11/22/1963

Today I would like to take a moment to remember a great author, Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis. He died November 22, 1963 after collapsing in his bedroom at 5:30pm and died a few minutes later. He is now buried in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church in Oxford.

Media coverage of his death was overshadowed by news of teh assassination of President John F. Kennedy which happened on the same day, as did the death of Aldous Huxly.

C. S. Lewis' feast day in the Anglican calendar is November 22

RIP C. S. Lewis

Something to go along with the last post

Should I Commune at Other Churches?
By: Pastor Aaron Koch

The answer to that question depends on the other church. If you're away from the area and are unable to commune here at Mt. Zion, you should seek out a church which believes and teaches and practices what we do. The only churches in this country which have committed themselves to doing so are the congregations of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod. We are not in fellowship with other Christian and Lutheran church bodies because of important differences in what we believe and teach.

You should only commune at a church that has the same teachings and beliefs as Mt. Zion does. To commune at a particular church means that you agree with what that church stands for, its doctrine. A Christian cannot commune at two different churches which do not agree in doctrine. You cannot be in fellowship both with falsehood and with the truth.

Therefore, you should not commune at a non-Missouri Synod Lutheran church or any church (even an LCMS one) which engages in or allows the existence of false teaching or practice in its midst, even if you think that false teaching is only a small matter. The fact is that no false teaching is a small matter, because it threatens the truth of the Gospel of Christ; just as you would regard even a little poison in your food to be a very dangerous thing.

This is not only a private matter between you and the Lord. By communing you are also uniting yourself with the others who commune with you and with the teaching that is proclaimed in that place. Receiving communion is a public act by which we proclaim the Lord's death until He comes (I Corinthians 11:26). May God grant all His churches to make this Gospel proclamation clearly and purely to His glory and the salvation of many!

Augustana XIV

"Our churches teach that no one should publicly teach in the Church, or administer the Sacraments, without a rightly ordered call."

Readers Edition notes- "When this article speaks of a rightly ordered call, it refers to the Church's historic practice of placing personally and theologically qualified men into the office of preaching and teaching the Gospel and administering the Sacraments. This is done by means of a formal, public, and official call from the Church to do so. When this article was presented, it was understood that a call into the preaching office would be confirmed and formally recognized by means of the apostolic rite of ordination (with prayer and the laying on of hands)

So why do I post that today, on Reformation Sunday? I post that because it is one of the first things that came to my mind during the church service I atended today. The Pastor of this LCMS congregation was out of town for a confirmation retreat. Unfortunately, this pastor had one of the members of the congregation the services instead of finding a pastor to fill in for him. So the congregation member basically was the "liturgist" (although there was really no recognizable liturgy) My principal who is not ordained gave the "message." Which goes against that whole preaching thing of AC XIV. The message itself wasn't very good, He brought in Luther, but no Cross or sacraments, basically no Christ. Then Communion; Surprisingly the statement was pretty good. Talking about how we receive His true Body and Blood with the Bread and the wine for forgiveness of sins. Unfortunately the non-ordained congregation member spoke the words of institution and was also the one who said the pretty weak absolution after confession. Yet, twenty of the twenty-four members of my choir communed. Even with these strictly non-Lutheran practices. Two of the people who did not commune were not LCMS although I am sure they would have been allowed to commune if they wished. Well that's all I really I am going to say about the service. Just about these actions that went against the confessions that I know my principal said that he would uphold, and the pastor who was not there said he would uphold.

Crux sola est nostra theologia!

Happy Reformation Sunday!

Pax Domini

Issues etc.

I had a wonderful opportunity last night to see a LIVE broadcast of ISSUES, ETC., a National Lutehran radio talk show. The topic was Praise and Worhsip Music. They took a few of the Top CCM songs and evaluated them. Dr. Leonard Payton gives some very good things to look for.

You can find the first hour here: http://worldwide.kfuo.org/kfuo/issues_etc6/Issues_Etc_Oct_15a.wma

and the second hour here:
http://worldwide.kfuo.org/kfuo/issues_etc6/Issues_Etc_Oct_15b.wma

Hymn Origins

Came across this discussion on one of my mailing lists, I thought I'd post it since it kind of ties in with something I will be posting later.(hopefully)

I would like to know about the origins or our Lutheran Hymns. What I would
really like to know is whether or not they were derived from music that
would have been classified as german beer drinking melodies?? I had a
discussion with another lutheran that goes to one of the large liberal
LCMS congregations here in the KC area and his argument to me was that
Luther would be turning over in his grave if he knew what we
(Confessionals) were doing in trying to preserve the traditional lutheran
worship. He basically compared my thinking to that of the Pharisees. He
said that the hymns in Luthers time were all beer drinking melodies and that
the reason for that was to bring it to the people in a language that they
would understand and that we should change with times so that we can
continue to bring it to the people in a language that they can
understand today.

