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Christian Living/Human Behavior
I think your site under "This We Believe" - "Good works and prayer" generally represents what I believe is basic sound Lutheran theology. But I'm confused about the apparent contradiction in these two statements: 7. We believe that in this world even the best works of Christians are tainted with sin. A sinful nature still afflicts every Christian. Therefore Christians often fail to do the good they want to do but keep on doing the evil they do not want to do (Romans 7:18-21). They must confess that all their righteous acts are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). Because of Christ's redemption, however, these imperfect efforts of Christians are considered holy and acceptable by their heavenly Father.8. We believe that the Holy Spirit enables every believer to produce good works as fruits of faith (Galatians 5:22-25). The Holy Spirit gives every believer a new nature, or "new man," that cooperates with the Holy Spirit in doing good works. The Holy Spirit uses the gospel to motivate believers to do good works.
I understand statement 8 to be true (from articles VI, XVIII, and XX of the Augsburg Confession). I also understand that we are all still afflicted by our sinful nature and often fail (why else would we need to repent?), but how when the Holy Spirit enables us to produce good works as fruits of faith is it tainted with sin? As your statement 8 says, we have a new nature that cooperates with the Holy Spirit in doing good works. If we are cooperating how could we be separate (sinning) from God?Even our best works are tainted with sin because we are still sinners. Even the good works that the Holy Spirit enables us to do, and in which we cooperate, are still the deeds of sinners. The "new man" does the Spirit's bidding and cooperates. Because we have not yet been perfected, the "old man" somehow always spoils our works. The believer's works are good because the Holy Spirit motivates and enables them and because God regards them as good for Jesus' sake. They are tainted because the believer who does them is still a sinner.
This does not necessarily mean that we are guilty of a specific sin in doing these works. Thus, we are not "separate from God" because of a certain sin. It simply means that no deed we do can be perfect because we are not yet perfect.
Another way of seeing this matter is that although we have our old sinful natures (the old man) in us and the new creation of the Spirit (the new man), we are still only one person. That one person is affected by both natures at the same time and will be until we are rid of the natural (sin-tainted) body in glory.
I realize this question does move very quickly to the "unanswerable." We do not have the knowledge of God or the will of God. I would like to understand using my "Christian" freedom the reactions that we should have toward the secular world. I guess this question is coming from an article that I am "forced" to read for my human development class. It is written by a radical feminist that is very left-wing in her ideologies.
I know homosexuality and lesbianism are wrong. With all the push for "human rights" and equality, how should we as christians really react to all the "rights" but still convict the sinner as should be done?The civil laws of the state often do not match the requirements of God's moral law. Even the civil law of Israel allowed divorce which was contrary to God's moral law. As citizens we should support laws that are based on God's moral standards, but we recognize that we will not always be able to do this in a sinful society. Where the civil law allows things which God's Word forbids, we must continue to preach against those sins in our private and public testimony. We must be careful however that we do not give the impression the we are preaching against a few sins like homosexuality, for example. We must be clear that we preach against all sin including our own and that we preach forgiveness for all. When we are approaching people who are slaves to some specific sin, such as homosexuality, we should often make them away of sin in general before focussing on their specific sin.
I feel like I want to die. I have been so sad and lonely since my grandmother died 6/99. I want to be with her. Thank you for your help. Shelly
Dear Grieving Christian,
You are still grieving over the death of your grandmother in June of 1999. That is almost two years ago. You are grieving so strongly that you want to be with her. You know that she is in heaven. You also know that suicide is a sin. God is the judge, but as far as we can judge there is no time for the one who commits suicide to repent and to receive God's forgiveness. Therefore, as far as we can know, most people who commit suicide are not in heaven. They have died impenitent of the sin of killing themselves. Therefore, you know that you will not be with your grandmother if you take your own life in your grief.
I have a feeling that since this is nearly two years since your grandmother died and since you are still feeling such loneliness and so terrible, there must also be something else that is making you feel so sad. That is why, if I had you in my presence right now I would talk with you at length about all the things that are troubling you. I would just try to listen without judging you at all. You really need someone to listen to you. I would comfort you with the assurance that God is always with you - Hebrews 13:5. I would comfort you with the assurance that Jesus died for all of your sins - II Corinthians 5:19. I would comfort you with the assurance that forgiveness is yours. I John 1:7.
Since I am not with you, I want to strongly encourage you to talk with your pastor about how you feel. Tell him that you need him to just listen to you for awhile. Then you need to hear about God's love. But first, he needs to listen to you tell him all the things that are troubling you. If you want to, why don't you print this answer and show him a copy of it.
He may suggest that you need to see some professional counselor to be evaluated so that you can get more help psychologically than he can give you. But first, talk to your pastor about about what is troubling you, then listen to what he has to say from the Word of God.
May God bless you as you are reminded of his love.
Hebrews 13:5 God has said, Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.
II Cor. 5:19 God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing men's sins unto them.
I John 1:7 The blood of His Son, Jesus Christ purifies us from all sin.
While you have a lot of information about anger and marriage, I can't really find anything that really says it for me. My husband is not physically abusive toward me. Upon occasion he has been toward our pets(we have not children). We've been married over ten years. Sometimes he just flies off the handle and the only thing I can do is just cringe. He throws things, and he's extremely powerful and doesn't realize his physical strength. Usually he just says things that hurt my feelings or I fear for that the dogs may be hurt.
Whenever I mention anything about counseling, reading books (because I've read some of the info available through NPH). He just ignores me, walks out, says some remark to indicate that he thoroughly has no confidence in the psyche field. He was at one time an alcohol counselor. We both are recovering alcoholics. We don't go to AA anymore and don't really miss it.! I wish that our WELS churches had more support in this area. But I don't really feel comfortable going to our Pastor. I couldn't go without him knowing. I'm disabled and don't work, he's semi-disabled and doesn't work.What, besides prayer, which I've done extensively, can I do?The situation you are describing is not pleasant. It is one of the worst kinds of abuse because it shows no physical scars, just mental scars and emotional wounds. You really need to get both of you into counseling of some kind. While your husband has not been hitting you, almost every counselor of battered women will tell you that the verbal threats and abuse usually lead to physical threats and abuse. Local hospitals have anger management groups. So do local women's shelters.
I would encourage you to get over your concern about not talking with your pastor and talk with him. Ask him for referrals.
A counseling contact is the Wisconsin Lutheran Child and Family Services, phone: (414)353-5005.
But, you really need to find a way to stop and intervene and help you and your husband deal with anger issues. You cannot let this continue.
God's blessings -- he is with you to help and protect you -- Psalm 23.
In counseling and therapy circles, the term "repressed memories" is used widely, especially in issues of abuse. The one that is abused a lot of times "repressed" the abuse memories and can't remember them. In therapy, uncovering all these memories is essential to recovery. It seems to me that if it is a true memory, it would be remembered, the trauma is still in their minds. I've read in articles in newspapers and magazines that a lot of people are put behind bars for something they did not do. My wife is going through this therapy of uncovering these memories and "feeling the pain of it again" so she can recover. It seems like at times this period of therapy is more agonizing than healing. She was hospitalized once because the pain was more than she can bear. Before she started all this therapy, she was fine. Then through the therapy she is told that the pain and depression was caused by her abusers.
My question is: Do you feel she is in the right kind of therapy? I want to support her in this and its hard for me to see her go through this. I know there is counseling within WELS circles. Is this an approach WELS counselors as well? I'm confused! Please help me out.There are many, many critics of therapists who use hypnotism to help people recover repressed memories. The critics feel that a memory uncovered through hypnotism is less reliable than a memory remembered through normal recall or through talk therapy. No memory is entirely accurate to the truth of what actually happened. Time and repetition and the suggestions of others can change a recalled memory from the truth. Hypnotism, it is felt by many, opens the person up to more suggestions to memory changes. Any therapist doing this type of therapy must be very careful not to allow himself or herself to influence his or her client in any way in the process of memory recall.
My heart goes out to you and your wife and to you as you struggle through the pain of what she is recalling or what she feels she is recalling. The pain is always real. If she was abused as a child, the pain will be very real as she struggles through remembering the betrayal of trust and the shame and the violence of the abuse.
There are several things to remember.
One is very practical: The person you refuse to forgive or you do not forgive continues in some way to rule your life and your thoughts and your emotions.
One is very spiritual: Forgive as the Lord has forgiven you! Because Jesus has forgiven us, so we forgive those who have sinned against us. Our forgiveness of others flows out of our love and faith and trust in Jesus.
Forgiveness is an act of faith and trust. Forgiveness is trusting in God for justice. He will punish or he will show mercy.
We leave it up to him. We release our pain and our anger by God's grace into his hands and we, in faith, trust in God to do justice for us. "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."
So, forgiveness is releasing. It is releasing our anger and pain and desire for vengeance into God's hands. God carries the burden.
We are free from the burden. We are at peace with God.
We pray that these thoughts about forgiveness give you and your wife some peace in your pain and some direction for your sanctified Christian living.
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Bravo! Bravo!