Church Family

It is not just a fringe benefit, but a characteristic of being incorporated into the body of Christ - the Church as expressed in a local parish - that we live, suffer, and serve together, bearing with one another, knowing that each and all are weak, yet each and all are blessed and sustained from day to day in the sure and certain truth that God is our Father through Christ Jesus, Who laid down his life for us and took it up again so that He may be where we are with His grace and favor, and we may be where He is forever.

If you do not belong to a local Church where Christ crucified and risen is preached and taught without wavering and without incursions of worldly lines of thought (like, "be your own muse," and "it's up to you to make your life better"), then you are missing out.

Good heavens, be where the people of God are! Be with those who sing His praises! Be with those who know and acknowledge aloud they are creatures under the hand of God who have no hope apart from Him. More than that, be where Christ Jesus is even as He has come to be where you are.

You will certainly not be disappointed or ashamed.

Conquered Culture

Some people ask how it can be possible that a Christian listen to, and enjoy, Rock-and-Roll music, along with many other things that attend current culture, and still remain a Christian.

The answer is that these things, having been redeemed and sanctified by the blood of Christ, do not own the Christian. Rather the Christian owns them, and can enjoy them as these are all in servitude to the Christian. The Christian can enjoy them without resorting to the fleshly indulgence these sources might otherwise invite. Yet the Christian at times lacks discipline and must return to the waters of salvation as God gives grace to repent.

Arts of all kinds, foods of all kinds [including beer], music of all kinds, and the rants of fools who know neither God nor His mercy - these all belong to Christians who can enjoy the fruits of labor on the part of unbelievers while laughing at their scorn at the same time. It goes with being a part of that select group baptized into Christ Jesus over whom death and all kinds of accusations hold no sway whatsoever. They know where they are going and why. It has everything to do with the mercies of God in Christ Jesus.

At the same time, Christians are rightly enjoined to think of, and praise what is good, peaceable, and kind. They are to make use of all things to the benefit of their neighbor, without aiming to give offense. They are invited and inclined to boast not of strength, but of weakness. The same weakness their Savior shares when it comes to His dire enemies.
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A Potent Priesthood

Believers are given to state clearly and unequivocally the same things they have received through the Word.

Abiding in Christ Jesus they speak as the oracles of God: confessing Who Jesus is, namely our High Priest, our Atoning Sacrifice, crucified and risen from the dead, living to all eternity that He might bring all people to Himself, having made pardon for our transgressions, having won us over while we were yet dead in trespasses, calling us through the Gospel, declaring aloud by the Holy Spirit His works on our behalf, applying His merits and righteousness to us, raising us up from our filth, washing us in Holy Baptism, feeding us with His very body and blood, and carrying us over the Jordan of the grave into the promised land where there are many perfect abodes.

And this, beloved in the LORD, is a pinpoint target for the forces of darkness. From these words will arise both fear and attack on the part of the enemy. Yet from these will those who were once dead in trespasses and sin receive life, comfort, and pure joy.

"I shall not then," he says, "depart to prepare mansions for you. There are already enough there. There is no need to make new homes for my creation. But I go to prepare a place for you because of the sin that has mastery over you in order that those of you who are on the earth will be able to be mingled with the holy angels. Otherwise, the holy multitude of those above would never mingle with those [below] who were so defiled. But now, when I shall have accomplished the work of uniting the world below with that above — giving you a way of access to the city on high as well — I will return again at the time of regeneration and 'receive you with myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.'"

-Cyril of Alexandria

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