This is the second half of the email that I received from Anne that she requested I post. Here’s part 1. Remember, play nice!
Thank you, kirnhorner2001, Adam Roe, and Dan at Necessary Roughness for your words of encouragement to my brother, Frank.
Frank on 03/08/08, posted the notice of my husband’s death; Frank said that my husband he had earned the right to rest after years of being sick. It was well into the wee hours of the morning after a long night of waiting for the last breath, and my brother misspoke. It was, of course, Christ who bestowed the right to rest on him via his sacrifice.
If works could buy our way to Glory, however, this man of mine would enter because of his simple faith in God. He was longsuffering, never complained when his life was filled with pain and suffering and discouragement. He showered the world with random acts of kindness and pointed people to live Godly lives through the gracious Godly way he traveled his road. The world was a better place for this man having been here. He was a loving father, a beloved husband and a faithful man of God.
LongEyeMoose - You said that Lutherans communicate their love for Christ through vocation, not by singing love songs.
Have you read the Psalms, dear friend? Have you not seen the admonitions to lift up to the Lord a joyful noise? To lift up Holy hands? To enter into his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise?
Jonathan Edwards wrote, “The things of religion are so great, that there can be no suitableness in the exercises of our hearts, to their nature and importance, unless they be lively and powerful. In nothing is vigor in the actings of our inclinations so requisite, as in religion, and in nothing is lukewarmness so odious.”
I refer you to 1 Cor 13:3. “…if I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, and have not love, I gain nothing.”
John Piper has written: “One thing is for sure, love cannot be equated with sacrificial action. …This is a powerful antidote to the common teaching that love is not what you feel, but what you do. The good of this popular teaching is the twofold intention to show (1) that mere warm feelings can never replace actual deeds of love (James 2:16, 1 John 3:18) and 2) that efforts of love must be made even in the absence of the joy that one might wish were present. But it is careless and inaccurate to support these 2 truths by saying that love is simply what you do, and not what you feel. …..a definition of love that takes God into account and also includes the feelings that should accompany the outward acts of love: love is the overflow of joy that gladly meets the needs of others. ….That is why a person can give his body to be burned and not have love. Love is the overflow of joy – IN GOD! It is not duty for duty’s sake or right for right’s sake. …It is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God’s grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person.“
Piper in his book, Desiring God, states that “the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying him forever… now it becomes clear why it is not idolatrous and man-centered to say that our emotions are ends in themselves. It is not man-centered because the emotions of our worship are centered on God. We look away from ourselves to Him, and only then do the manifold emotions of our heart erupt in worship….He alone can satisfy the heart’s longing to be happy…..”
So LongEyeMoose , allow me to put forth to you that Jesus, the lover of our souls, desires for all of us to be in His Presence, to worship Him in spirit and in truth. If I cannot be permitted to bring forth the joy and gladness in my heart in worship, I suggest that I am no more than a lukewarm Christian that Jesus would spit out of his mouth in disgust. I refer you to Revelation 3:15,16 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”
So yes, I am emotional in worship. And I do not believe I am deceived. I offer true and living worship to the King of the Universe, with every breath in me.
Hymnody, or P&W is not the issue, by the way, I believe that the condition of our hearts and the willingness to be open to hearing what God would speak to us in worship and in the reading of His Word and in the preaching of the Word is also of paramount importance, in addition to offering our sacrifice of praise to Him.
Well, my friends in Christ in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, I do appreciate your indulgence in hearing me out. I pray God’s blessings on you, and His joy.
Thank you for praying for me and my family and for Frank as he ministered to us in the homegoing of my husband. I do appreciate it.
Yours in Christ,
Anne
Showing posts with label Anne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Anne. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
Anne’s First Post
Here’s the first of two guest posts penned by Anne. Regular readers have known of her for sometime (years!) even if they didn’t know her by name. I’ve written about her and I on numerous occasions concerning the difficulty we’ve had communicating as an evangelical and a Lutheran, her being the former and me being the latter. She and I once argued and talked past each other for six years straight over what the word worship meant.
