Something you've never seen...

Somewhere in here.

0/ Welcome to Wednesday What-Not!

1/ Made by the Word (Psalm 33:4-10)

2/ VS Marduke…

I’ve been thinking a lot about how the Lord’s work of creation through the word stands in contrast to the Babylonian mythology of the Enuma Elish.

The really brutal parts are in the 4th tablet:

128 And returned to Tia-mat, whom he had bound.
129 Be-l placed his feet on the lower parts of Tia-mat
130 And with his merciless club smashed her skull.
131 He severed her arteries
132 And let the North wind bear up (her blood) to give the news.
133 His fathers saw it and were glad and exulted;
134 They brought gifts and presents to him.
135 Be-l rested, surveying the corpse,
136 In order to divide the lump by a clever scheme.
137 He split her into two like a dried fish:
138 One half of her he set up and stretched out as the heavens.
139 He stretched the skin and appointed a watch

(Reflecting on this in a Sunday Drive Home here.)

3/ Martin Luther’s description of faith…

This is stunning. Taken from his Preface to the Book of Romans, but quoted here from the Formula of Concord IV.10-12, Luther’s description of faith is stunning, and worth contemplating.

For, as Luther writes in his Preface to the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans,

“Faith is a divine work in us that transforms us and begets us anew from God, kills the Old Adam, makes us entirely different people in heart, spirit, mind, and all our powers, and brings the Holy Spirit with it. Oh, faith is a living, busy, active, mighty thing, so that it is impossible for it not to be constantly doing what is good.

Likewise, faith does not ask if good works are to be done, but before one can ask, faith has already done them and is constantly active. Whoever does not perform such good works is a faithless man, blindly tapping around in search of faith and good works without knowing what either faith or good works are, and in the meantime he chatters and jabbers a great deal about faith and good works.

Faith is a vital, deliberate trust in God’s grace, so certain that it would die a thousand times for it. And such confidence and knowledge of divine grace makes us joyous, mettlesome, and merry toward God and all creatures. This the Holy Spirit works by faith, and therefore without any coercion a man is willing and desirous to do good to everyone, to serve everyone, to suffer everything for the love of God and to his glory, who has been so gracious to him. It is therefore as impossible to separate works from faith as it is to separate heat and light from fire.”

Formula of Concord IV.10-12

4/ QnA: Mormons, Worry, Faith and Works, etc.

This quotation came up in this week’s edition of What-Not: The Podcast. (Click here to listen.)

And, send your questions in here.

5/ Free to Die Doxology Seminar: Saturday, Aug 12

https://www.doxology.us/event/2023-free-to-die-ia-seminar/

6/ Holy Baptism: An Anthology

www.wolfmueller.co/baptism

7/ The Devil is a Thief who Breaks Into an Empty House

It would be fine, I hold, if a man could forget about himself and mock the devil with an empty pocket as a certain poor householder mocked a thief whom he caught in his home one night. He said: “You silly thief, do you expect to find something here in the dark when I can’t find anything in broad daylight?” What can the devil do when he finds a soul so naked that it can respond neither to sin nor to holiness? (LW 14:84-85)

Read the entire quotation here.

8/ Who’s My Elected Official?

In my prayers for those who rule and govern us, I like to have the list from top to bottom, from the president to my local city council members. You can put your address in here, and get the full list.

9/ Fighting Best

10/ Luther on Greed

That was the topic on this week’s Worldwide Bible Class.

For when men seek, heap up, and snatch by fair means and foul, then they think that they are happy and that they have the things for which they have longed so eagerly. But the psalm replies: “He knows not for whom he gathers them.”

Martin Luther on Genesis 30:29-30

11/ Johan Gerhard “On Death” § 413

Thanks to Joshua Hayes who forwards this great quotation from Johan Gerhard on death, reflecting on what we are praying for in the Lord’s Prayer:

In the Lord’s Prayer we ask: (1) For the goal of our life, both the principal end (which is the glory of God) in the First Petition, and the subordinate end (which is our salvation) in the Second Petition. (2) We ask for the things which bring both of these ends, namely (a) the acquisition of means, both principal (which is piety) in the Third Petition, and secondary (which is the sustenance of life) in the Fourth Petition; (b) the removal of hindrances, namely, of past sins in the Fifth Petition and of future ones in the Sixth Petition; and, finally, freedom from all adversities in the Seventh Petition.

This is great. I’m going to make a video…

12/ Gerhard on Satisfaction (Theologically speaking, that is: Grace Alone)

And Speaking of Gerhard…

There’s a Roman Catholic video going around accusing Protestants of denying the justice of God because of our assertion of grace alone. It is astonishing to see the Romanist doctrine of salvation through works front-and-center.

I’ve been studying these nine pages from Gerhard On Satisfaction, preparing a response video. There is gold in these pages.

That should be enough for now. See you Saturday in Davenport.

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Thank you, again, for your time and attention, and for your prayers. Please keep in touch. 

Christ is Risen!
Pastor Wolfmueller

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

www.wolfmueller.co

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