Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone. Verses taken from biblegateway.com, Isaiah 9:1-7 (KJV):

1Nevertheless the dimness shall not be such as was in her vexation, when at the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, and afterward did more grievously afflict her by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the nations.

2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

3Thou hast multiplied the nation, and not increased the joy: they joy before thee according to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide the spoil.

4For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian.

5For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Troubling...

I know is has been a while since I blogged, but time has slipped away lately. I do want to post something that was troubling from Sunday, 8 days ago. My family was all ill with a very bad cold (we are still on the tail end after 2 weeks), so I decided to go to the local LC-MS Church. The service was uneventful, and the sermon less Scripture and more pep talk. The part that was most disturbing came at the end. In the narthex, in full view of the main door was a listing of the Ten Commandments. They were, however, the reformed version (4 God centered and 6 worldly, with the change from "Thou shalt not murder." to "Thou shalt not kill."- a big difference). I brought up that this was not in keeping with Lutheran Confessions (what all LC-MS churches are supposed to follow), I got a weak, noncomittal reply from the senior paster. The response was, paraphrasing, that a member had given it "in love" and, well, they just didn't have the "guts" to let this member know that it wasn't right! He willingly and knowingly let incorrect teaching exist because he, as he claimed, didn't "have the guts"! This is appalling. This is also why I drive an hour one way every Sunday- to ensure my family are properly taught good Doctrine.

I am troubled that Pastors are allowed this lee-way and who allow poor doctrine to invade the church. I think this is a fundamental problem within the LC-MS church- a lack of discipline within the church. No amount of "Ablaze" or Church Growth Movement will stem the flow of dissatisfied church goers who simply wanted the Word or are enticed by shiny "worship" baubles pandered by other, larger churches. If the LC-MS doesn't enforce some discipline among the Pastoral office, she is in for a rough future.