I have now been in the Fort for 2 weeks. Most of my time has been taking care of my daughters until summer Greek starts on June 12th. We are hoping to get into our house on June 3rd, but it is looking like June 4th is the day we will finally take possession.

We attended Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in Garrett, IN. They had a Sunday School at 8:45 followed by Service at 10. We thoroughly enjoyed both and meeting the people from the church. Pastor Jeff Horn is a good servant of God and his message was solid.

Thirty-years ago on this date, I was confirmed in my faith at Christ Lutheran Church in Eagan, MN. Today, I heard from Concordia Theological Seminary and I was accepted.

Today is in effect my new Confirmation day. Wow! when I think back at the beginning of all this I can't believe that we are finally at the finality of it all. This will change my whole life.

For many young people this next couple of weeks will be a time of reaffirmation of faith. They will tell everyone in their confirmation that they believe in one-baptism for the remission of sins. That is what Confirmation is all about, giving affirmation that you now believe that your baptism was done by God. That through his word and the water you were saved (1 Ptr 3:22)

I know that I have much to learn at sem. Satan doesn't want me there and he will do all he can to disrupt my learning process. But I have an ace in the hole. I have Jesus Christ the Son of God on my side. I ask all who read this to pray everyday that God will give me strength that day to get through whatever obstacles Satan tries to put in my way. Pray that God will open my ears to learn, but at the same to measure what I hear against his word.

Soli Deo Gloria

DEBT FREE for the time being.

All my adult life I have been in and out of debt. My most recent step out of it was just last week. We sold our house and moved into a hotel for a few weeks. The equity we made on the sale has gone to pay off the credit cards, overdraft protection, my wife's vehicle, and my mother who gave us a loan a couple of years ago to try to get out then, but due to some financial pressures we got back in trouble right away again.

This time we intend to stay out. I have all the best intentions, but my intentions are really not very good considering my past history. Everytime I go into something with good intentions it always fails. That is why I am glad that God does not look at my intentions for saving me. He sent his son to die so that I don't have to rely on my intentions to save me. Where my intentions are good, my will gets in the way and subverts my intentions. But Jesus died for me despite my intent and will.

Only with God's help can we expect to stay on top of our spending habits. We can't rely on our good intent to keep us out of debt. Sooner or later we will fail on our intentions if we allow our will to do what it pleases.

Luther's small catechism says it best when explaining the third article of the Apostle's creed

I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, my Lord, or come to Him; but the Holy Ghost has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with His gifts, sanctified and kept me in the true faith; even as He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith; in which Christian Church He forgives daily and richly all sins to me and all believers, and at the last day will raise up me and all the dead, and will give to me and to all believers in Christ everlasting life. This is most certainly true.

I think this says a lot about how we can't do it without him. We need him for everything.
Don't rely on your intentions even when they are good ones. You will fail and that is guaranteed. Rely instead on Christ.

Proverbs 3:5-6 say: 5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Moving out of a house is physically and mentally exhausting!
The last few days my wife and I have been packing all our belongings in a big trailer and throwing out almost as much as we packed. We are now testing our family resolve in a small hotel room for the next few weeks. If we can live in a 150 sq foot hotel room for that long we will be able to stand the test of seminary life.

I pray that God will bring a job to my wife so that we can move soon.

Amen!

Tagged by Dan the Protoevangel on the Bible Meme

1) How many Bibles in your home?

Well we are packing things away, but I would say 6 or 7.

2) What rooms are they in?

Well right now I have two in my truck and one in a box in the basement and the rest are packed away ready for our move.

3) What translations do you have?

Mostly NIV, but I do have my Baptismal bible which is a KJV.

4) Do you have a preference?

Actually I would like to pick up an ESV and a Becks if they are still around.

5) Nominate an interesting verse.

That is tough because I have a whole bunch of favorites

I think the one that intrigues me most is Galations 2:20 which reads

20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Equally intriguing is the next verse: 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

these two verses explain how the life we live now is totally because of Christ in us and that Grace trumps law.

I learned this verse about 20 years ago when I was going through an identity crisis. It helped identify with Christ as my Lord and savior. Now I pass it on.


I tag SandraO of Madre's Missives

Up to this point I have been blogging primarily about the process that we (my family and me) have been going through in selling our home and the direction that God is guiding us and especially me towards the seminary.