Reply:
If you google "Martin Luther" and "bar tunes", you 'll find out the
scoop on this old rumor that Luther took beer drinking songs and made
them into hymns. What he did was write music with lines between the
measures and those lines are called "bars". Here's an example of an
article written by Gene Veith about that subject. There were several
when I did the search.

http://www.worldmag.com/articles/9831

The Confessions say that we retain the Mass -- Luther was not interested
in trashing the tradition (like liberals today). He was interested in
correcting the abuses which had come into being over the years (sale of
indulgences, masses for the dead etc.)



Christ Centered, Cross Focused

For Devout Teachers of the Gospel

Dear Lord God, bring blessedness and salvation to the holy church which is the kingdom of Christ. Send us faithful teachers who will reveal your name to the world and who proclaim that you are gracious and merciful, forgiving us our sins for the sake of your Son. He will grant us eternal life in order that all people may rely on your grace and mercy, call upon you, and give you praise and thanks. Abolish all human doctrines and let Christ alone be our King, ruling through his gospel and making us his servants. Amen

-From Luthers Prayers

Te Deum Laudamus

I first sang this at one of the Morning Office's during my stay in Fort Wayne. It is included in the new hymnal LSB 941. and I was just listening to my Kantorie CD where they sing it. So I thought I'd Post it

We praise You and acknowledge you, O God,to be the Lord
The Father Everlasting, by all the earth adored.
To You all angel powers cry aloud, the heavens sing.
The cherubim and seraphim their praises to You bring:
"O holy, holy, holy Lord God of Sabaoth;
Your majesty and glory fill the heavens and the earth!"

The band of the apostles in glory sing Your praise;
The fellowship of prophets their deathless voices raise.
The martyrs of Your kingdom, a great and noble throng,
Sing with the holy Church through-out all the world this song:
"O all-majestic Father, Your true and only Son,
And Holy Spirit, Comforter forever Three in One!"

You, Christ, are King of glory, the everlasting Son.
Yet You, with boundless love, sought to rescue ev'ryone:
You laid aside Your glory, were born of virgin's womb,
Were crucified for us and were placed into a tomb;
Then by Your resurrection You won for us reprieve
You opened heaven's kingdom to all who would believe.

You sit in splendid glory, enthroned at God's right hand,
Upholding earth and heaven by forces You command.
We know that You will come as our Judge that final day,
So help Your servants You have redeemed by blood, we pray;
May we with saints be numbered where praises never end,
In glory everlasting. Amen, O Lord, amen!

Among the STARs

Your results:
You are Qui-Gon Jinn

Qui-Gon Jinn 76% Boba Fett 75% Darth Maul 74% Chewbacca 71% Jabba the Hutt 67% Darth Vader 66% R2-D2 65% Yoda 64% Count Dooku 64% Emperor Palpatine 62%

Overall, you're a pretty well balanced person. But maybe you focus a little too much on the here and now. Think about the future before its too late.

(This list displays the top 10 results out of a possible 21 characters)


Click here to take the "Which Star Wars character am I?" quiz...


Your results:
You are Worf

Worf 60% Uhura 55% Jean-Luc Picard 50% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 50% Deanna Troi 45% Chekov 45% Data 39% Spock 39% Mr. Sulu 35% Will Riker 30% Geordi LaForge 30% Mr. Scott 30% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 30% James T. Kirk (Captain) 20% Beverly Crusher 15%

You are trained in the art of combat and are usually intimidating.

Click here to take the Star Trek Personality Quiz

9/11

I posted this last year but I think that it is good enough to be posted again.

http://erichmusick.com/911/

A flash presentation from 9/11/01

Sigh...

It is offical... My Chicago Cubs are the worst team in the national league. Such a sad day losing to the Pirates and falling under them by half a game today.

Finish above the Pirates Cubbies. You can do it!

A person special to me!

Im going to post something thats kind of different for me. I will be writing about a person. Hopefully in a way where you guys can apply it to yourselves.

