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Second Thoughts About Living Together

I’m pleased to tell you about a new pamphlet from Concordia Publishing House created to help pastors and congregations deal with the situation of couples who are living together without marriage. It is extremely well done and covers in good summary fashion the teaching of Holy Scripture about marriage as well as providing responses to most of the commonly heard excuses for this sinful behavior. It is intended to be used by pastors with couples, but it would be a good idea to supply the entire congregation with this pamphlet, perhaps after studying it with the board of elders, so that all might know what the church’s position is on this issue. The author of this pamphlet was Rev. Matthew Harrison, who struggled with this issue in his parish ministry and prepared this pamphlet as a result.

Single copies are $1.75, but you may obtain this 32 page, 6×9 pamphlet for only 90 cents each when you order ten or more copies. Here is the product description from the CPH web site. Either place your order on the web, or call 800-325-3040.

Product Description

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. (Hebrews 13:4 ESV)

If there is one thing that all parish pastors have in common that proves time and again to be a persistent and vexing problem, it is the challenge of couples who present themselves for marriage but who are already living together.

In response to frequent requests for a concise, faithfully Biblical resource to help couples reflect on the issues raised by living together, and to help pastors minister in such situations, we have prepared the resource entitled Second Thoughts About Living Together.

This pamphlet is in a Question and Answer format. Some of the questions include

    * What is Marriage?
    * Who regulates marriage: Church or State?
    * What is the purpose of marriage?
    * What’s so important about a piece of paper?
    * What about so-called Common Law marriages?
    * Is living together such a great offense?

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What’s Wrong With Listening to Lewd Lyrics?

Martin Luther hits the nail squarely on the head, in his commentary on the Sixth Commandment in the Large Catechism. Oh, by the way, that new edition of the Book of Concord so many of you like…we didn’t produce it for people to use it as a trophy on the shelf, or a club to beat others over the head with in a game of, “I’m more confessional than you.” We produced it so that we all more easily would be able to use it and personally take it to heart. So…take this to heart.

Link: The Large Catechism — The Ten Commandments.

But because among us there is such a shameful mess and the very dregs of all vice and lewdness, this commandment is directed also against all manner of unchastity, whatever it may be called; and not only is the external act forbidden, but also every kind of cause, incitement, and means, so that the heart, the lips, and the whole body may be chaste and afford no opportunity, help, or persuasion to inchastity. And not only this, but that we also make resistance, afford protection and rescue wherever there is danger and need; and again, that we give help and counsel, so as to maintain our neighbor’s honor. For whenever you omit this when you could make resistance, or connive at it as if it did not concern you, you are as truly guilty as the one perpetrating the deed. Thus, to state it in the briefest manner, there is required this much, that every one both live chastely himself and help his neighbor do the same, so that God by this commandment wishes to hedge round about and protect [as with a rampart] every spouse that no one trespass against them.

Hear the Word of God, 1 Corinthians 6:

Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sina person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

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More on why Mac is best . . .

Link: Geek News Central Revealing Technical News and useful links.

Fully patched Windows XP SP2 machines are vulnerable to a new attack under way and there’s no known fix as yet. If you are a Internet Explorer user you will be infected by simply viewing a page that contains an image with this new exploit. If your a Firefox user you will be infected if you download the image. It is not clear whether viewing the picture in firefox constitutes downloading it.

This is very serious bug, and consumers are urged to not view websites that they do not trust completly. It is not known whether the exploit can attack a computer via e-mail. [www.theinquirer.net] More Info [sunbeltblog.blogspot.com]

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ELCA Bishop Green Lights “Gay” Blessings

And so it goes…you can have it both ways in the ELCA these days. To anyone who seriously thought, or still thinks, that what happened in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in Orlando was not another seismic lurch into oblivion for the ELCA, I say, “Wake up and smell the Brokeback Mountain Java.” An ELCA Bishop has made it clear she will approve same-sex blessings. What a wonderful way to celebrate our Lord’s Nativity. What else could one expect from a so-called “bishop” whose own occupation of the office of the holy ministry is itself both anti-apostolic and anti-biblical?

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Sometimes God Doesn’t Expand Your Territory

Remember Bruce Wilkinson of “Prayer of Jabez” infamy? The man who made a literal fortune peddling snake-oil theology? The man who made many actually believe that if they would repeat an obscure passage in the Old Testament God would give them miracles? Well, apparently, the mantra doesn’t always work. Wilkinson moved to Africa with a grand dream and left in a huff, leaving many in the lurch. You can read the story from the Wall Street Journal. Another grandiose, theology of glory, train wreck. Oh, by the way, the publishing company that pumped out this tripe, Multnomah, just about went bankrupt when it put all its eggs in the “Jabez” basket. They increased capacity, they purchased warehouses, and then the Jabez fad faded and they were left with unsold inventory and debt. That was an interesting fact that we didn’t hear much about either. We must be careful when people come along making grand promises and casting their effusive visions. Sadly, often these grand visions go down in flames. It never ceases to amaze me how American Evangelicalism goes in for this nonsense. It is a blight on the Gospel and bring the entire body of Christ into shame and disgrace in the eyes of the world.