I will still blog occasionally on this, but I am going to direct my blogs toward sharing God's word with people who may come to read my blog.


One of the things I was able to pick up at the bookstore on the campus of CTS was a new edition of Luther's Small Catechism. One of the areas that I have been drawn to is the section on "Daily Prayers". Each time that I went to Chapel during my visit, depending on the time of day, we said the Daily Prayer for that time. The morning prayer goes like this.

I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ,
Your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm
and danger; and I pray that you keep me this day
also from every sin and evil, that all my doings and life
may please you. For into Your Hand I commend myself,
my body and soul and all things. Let your Holy angel be with
me, that the evil foe may have no power over me. Amen

The Evening Prayer is similar to the Morning Prayer

I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ,
Your dear Son, that You have graciously kept me this day;
and I pray that You will forgive me all my sins where I have
done wrong, and graciously keep me this night.
For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and
all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may
have no power over me. Amen.

Luther gives these prayers to us (men/father's particularly) to teach our children.


Being that I am Lutheran, I grew up with this table prayer:

Come Lord Jesus, be our guest and let these gifts to us be blest, Amen.

Luther's Small Catechism has us learning this prayer instead

Lord God, heavenly Father, bless us and these your gifts which we receive
from Your bountiful goodness, through Jesus Christ , our Lord. Amen.

Sounds like the prayer that my Roman Catholic friends grew up saying. Of course they crossed themselves before and after the prayer. Over the past few years, I have taken to crossing myself in the name of the Triune God. With the sign of the cross I am reminded of what was done for me on the Cross by Christ and then I also am reminded of one God existing in three persons.

Crossing oneself is not a requirement it is an adiaphoron (ah dee ah fron) the root of this word is "Adiaphora" and it mean something that is neither commanded, nor forbidden by scripture.

Also praying does not mean that we have to recite a specific prayer, but if you look at these prayers you will see the model of the Lord's prayer being used. You can pray these prayers or you can just pray to God ex corde' (from the heart) but at all costs Pray!

GOD'S TIMING IS PERFECT!!

Back in September, my wife and I put our house on the market. My wife had lost her job due to a bout with pneumonia and having been employed for less than a year she was not protected by the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA). She had wanted to be a stay at home mother and so her heart was not in going back anyways.

We realized that because we didn't have her income any longer that we would not be able to afford the mortgage payments on our house any longer. So we borrowed some money from her parents and got our house fixed up to sell. We officially put our home on the market in September which is now 6 plus months ago. This was about the same time that the housing market went down.

We had many showings, but no one was buying. We didn't understand why God wasn't sending us a buyer. In October, our church had some guests from LCMS World Missions. The presentation on Missions was very compelling and we thought about and then applied to be career missionaries. We were excited about the prospect of living in another country and being God's instruments of the Word to those who need to hear it. LCMS World Missions told us that it would be after the beginning of the year before we would hear anything as the missions need to send in their budgetary needs before anyone would be placed. So we waited...

While we waited for a call I began considering other alternatives. I considered that when we got our call that we would do this for 5 years and then come back and I would be ready to go into the seminary. I didn't hear anything from LCMS World Missions that was pointing us in any direction so I began looking into the qualifications of getting into the Seminary. I filled out my application as did those who were my references. I set up my District interview and signed up for the Spring Invitational Campus visit at Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Here is where God's timing becomes clear. My wife had been talking with a real estate agent down in Fort Wayne to line up some showings of homes for us while we were there. We started out on Tuesday night from St. Paul, Minnesota and drove to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and stay overnight at my sister's place. The next morning we took off from her house and arrived in Fort Wayne at 5:00 EST. I went into the admissions office to register me and my family for the event and they said that we had a message to call our real estate agent. I thought they were talking about the one my wife had contacted in Fort Wayne, but they added the words "you have an offer on your house." Right then I knew that it was our real estate agent Elaine in Minnesota that had left the message.

We received the purchase agreement by fax and signed and initialed where needed and re-faxed back.

I saw this as God's perfect timing as this couldn't have been staged any better. We now have two-and-a-half weeks to have a Garage sale, pack and close on the house. My prayer now is that God gives me the strength.

This was an answer to prayer that my wife and I had looked for over six months to receive and he chose the time and place for it to happen. The rest of that week was just as fantastic and further confirmed the direction he has me traveling. Further proof that God answers prayers in the affirmative.