August 23, 2010

The practice of medicine has changed enormously because of technology. In his book Medicine and the Reign of Technology, Stanley Joel Reiser observes, So without realizing what has happened, the physician in the last two centuries has gradually relinquished his unsatisfactory attachment to subjective evidence—what the patient says—only to substitute at devotion to technological evidence—what [...]

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The Architect of the Body

August 21, 2010

Ephraim Syrus on tomorrow’s Gospel, Mk. 7.31-37: That Power Which may not be handled came down and clothed itself in members that may be touched; that the needy may draw near to Him, that in touching His manhood they may discern His Godhead. For that dumb man [whom the Lord healed] with the fingers of [...]

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Luther on the spiritual bond of the tongue

August 19, 2010

Christ heals the deaf mute (Mk. 7.31-37, Gospel for Trinity XII), loosing the bond of his tongue. Luther in his lectures on Genesis explains the spiritual bond on our tongues which keeps us from confessing sin: Thus these brothers of Joseph are not only troubled about the sin of which they were conscious—although they took [...]

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C.S. Lewis on the word “Dynamic” and the Stagnation Party

August 10, 2010

My colleague Rev’d Charles McClean and I often bemoan the description of various churchly events as containing “dynamic” worship, “dynamic” speakers, “dynamic” music, and the like. He shared with me this morning an excerpt from a letter of C.S. Lewis to his brother, March 22, 1940 (!) – apparently people have been troubling the world [...]

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The usefulness of psalms of despondency

July 27, 2010

A useful prayer, this psalm of despondency, because the life of faith is not a sustained, uninterrupted series of triumphs. –Patrick Henry Reardon on Psalm 44 in Christ in the Psalms

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LCMS President on unity in doctrine and life (third of three)

July 13, 2010

In the previous quotations, C.F.W. Walther, the first LCMS president, spoke about the dangers of disunity and the blessing of unity. In today’s quotation, Walther speaks about the Devil’s strategy: to sow disunity in the church: Satan knows all too well what kind of power the Church exercises when it is unity. It then not [...]

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LCMS President on unity in doctrine and life (second of three)

July 12, 2010

In the quotation I posted yesterday, C.F.W. Walther (the first LCMS president) talked about the disastrous effects of disunity. Here he speaks about the blessings of unity in the Church: Christian unity always produces a blessing. If the Church is one in doctrine and life, in faith and love, it shares its gifts and knowledge. [...]

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LCMS President on unity in doctrine and life (first of three)

July 11, 2010

The first LCMS President, that is: C.F.W. Walther. Timely as we head into the 2010 Synodical Convention: If Christians do not cultivate unity in doctrine and in life among themselves, they are misled by their flesh and blood, standing by peacefully as divisions arise and discord grows day by day. God did not give His [...]

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The only task of Christian theology

July 1, 2010

Kyrios Jesous Christos, “Jesus Christ is Lord.” This is the original confession of the church. With it the Christian faith once entered world history. To understand the sense of this confession ever more deeply is the great, yes, basically the only task of all Christian theology. To repeat this confession, to speak it in ever [...]

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