She is more than a friend, I consider her to be a member of my family. She’s my big, and a tad bit saner, sister and I love her dearly. I’ll let her tell ya’ll more….I hope you enjoy her post and it is my sincere hope (and Anne’s as well) that a good discussion will follow.
Hi, my name is Anne. I am the friend to whom Frank from the Haut South referred many times in March. My husband died about six weeks ago, and Frank came to be with us during that difficult time.
I have wanted for some time to respond to some of the posts he made, but I have been unable to until now due to my grief. . I would ask for your indulgence as I feel the need to do so now.
First of all I want to talk about encouragement.
I have, as Frank said, know him for a long, long time. I first met Frank when he was a teenager and I was his advisor in youth group at a Lutheran Church. (LCA now ELCA) A Lutheran church that, I am sad to say, was about cover dish suppers and sermons from the book “Everything I needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” It was humanistic and the Word of God was missing. There was no practical understanding of what it means to have Christ as a daily guiding Presence in one’s life. There was no movement of the Holy Spirit. I could probably still sing all of the liturgy from the green hymnal, but I had no understanding of the Word and no help in learning about it.
It was in this environment that I met a lonely, lost, awkward, frightened, (though he would never admit it) young man. He did not fit in well with the crowd, and prided himself on that, attempting to carry himself through the day with sarcasm and being different. His favorite hobby was spending time in the swamp near his home…
Perhaps I divulge too much of my friend. But I do have a point. Throughout scripture we find places where we are told to protect the weak. To encourage and defend them. We have in Barnabas an example of a man who was known for being an encourager.
I don’t know what it was about Frank, but I always, even in the absence of good biblical understanding, felt the desire and need to believe in this young man. I saw potential and hope in a person who by some might have been shunned or written off. And there is a lesson here. I never gave up on the hope and belief that God had a plan for him, and that he would be okay.
The paths that God had for Frank and I were different. God brought Frank to Him and has sustained him in the comfort and security of the liturgy and the creeds and the confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
My path took me from the Lutheran church in a different direction, Yes, I am one of those Evangelicals.
Speaking of encouragement, My husband was such an encourager for me. From the time I was in high school, he was the first one who saw more potential in me than I saw in myself. He believed in me and encouraged me - always. Years later I married him, and from that first day, he was my best cheer leader…..
He is now with the Lord. But I still hold dear the memory and strength of his encouragement.
So my first point is from Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We must see people as Christ sees them. Some are brothers and sisters in Christ, some are prisoners of the enemy, and some are just lost and need to be shown the way. I thank God for having given me the opportunity to be an encourager in Frank’s life. I am proud and thankful that he has become such a strong faithful man of God. And I thank God for my husband, a man who believed in me, and helped to guide my way. And, I am thankful that my brother Frank, above all else, came to my rescue and guided me through the most difficult of times.
Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Secondly, by way of educating about kidney failure, the average time someone will be able to live on dialysis is 5 years. My husband was on it for 3 years. He was not well past the average lifespan. But it was 3 years he would not have had if he had not done dialysis, and that time allowed him to attend one son’s wedding, see another through college and meet his fiancé, and get a 3rd and last one off to college. I thank God for that time, and for my husband’s bravery.
Frank alluded to “My Song is Love Unknown.”
One verse speaks of the Lord’s grief. It says “Never was Grief like Thine.” So true. When I hold Lent in my heart, I ponder not only the scorn, the physical torture, the weight of the sin of mankind on Christ, but the pain and grief He must have known when he was separated from the Presence of God. Never do we ever, thanks to Christ, have to be separated from the love of God. And never do we have to be separated from His presence. Because God could not look on our sin laid on his precious son, He bore a much greater additional burden. He who was God, who created the world with God, who with the Holy Spirit and the Father made up the trinity that is God, He alone sent time separated from God. He was Glory, came from Glory, and for that horrible time found that God had to abandon him to do the work of saving your soul and mine ALONE.That is love unknown and incomprehensible.