A couple posts ago I talked about relationships. This post is about a relationship with a person which I hold very dear. Do you have that one person who is always there to talk to? Who will listen to you rant about things, or just be there to care about whats going on in your life? I have a person like that. It is someone who I talk to on a daily basis. She has helped me through many problems. I can go to her about anything. She is truly a gift from God. I can tell her things that I know she won't go around and tell everybody and his brother.

To most people she seems like a pretty happy person. For the most part she is, but like us all she has her struggles too. That is what makes our relationship even greater. It is not just one way. We are both there for each other. Recently she has been a little scared about starting college. She really has nothing to fear. She's a wonderful person: smart, friendly, good sence of humor and all around caring. I will truly miss seeing her everyday during school next year but, im sure she will be having much more fun then me. She is going into a field where she will be able to help even more people. What a gracious gift she will be for many.

I hope the rest of you have someone you talk to who is like she is. One of the most caring people I know.

Best of Luck in college and the rest of your life! God be with you in whatever you do and wherever you go!

Pax Christi

No One Told Me?

As of 8/11/06 Dunkler Geist is a year old. I didn't catch it and no one told me. I feel like such a bad blogger. Not even celebrating a year of semi-intellectual posts. This blog is awesome. It's actually more for me then it is for you readers. It gives me the opportunity to study topics and then write something about them. My spelling and grammer isn't very good, but it's readable. (At least I think so.) I hope you enjoy my posts. Though this one is pretty pointless. Give me topics to post about and hopefully I can get at least one more post up before school starts.


Happy Birthday Dunkler Geist!

Struggles and Relationships

We all go through struggles. Each and every one of us. Some greater struggles and some lesser struggles, but they take a toll on us in someway. Do we pity others for their struggles? Why should we when everyone has them. The person who should be pitied is the person who feels like they are alone.

The architecture at the Seminary in Fort Wayne focuses on two of our relationships. Relationships with others and relationship with God. The buildings are made out of diamond shape bricks -- Concordia Brick. In the dorms, classroom buildings, cafeteria, and commons the bricks are laid horizontally. Showing man's relationship with man. But in the chapel they are vertical, showing man's relationship with God.

--I never really liked the phrasing. What does it mean to have a relationship with God, many people probably don't think it means the same thing as I do. My relationship with God is all his doing, His Baptizing me into His Death and Resurrection. Him coming to me in the Divine service. His Spirit entering me to open my lips and declare His praise from my body . His putting Truth, Forgiveness of Sins, and Eternal life into my mouth. My praise isn't worthy. I can do nothing that is worthy. The only reason I am considered worthy is because God sees me through His perfect Son's Blood.---

Our relationships with other people do matter. These people we will be spending eternity with. We are here to help others, to love them, to forgive them. Christ focuses a lot on how we are to treat one another in his teachings. Love your neighbor as yourself. We can't do that perfectly. We will covet our neighbors possessions, tell lies about him, and even murder him be it with words or actions. If we do all that is our Salvation in jeopardy of course not. It's permissible but is it beneficial. Why do we keep parts of the Law? Our salvation isn't based on it. We do it because it benefits us and others. We feel good when we do something kind for someone else. At least I do. If we shut everyone out and are mean to everyone. Who will be there when need someone? Does that mean you can't dislike someone even to the point of hate? I don't like a lot of people. Those feelings don't mean anything. "I could hate you today and love you tomorrow. Those feelings don't mean anything they will die with me. If I love you in Christ, that is eternal. - Pr Dreyer

Now, to our Relationship with God. There are many songs even hymns that talk about how everything will be all right if we do this or that to God. Our struggles will be gone if we pray about them. When in actuality, when we do pray about our hardships or struggles how often is the answer no, not now, or I have a different plan for you? More often then we would like it to be. Do not be discouraged though. Throughout everything you do there will be struggle, but we are blessed with a far better comfort then any struggle we encounter. That comfort is Christ on the Cross. Christ's mangled, bloody, body is what give us forgiveness from the blackness covering us-- our sin. From that broken body of Christ also comes our white garments so that we are not naked. These white garments are the water that washed us clean at our baptism and the broken body itself with the blood that came out of its side with the water. The flesh that the Word became. The sacraments that come from that Word are the greatest comforts we have. To the world this seems foolish, but God chose what is foolish to shame the wise. He chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. He chose what is low and despised in the world even things that are not, to bring nothing things that are. So that no human being might boast in the presence of God. (I Cor. 1:27-29) This worldly foolishness, our comfort, comes from God the source of our life in Christ. Whom God made our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption (I Cor. 1:30)

What greater comfort is there than that? Not drugs or alcohol. They just drive you deeper into breaking the relationships you have with others and breaking the relationship God has instituted with you. Struggles will come and go but know that you are not alone. Share it with ones you trust. Your pastor is a great person to talk to. If you feel lonely surround yourself with others and build relationships with them. Also, do pray about them. Pray that the Lord will help you through them. When you pray focus on the cross, that great comfort of ours.

