Then the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for Your servant is listening." -1 Samuel 3:10

God comes to you, stands in your presence, and speaks to you. Where does He do this? In Church, where His Word is preached and His benefits given bodily through ears, eyes, and mouth.

God comes to you, stands in your presence, and speaks to you. How does He do this? Through His called and ordained servants of the Word.

God comes to you, stands in your presence, and speaks to you. What does He say? Your name as it is comprehended in His Name through Holy Baptism, and His Name as it is your eternal salvation.

Since you were dead in trespasses and sin, He forgives your sin and leads you in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, not because His name is in need of polishing up, but because His name is holy.

Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ that He comes, stands in your midst, and speaks as He did to his servant Samuel, so that you may take hold of Him by faith and He abide in you to strengthen and sustain you at all times and in all places by His perfect work in Christ Jesus.
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And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

There is very little argument over how this verse of Holy Scripture is to be translated. Almost every English version translates it the same way. Among the most interesting is Young’s literal translation which reads, "and God saith, 'Let light be;' and light is."

This is the earliest attribution of speech to the Creator. It takes place on the First Day of Creation. In fact, besides creating all things out of nothing, this is the first act of God we are given to know by the Holy Spirit: He spoke. In His speaking, creation is subject to bring about precisely the very thing He speaks.

Both explicit and implicit in speech is a recipient, or one who hearkens. Hence it is part and parcel of the creation from the beginning that it is subject to a Speaker, or a Giver. Our experience bears out in multitudinous ways the fundamental reality that nothing happens without cause and effect. So too, we confess that the Word of God blesses and sustains the creation as we know it, even in its fallen state.

Also explicit in speech, cause, effect, and creation as we know it are male and female, a complimentary arrangement whereby new life comes into being by mutual correlation, through a mutual give and take characterized chiefly by love.

Also explicit and implicit in this first speaking (and every speaking from God thereafter), is love. The words, “Let there be light” have a clinical sound about them to our weak hearing, but we have the full, retrospective account of Holy Scripture to attest that God is love. Therefore every word that proceeds from His mouth is characterized by the same.

Note the voice of this first speaking. It is not a question. It is not a declarative or descriptive sentence. It is not an exclamation. Nor is it vocative. We would call it a command (or imperative), and yet it is a command that brings into being, not a command for something that already exists to behave a certain way.

It is characteristic of a man to say, “Look at what I did,” or “Look at what I can do.” To speak this way is quite often the entire aim of a man so that he might be praised for his abilities and skills. Here the Holy Spirit teaches a man to think and speak otherwise, and to say, “Look at what God has done.”

A reading of Holy Scripture will reinforce this truth over and over again, so that a man is continually drawn not to himself and his accomplishments, but first to God, in whom and through whom and to whom are all things.
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To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ....

Much is made of reaching across the aisle, making amends, setting matters at peace where once there was enmity, and rightly so. The enmity between God and man, as well as the apparent enmity between Jew and Gentile are all done away with, because Christ Jesus, who is God in human flesh, has made atonement for the sin of the world and is seated at the right hand of God, ready to come in glory to judge both the living and the dead.

The Apostle’s past, and well as the Gentile’s past, are just that: past. Abiding in Christ, both are mindful of the depths to which God has gone to reconcile all things. Both have the prophets and apostles who told before hand and bore eyewitness testimony to Christ’s life and love. Now it is a matter of being built up into Him while enduring tribulations in this life. This building up takes place not merely in platonic realms, but really and truly in body and soul.

The life and conduct of Christians, therefore, is one of peace and reconciliation with an eye not only to those within the Church but also those outside. It is not that we excuse or wink at sin, but deal with it through the unfathomable riches of Christ, which are not merely all things in heaven and on earth, but especially the fruits of His innocent suffering and death and his resurrection from the dead. These are preached and administered in the Church continually, as by faith the Church apprehends what is unseen while awaiting the Last Day.

Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.

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