In the next post Anne will address specific comments left by both readers and myself last month.
She is more than a friend, I consider her to be a member of my family. She’s my big, and a tad bit saner, sister and I love her dearly. I’ll let her tell ya’ll more….I hope you enjoy her post and it is my sincere hope (and Anne’s as well) that a good discussion will follow.
Hi, my name is Anne. I am the friend to whom Frank from the Haut South referred many times in March. My husband died about six weeks ago, and Frank came to be with us during that difficult time.
I have wanted for some time to respond to some of the posts he made, but I have been unable to until now due to my grief. . I would ask for your indulgence as I feel the need to do so now.
First of all I want to talk about encouragement.
I have, as Frank said, know him for a long, long time. I first met Frank when he was a teenager and I was his advisor in youth group at a Lutheran Church. (LCA now ELCA) A Lutheran church that, I am sad to say, was about cover dish suppers and sermons from the book “Everything I needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” It was humanistic and the Word of God was missing. There was no practical understanding of what it means to have Christ as a daily guiding Presence in one’s life. There was no movement of the Holy Spirit. I could probably still sing all of the liturgy from the green hymnal, but I had no understanding of the Word and no help in learning about it.
It was in this environment that I met a lonely, lost, awkward, frightened, (though he would never admit it) young man. He did not fit in well with the crowd, and prided himself on that, attempting to carry himself through the day with sarcasm and being different. His favorite hobby was spending time in the swamp near his home…
Perhaps I divulge too much of my friend. But I do have a point. Throughout scripture we find places where we are told to protect the weak. To encourage and defend them. We have in Barnabas an example of a man who was known for being an encourager.
I don’t know what it was about Frank, but I always, even in the absence of good biblical understanding, felt the desire and need to believe in this young man. I saw potential and hope in a person who by some might have been shunned or written off. And there is a lesson here. I never gave up on the hope and belief that God had a plan for him, and that he would be okay.
The paths that God had for Frank and I were different. God brought Frank to Him and has sustained him in the comfort and security of the liturgy and the creeds and the confession of faith in Jesus Christ.
My path took me from the Lutheran church in a different direction, Yes, I am one of those Evangelicals.
Speaking of encouragement, My husband was such an encourager for me. From the time I was in high school, he was the first one who saw more potential in me than I saw in myself. He believed in me and encouraged me - always. Years later I married him, and from that first day, he was my best cheer leader…..
He is now with the Lord. But I still hold dear the memory and strength of his encouragement.
So my first point is from Hebrews 10:25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
We must see people as Christ sees them. Some are brothers and sisters in Christ, some are prisoners of the enemy, and some are just lost and need to be shown the way. I thank God for having given me the opportunity to be an encourager in Frank’s life. I am proud and thankful that he has become such a strong faithful man of God. And I thank God for my husband, a man who believed in me, and helped to guide my way. And, I am thankful that my brother Frank, above all else, came to my rescue and guided me through the most difficult of times.
Ephesians 4:29 Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Secondly, by way of educating about kidney failure, the average time someone will be able to live on dialysis is 5 years. My husband was on it for 3 years. He was not well past the average lifespan. But it was 3 years he would not have had if he had not done dialysis, and that time allowed him to attend one son’s wedding, see another through college and meet his fiancé, and get a 3rd and last one off to college. I thank God for that time, and for my husband’s bravery.
Frank alluded to “My Song is Love Unknown.”