The Lord be with you all in your struggles and in times of peace.

Pax Christi

Mark (cont.)

In between the feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000 there is the story of the Syrophoenician women's faith. Jesus makes his way into the land of the gentiles. The woman came to him and told him she had a daughter who was possessed by an unclean spirit. The women was a gentile and she begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. Jesus says to her "Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs." She answers him with, "Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's curmbs." Jesus first limits his body (bread) to the children of Israel. The woman had been blessed with great faith and for that, her child was cleansed from the demon (baptism). Thus, the sacrament was opened to the gentiles with the feeding of the 4,000.

With the feeding of the 5,000 the people did not really need anything to eat, it was more of a luxury. With the feeding of the 4,000 the food is necessary. They people gathered would not make it home without fainting because of hunger. The disciples still do not understand, they ask how one could feed the people with bread in a desolate place. They have 7 loaves this time. Seven is a gentile number, it is the number of deacons that the apostles appointed to watch over the Gentiles in acts . 7 is also the number of completion, Christ giving his body completely. This points to the Lord's supper basically in the same ways as the feeding of the 5,000 did. They picked up the pieces left over. They gathered the pieces in 7 bushel baskets, bigger then the ones used at the feeding of the 5,000. 7 baskets for the gentiles and they are complete meaning it will never run out.

Thanks be to God for the opening of this wonderful mean of grace to the entire world! The Sacrament of the Altar is a great gift. Where else can Truth be placed in your mouth? The body of Christ sustaining us for eternity and the bread sustaining us for our time here on earth. Through this we receive forgiveness of sins. Without having to do anything!

I may add more to this later, if something else comes to me to post. I'll basically be putting this post and the last one together, probably adding scripture where you would have had to look it up before, before I put it up on my HT Blog.

Pax Christi

Side thing

Well since Jared yelled at me I updated the side bar thing.

Over there ------>

Eventually ill get a good post up. Soon I promise

Pax

Let's Laugh at Jon

So, there's this awesome picture of me that one of the fellow CA attendees put up on his blog http://sethanizethis.blogspot.com Yes that is me headbanging, to the Kantorei. That last night was fun.

An Awesome Hymn

TLH 329

1. From depths of woe I cry to Thee,
Lord, hear me, I implore Thee.
Bend down Thy gracious ear to me,
My prayer let come before Thee.
If Thou rememberest each misdeed,
If each should have its rightful meed,
Who may abide Thy presence?

2. Thy love and grace alone avail
To blot out my transgression;
The best and holiest deeds must fail
To break sin's dread oppression.
Before Thee none can boasting stand,
But all must fear Thy strict demand
And live alone by mercy.

3. Therefore my hope is in the Lord
And not in mine own merit;
It rests upon His faithful Word
To them of contrite spirit
That He is merciful and just;
This is my comfort and my trust.
His help I wait with patience.

4. And though it tarry till the night
And till the morning waken,
My heart shall never doubt His might
Nor count itself forsaken.
Do thus, O ye of Israel's seed,
Ye of the Spirit born indeed;
Wait for your God's appearing.

5. Though great our sins and sore our woes,
His grace much more aboundeth;
His helping love no limit knows,
Our utmost need it soundeth.
Our shepherd good and true is He,
Who will at last His Israel free
From all their sin and sorrow.

Feeding of 5,000

Mark is quickly becoming my favorite Gospel. It Might be helpful to have a bible open to Mark as you read this.

