To excuse what can really produce good excuses is not Christian charity; it is only fairness. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.
– CS Lewis
A prayer from Johann Gerhard:
How great the thanks I owe to You, highest God, that in the most sacred mystery of the supper, You feed me with the body and blood of Your Son! What in heaven or on earth is more precious and excellent than this divine body, personally united with Your Son? Where is there a more certain testimony and pledge of Your grace than in the precious blood of You Son, poured out for my sins on the altar of the cross? This, the very price of my redemption, You give me as the firmest testimony of Your grace toward me…Therefore I approach this heavenly meal with true faith, most firmly convinced that the body which I eat, is the one given for me unto death; that the blood which I drink, is the blood shed for my sins. From now on I cannot doubt concerning the forgiveness of sins, since it is affirmed by my partaking of the price which was offered for my sins, the very blood of Christ…Praise, honor, and thanksgiving to You, O kindest Savior, forever, Amen.
Read and comment: If I have brought you to the point of being a Christian, I have thereby also brought you to Confession.
What blessings do we enjoy as citizens with God’s people and members of his household?
How does God show himself as the Holy One in the Old Testament?
God the Father created all things out of nothing. The out of nothing is important. It is so important that I will give you the Latin phrase. Ex nihilo means out of nothing. Now you know some Latin. Go impress your friends.
What is an idol?
[At the deathbed]
He distributed the bread. Dividing one of the wafers made enough for all. Then he gave the cup. It was then that Johannes [the man who was dying] suddenly began to speak in a strangely distant voice.
“Listen! Don’t you hear the organ tones? I hear the rush of white wings. I hear the sound of many waters. Now Johannes is sitting in Ravelunda church, and never before has the organist played like this. I hear them singing, ‘Holy, holy, holy,, Lord God of Sabaoth. Heaven and earth are full of his glory.’ On the altar the Lord’s chalice shines like fire. But the wall is of crystal and the church without a roof, and the angels of heaven ascend and descend. They bow before the chalice, they cover their faces. They say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.’ Now an archangel takes the cup in his hand. It is like pure fire. Now he comes toward me. Sparks fly from his fingers, he will burn me to death!”
Johannes laid one of his hands over his eyes as if to shield them from too bright a light. The other hand seemed to push something away. But then both hands fell. He became calm again, and his next words were whispered.
“You wanted only to cleanse me, Lord, to cleanse and redeem. You wanted only to save, and now your angel says, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away. Now you can behold the living God.'”
“He is delirious,” whispered the wife. “God keep his mind!”
“He is wiser than any of us,” Savonius answered somewhat abruptly. “Let us give thanks and pray!”
– Bo Giertz, from his novel The Hammer of God
Knowing that the true body and blood of Christ are present how does that change how we act in his presence?
Psalm 89; Matthew 27.62-66
Christus Pro Nobis 