One verse speaks of the Lord’s grief. It says “Never was Grief like Thine.” So true. When I hold Lent in my heart, I ponder not only the scorn, the physical torture, the weight of the sin of mankind on Christ, but the pain and grief He must have known when he was separated from the Presence of God. Never do we ever, thanks to Christ, have to be separated from the love of God. And never do we have to be separated from His presence. Because God could not look on our sin laid on his precious son, He bore a much greater additional burden. He who was God, who created the world with God, who with the Holy Spirit and the Father made up the trinity that is God, He alone sent time separated from God. He was Glory, came from Glory, and for that horrible time found that God had to abandon him to do the work of saving your soul and mine ALONE.That is love unknown and incomprehensible.
In the next post Anne will address specific comments left by both readers and myself last month.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
What I Learned At An Evangelical Wake
Les’s wake was held last night. There where some rough parts with family members angry about who might be included in the receiving line. But the evening ended about as well as it possibly could.
The one odd thing that struck me occurred after the viewing was over and only Anne, the kids and their wives or girlfriends, two or three members of Anne’s church, and myself remained. Their Pastor read a little bit of scripture and led the bunch of us in a prayer that was longer than most Lutheran sermons these days.
And then, the odd thingy, they broke out singing their favorite hymnody. And not just singing the melody but these folks were singing harmony as well. And unlike what I usually hear in many Lutheran churches today, they sang joyfully. I swear the ten of them sang louder and clearer and with more joy than even my own congregation is capable of at a midweek service.
I believe that most Lutherans would be put to shame if asked to sing ten entire hymns without their hymnals and sing them well or even in parts. With such a rich tradition in hymnody it would stand to reason that most Lutherans should at least be able to keep up with ten evangelicals, but that just sadly isn’t the case.
We certainly differ theologically with most evangelicals in America today, but one thing I think is clear, they love Jesus and are better about communicating that than most of us.
The one odd thing that struck me occurred after the viewing was over and only Anne, the kids and their wives or girlfriends, two or three members of Anne’s church, and myself remained. Their Pastor read a little bit of scripture and led the bunch of us in a prayer that was longer than most Lutheran sermons these days.
And then, the odd thingy, they broke out singing their favorite hymnody. And not just singing the melody but these folks were singing harmony as well. And unlike what I usually hear in many Lutheran churches today, they sang joyfully. I swear the ten of them sang louder and clearer and with more joy than even my own congregation is capable of at a midweek service.
I believe that most Lutherans would be put to shame if asked to sing ten entire hymns without their hymnals and sing them well or even in parts. With such a rich tradition in hymnody it would stand to reason that most Lutherans should at least be able to keep up with ten evangelicals, but that just sadly isn’t the case.
We certainly differ theologically with most evangelicals in America today, but one thing I think is clear, they love Jesus and are better about communicating that than most of us.
Monday, March 10, 2008
So, You Want Me To Cry?
So, you want me to cry do you? Well, here’s how you do it; just tell me and your children that you would like it if I could be introduced as your brother to everybody at the wake and memorial service of your husband. That should definitely accomplish the mission. My friends really deserve better friends than me.
Sunday, March 09, 2008
A Quick Update
My dear friend Anne and I were able to take some time this morning and do a short devotion. I had asked her the Saturday night if she would object to Matins and she thought that it would be nice. It’s too bad that I couldn’t find my stupid hymnal. I normally keep one in my truck just for giggles but when I went out there it was nowhere to be found.So I just ended up putting something together out of the Pastoral Care Companion that I’d been using since I’d arrived. She added two or three Psalms after I was finished with my bit and I found a little peace hearing the Word on the Lord’s Day. With all that was going on, being mobbed by well intentioned people who would just want to wish the family well just wasn’t something to look forward to. A Matins-lite devotion just hit the spot.
Regarding the Pastoral Care Companion , what a terrific resource that little book is. I had used it when I was “up” with Les his last two nights. Through the tears and a bit of blubbering I chanted many of the Psalms and read all I could until I was no longer able to focus on the text because of the lack of sleep. It was invaluable to me in the respect that it focused my attention on God’s word and not where I would veer off to given my attention span.