I am beginning to see how sacramental Mark is. Redemption by water is a recurring theme throughout Mark. The feeding of the 5,000 and 4,000 pointing toward communion. The feeding of the 5,000 points a lot toward psalm 23. It describes the people there as sheep. These people who are there listening and learning from the Lord. He commanded them to sit down in groups on green grass. A better translation would be He commanded them to recline in symposia. They reclined, relaxing. Symposia is having fun eating, drinking, speaking theologically or philosophically. That directly falls in line with the psalm, "He makes me lie down in green pastures." The 5,000 followed him before this when he got on a boat - He led them beside still waters. The third verse of Psalm 23 could apply to what he was teaching them restoring their souls- leading them in paths or righteousness. Verse 4 goes back to the overriding shepherd theme. Verse 5 He prepares a table - Jesus gives them something to eat and they eat until they are satisfied, until they were full. It was a feast for most of them. Finally, verse 6 points directly to what comes from what The Feeding points to, the Lord's Supper.

You might be asking, "How does the feeding point to the Lord's Supper?" Well lets look at it then. We are sheep without a shepherd covered in our own sin. Rejection God. We all have gone astray like sheep. We are all dumb like sheep, but Christ has compassion on us. He teaches us many things.

The disciples said to him "This is a desolate place and the hour is now growing late." It was most likely a desert. The disciples tried to send them away. This world is a desolate place and Christianity is frowned upon in society. The disciples take the worldly view here and want to send them away to find food for themselves in this late hour. . How often do we want to not deal with unbelievers and let them fend for themselves in these end times? But Christ does not take the worldly view. He calls for the apostles to give them something to eat. Who are the apostles in the church today? Pastors! The apostles are called to feed the people who he teaches. Pastors today feed believes through the word and sacrament. The feeding seen most physically in Holy Communion. The apostles answer with a very worldly question. "Are we to spend money equal to that of the wages of 200 days of work? Jesus tells them to go and see how many loaves they had. They came back with 5. This is just something I think but I think that the 5 loaves could correspond with the 5 wounds of Christ. The 5 places where Christ's body was broken His head from the crown of thorns, each hand from the 2 nails, his side from the spear, and his feet from the nail.

He commanded them to sit down in groups. So they sat down in groups of fifties and hundreds. That would have been about the size of a church at the beginning of Christianity. The fifties and hundreds could also refer to how the Romans ran things in their army. Pointing to the church militant.

After they were seated, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. He broke the five loaves(his five wounds) and gave it to the apostles to distribute to the people. Just as he gives his body to us all, and charges the apostles(pastors) with the task of distributing it.

They all ate and were satisfied. No one was left out! Everyone had their fill. The disciples picked up 12 baskets of extras. 12 baskets one for each tribe of Israel whom the apostles over saw. 5,000 men ate, I'm not sure how important that number is but I think it shows that there will always be a remnant of Israel. Jews who believe in the true God; Father, Son, and Spirit.



Ill continue with more from mark in the next couple posts.

Christ Academy

I just posted some basic things about my experience at Christ Academy on my Higher Things Blog. http://blog.higherthings.org/jkohlmeier/ Ill probably have some posts reflecting on things I learned or other things that come to mind soon. But tonight I am tired, and sleep seems like a good thing. Hope you didn't miss my posts too much!

Pax Domini

Serenity

Just recently I watched the movie Serentiy. I must say it is one of the best movies I've seen. At one of my friends houses we watched a few episodes of Firefly also. It is probably one of the best TV shows ever made. It's a shame it only lasted one season.

So enough about the movie and show, except I recommend that everyone watch it.

Serenity- How does one become serene? Just go somewhere, you never find someone who is in a state of serenity. People are always running around. They always have something to do, or somewhere to go. A person can see thousands of people in a day and be too busy to even smile at one, much less talk to them. There is always some type of stress people have, be it from school, from work, from a relationship with friends, relationship with family, or just how the media is influencing them. People have no time! So how does one become peacefuly. Some might say death, but why does death give us peace? How does death set us apart from all the stress and business from this world.

(by now you should be saying, "This is a Jon post, wheres the Theology?" Well here it comes"

God! I sign some of my posts and emails with Pax Domini. I got this idea from a person I met through Higher Things. Pax Domini is "God's Peace." Philipeans 4:7 says, "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." So how does one become serene? Through Jesus Christ. The peace he acheived for us on the cross. The peace He gives to us in His Word and Sacraments. What greater comfort is there then the Cross of Christ for us as Christians? What is more soothing to our minds and ears then the Word of God? What food and drink gives us benifits that even come close to the Body and Blood of Christ? What greater comfort can we have then knowing that we were baptized into Christ's Death, buried with him, and rise again with him?

So I leave you once again saying Pax Domini, The peace of God will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus