Being in Christ is a gift, it is a treasure. It is a treasure more worthy than literally anything else in this world of being so valuable that we should retain it at any cost. It is to be held firmly, something that we determine is a pearl of such great price that nothing—nothing—is better than, is worth more, than it.

But a gift of such value is a gift that, curiously enough, is also very easy to give up. I don’t know why that is. I fear that it of such value that it is hard to fully grasp . . . and therefore some things—some infinitely lesser things—seem to our frail, finite eyes to be things we’d much rather cling to.

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God owes us no answers, and certainly owes us no apologies. When we speak in way that suggests the Lord has forgotten or forsaken us, especially to the Lord, it is we who are shortsighted, not Him. And so, when we do speak such things, even though it may be emotionally honest, it nevertheless shows that our faith has been deficient in some way. And when that is the case, the Lord will work in such a way that restores and strengthens our faith . . . but what does that look like?

This podcast can never be a substitute for in-person attendance at a local church. Click here to find a local church you can connect with! Find a Lutheran church near you!

In our Lutheran Confessions, the line between “hypocrite” and “faithful Christian” is clear. But that is in a book of theology. Theology books have the benefit—indeed, the task—of providing straightforward answers. Theology in books is clean and neat. But in our outward gathering around Word and Sacrament that is called “church,”—and indeed in the secret, inner lives of our hearts and minds—the line between “hypocrite” and “faithful” is not nearly so clear nor so plain.

This podcast can never be a substitute for in-person attendance at a local church. Click here to find a local church you can connect with! Find a Lutheran church near you!