The picture in the post is serious proof that I’m definitely not in the huat south this week. All that snow came down on my truck in only one night. Anne has informed me, in very clear terms that “I’ll take you "out" if you go outside one… more… time in your shorts and without anything on your feet". Frankly, I’ve just been having fun playing Hobbit.
Saturday, March 08, 2008
A Saint Called Home
Leslie died in Christ at 1:10 this morning. He leaves behind his wife of twenty-five years Anne and three children Christopher, David, and Jonathon. In addition, he is also survived by a daughter Cricket from a previous marriage and three sisters Dorothy, Linda, and Judith.
These folks have been my friends for thirty two years. Les and Anne are second only to my wife in helping me find my way back to the Church. They are my family in every sense of the word.
While we differed in our theological tradition, Les understood and confessed his faith in the atoning work of Christ. Based on that confession, there is no doubt that he rests with the Lord. After years of being very sick, he’s earned the right to rest before the last day when we are all given our new bodies, made perfect for eternity.
I will miss him very, very, much. But this world of needles, sickness, pain and suffering thankfully didn’t last long. As Dan over at Necessary Roughness likes to say, put another one in the win column.
Please keep Anne and the kids in your constant prayers.
These folks have been my friends for thirty two years. Les and Anne are second only to my wife in helping me find my way back to the Church. They are my family in every sense of the word.
While we differed in our theological tradition, Les understood and confessed his faith in the atoning work of Christ. Based on that confession, there is no doubt that he rests with the Lord. After years of being very sick, he’s earned the right to rest before the last day when we are all given our new bodies, made perfect for eternity.
I will miss him very, very, much. But this world of needles, sickness, pain and suffering thankfully didn’t last long. As Dan over at Necessary Roughness likes to say, put another one in the win column.
Please keep Anne and the kids in your constant prayers.
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Bad News
I received some bad news last night. My dear friend Anne called me to say that I needed to move up my arrival to visit Les as he was no longer responding to dialysis treatments for kidney failure. I drove all night long to be there for my friends. thirteen hours in a car just ain't fun anymore.
Needless to say I’m about exhausted. Please keep the whole family in your prayers, they’ll surely need it over the next few days. I still don’t know what to say to or for them though. Right now I'm just listening to whichever one of them that wants to talk. Maybe that’s the point and I need not follow the advice of Job’s friends who while well intentioned, proved that running one’s mouth isn't always the best way to comfort someone.
Needless to say I’m about exhausted. Please keep the whole family in your prayers, they’ll surely need it over the next few days. I still don’t know what to say to or for them though. Right now I'm just listening to whichever one of them that wants to talk. Maybe that’s the point and I need not follow the advice of Job’s friends who while well intentioned, proved that running one’s mouth isn't always the best way to comfort someone.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
Unexpected Phone Calls, Sorrow, And The Comfort Of Lenten Hymnody
My morning started off very, very badly. About fifteen minutes before I was to leave for church I received a phone call from my oldest friend, Anne. She was calling me to request my presence when her husband comes home from the hospital to die. Anne’s husband Les has been on dialysis for kidney failure for many years now and he’s well past the average time that most people with his condition survive. Simply put, Les is at the point where the dialysis no longer does what it is supposed to. In six days he will come home for the last time to die with his family. Anne and Les consider me to be the not so sane younger brother, their three children all call me Uncle Frank, and for this reason, because I’m considered family, I too will be there at his passing.
This is not the way I expected my Sunday to start. Who knew? Not me I assure you. So needless to say I went off to church not in the right frame of mind. Fortunately, God’s gifts through His promised means of grace are not dependent on me being in the right frame of mind. The preached Word does what it does in spite of my emotional state whether it be distressed and cheerless or joyful, it makes no difference. Thankfully the Word of the Lord is not subjective but rather objective and alive and active. The comfort of God’s undeserved gift of grace through faith in Christ preached purely did what it was intended to, it comforted me.
