Shade Tree Wisdom 5/8/15

Shade Tree Wisdom 5/8/15

        Hymn 579 (LSB) reminds us:

“The law of God is good and wise,

And sets His will before our eyes.

Shows us the way of righteousness,

And dooms to death when we transgress.”

        We humans have an enormous capacity for evasion and self-deceit. We’re good at saying, “It wasn’t my fault”, are we not?

        That’s why the Bible offers us the prophets, major and minor, who have a way setting us straight. The culture we live in , its assumptions, its values, its methods of going about its work, are never on the side of God. And the prophets help us see this.

        For somewhere along the line we developed the habit of separating our spiritual life from our real life. And the prophets will have none this, for they point out that God is in all of our life, at work, at play as well as when we go to church.

        Prophets were not popular figures, for they pointed out truths and failings that people wanted to hide, or had gotten so used to they never noticed their sin any longer.. One prophet said “Neither could they blush”. It was that bad.

        And our day shows little or no improvement. Read the prophets, and heed their God-inspired Word for benefit and blessing.

May God bless the reading, and the meditation. Remember too,

“To Jesus we for refuge flee,

Who from the curse as set us free.

And humbly worship at His throne,

Saved by His grace through faith alone.”

(LSB 579,6)

GPD 5/8/15