And the closing hymn comforted me as well. I’ve written at length about my love of Lenten hymnody because of the focus on Christ’s passion and his journey to Jerusalem to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for all poor miserable sinners, like me and the rest of the planet. Our closing hymn was My Song Is Love Unknown by Samuel Crossman, written in 1664 was found on page 430 of our hymnal, LSB.
My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me; Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, that for my sake My Lord should take frail flesh and die?
He came from His blest throne Salvation to bestow; But men made strange, and none The longed-for Christ would know: But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed, Who at my need His life did spend!
Sometimes they strew His way, And His sweet praises sing; Resounding all the day Hosannas to their King: Then “Crucify!” is all their breath, And for His death they thirst and cry.
Why, what hath my Lord done? What makes this rage and spite? He made the lame to run, He gave the blind their sight, Sweet injuries! Yet they at these Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.
They rise and needs will have My dear Lord made away; A murderer they save, The Prince of life they slay, Yet cheerful He to suffering goes, That He His foes from thence might free.
In life, no house, no home My Lord on earth might have; In death no friendly tomb But what a stranger gave. What may I say? Heav’n was His home; But mine the tomb wherein He lay.
Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine; Never was love, dear King! Never was grief like Thine. This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.
What a beautiful confession it is that repeats back in song the very story that is the good news for a fallen world. This Lenten hymn comforted me every bit as much as the reading of this morning's Scripture readings. I pray that I’m in some way able to share that same comfort that I sung this morning very soon with those I love dearly.
Please keep Anne and Les, my oldest friends, in your prayers.
This is not the way I expected my Sunday to start. Who knew? Not me I assure you. So needless to say I went off to church not in the right frame of mind. Fortunately, God’s gifts through His promised means of grace are not dependent on me being in the right frame of mind. The preached Word does what it does in spite of my emotional state whether it be distressed and cheerless or joyful, it makes no difference. Thankfully the Word of the Lord is not subjective but rather objective and alive and active. The comfort of God’s undeserved gift of grace through faith in Christ preached purely did what it was intended to, it comforted me.
And the closing hymn comforted me as well. I’ve written at length about my love of Lenten hymnody because of the focus on Christ’s passion and his journey to Jerusalem to offer Himself up as a sacrifice for all poor miserable sinners, like me and the rest of the planet. Our closing hymn was My Song Is Love Unknown by Samuel Crossman, written in 1664 was found on page 430 of our hymnal, LSB.
My song is love unknown, My Savior’s love to me; Love to the loveless shown, That they might lovely be. O who am I, that for my sake My Lord should take frail flesh and die?
He came from His blest throne Salvation to bestow; But men made strange, and none The longed-for Christ would know: But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed, Who at my need His life did spend!
Sometimes they strew His way, And His sweet praises sing; Resounding all the day Hosannas to their King: Then “Crucify!” is all their breath, And for His death they thirst and cry.
Why, what hath my Lord done? What makes this rage and spite? He made the lame to run, He gave the blind their sight, Sweet injuries! Yet they at these Themselves displease, and ’gainst Him rise.
They rise and needs will have My dear Lord made away; A murderer they save, The Prince of life they slay, Yet cheerful He to suffering goes, That He His foes from thence might free.
In life, no house, no home My Lord on earth might have; In death no friendly tomb But what a stranger gave. What may I say? Heav’n was His home; But mine the tomb wherein He lay.
Here might I stay and sing, No story so divine; Never was love, dear King! Never was grief like Thine. This is my Friend, in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.
What a beautiful confession it is that repeats back in song the very story that is the good news for a fallen world. This Lenten hymn comforted me every bit as much as the reading of this morning's Scripture readings. I pray that I’m in some way able to share that same comfort that I sung this morning very soon with those I love dearly.
Please keep Anne and Les, my oldest friends, in your prayers.
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