“I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH AND THE GATES OF HELL WILL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST MY CHURCH.” This is what Jesus Christ said and I take it very seriously. No other words are needed to buttress this fiery statement. Because of the weakness of our flesh, I will add words—probably too many—in an effort to buoy you up for the coming distress.
My father was a bully, just as antichrist will be. I hate bullies! I have never been a bully even though I possess great physical and intellectual strength—except one time when I was twelve and I hated the feeling I got from bullying that boy out of a little money. But I have used my gifts to fell bullies. I loved the cartoon “Popeye” when I was a kid because it gave me hope that I could open a can of spinach and beat up my father! Why do I mention this? Because I want you to consider that trouble is God’s spinach. How? Well, the more trouble there is, especially for His Own, the more invigorated He is, the more incensed He is, the more zealous He is, and the more powerful He is in coming to their rescue! We are the apple of His eye and He will protect us at all cost.
It has been MY HONOR AND PRIVELEGE to serve the Lord with this family! I have been strengthened in my faith as I have watched and wondered at how the Lord has worked in our family. There have been so many wondrous workings there is no way I can recount them all. Suffice it to say, as a Unit, we are united around the writings of one, Martin Luther. This unity around a man whose writings go so against the political correctness of our day is amazing—a true miracle. We are as united around the teachings of Luther—the Word—as some families are around greed, some around power, some around sex and so many around ignorance.
I do not want you to be concerned that the Lord would in someway punish you for your loyalty. He sees the shame, sacrifice and insults you have endured. He will reward you for your faithfulness! He may want you to endure more of the same in spades, I don’t know. But if He does, He will make it up to you—in Spades! You have already been conditioned to endure trouble, why not ask for more? The disciples rejoiced that they were considered worthy to be violently treated for His name’s sake. God says, “Open your mouth wide and I will fill it!” I think you should pray, “LORD, fill me with trouble from on High; trouble you will stay in Your own way, in Your own time and for Your own delight and honor!” Now this is a worthy and spiritual prayer!
This is what you must know about God: He DELIGHTS in taking His Own up to and through their “breaking” point. He wants us to be forced to pray, “Out of the depths, O LORD, I cry to You!!!” Out of the depths. Let me use an analogy. My first year of Hebrew the professor said, “In Greek we were very easy on you; we took you by the hand and gradually showed you the trees of the forest. In Hebrew we are setting you down in the middle of the forest!” Well, this describes the last twenty years of our family. The Lord has taken us by the hand and pointed out with great care and patience a tree here and a tree there. This has been fine and a very great preparation for what lies before us. But we are about to experience the “Hebrew” portion of our life!
Christ will build you in His own way! His way is way above and beyond your way and wisdom. Way beyond! You have the promise that He will always be with you, even in our very midst, and that He knows how to deliver His own out of trials and trouble. But you must allow Him to do it in His own way, manner and time. His! Isaiah 57:1-2: “The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity; he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness.” You must take solace that your demise is in the hand of God Almighty and is meant to be a warning to the rest of mankind—a warning they almost never take. And you must take solace in the fact that even your “demise” is peace! What Luther said about a Christian being killed is so true: It is like giving a horse to a thief to escape on! YOU are in the palm of God’s hand; what do you care what man can do to you or yours? You don’t!
You have been “killed” for twenty years now and NO ONE has considered, no one has understood. There is EVERY REASON for those around you to have considered your way of life, but they have not! Your way of life is exemplary, your children are exemplary, your service to others is exemplary, and your religion is exemplary! They have NOT considered, and they have NOT understood. You have been right in their midst and they have not seen you and the special blessing you could have been. They have squandered a precious opportunity! Too bad for them. Not your fault. Not your problem. You have been faithful and God will be faithful to you.
You have been hated because you have been taught by God to love Truth, while all men are liars and hate Truth! But in my opinion it is worse than hate; worse for you and worse for God. The world is in a state of Satanic apathy toward the things of God. At least when someone hates another person, the person hated knows that he/she is relevant. You have been treated as if you are IRRELEVANT, which really is worse for you because it has decreased the chances of you having to make a CLEAR STAND for the Truth. And it is worse for God because it reveals how irredeemable Man, whom He loves deeply, is. At the right time, of course, Satan will stir up this apathy into hatred—your blessing and splendid opportunity to be relevant for God and make a CLEAR STAND for the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, once for all delivered to You.
In the last fifteen years I have probably reflected upon “As in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of Man be,” more than any other passage of Scripture. In the beginning I came to believe that the world would end on a “high note” thinking it would live forever, prosper forever, and live out all its days! A couple years later I began to believe the passage was more literal than was believable: The world would end with just ONE family believing the Word of God! And of late I have come to believe that we will enter the Tribulation in the protection of Luther’s Writings, as Noah and his family endured the Flood in the Ark.
You, my children, would do well to reflect on the experience of Noah and his beloved family. Answer these questions: Was it a pleasant, serene ride; did they think the Ark was going to bust apart by the buffeting of the waves; did they become angry with Noah for putting them on the Ark; did they think, “This trip will never end”; how did they deal with the death of so many others; how did they deal with the guilt of being the only ones rescued; and how did they make it through such an Ordeal?
I can only guess the answers to the questions above except for the last one. I know how they persevered. They remembered and believed the Word of God, “Come into the Ark!” For a hundred years they saw and experienced the apathy the world had toward the Word of God. They saw their friends and family, one by one, fall away from the Word and join the The False Church of Cain. People to whom Adam himself had preached to about the coming Seed fell away from the Truth, once for all delivered to the Saints! Adam! And RIGHT HERE is where YOUR FAITH is so amazing! YOU have not heard the voice of so amazing a person as Adam, or Seth, or Enoch, or Methuselah. No! You have only “heard” the words which have grown so stale to this world, the words of a 500-year-old-dead-man. Yet God has used these “stale” words to work a miracle of belief within the hearts of each of you. You have not only witnessed one of the most amazing miracles of God, but you have LIVED it. You have lived it! This fact should warm your hearts and give you all the confidence you need to trust God to protect you from ANYTHING. For 15 years now God has worked mightily in you to make your calling and election sure. He has trained you for 15 years to be able to give an answer to every man who asks of you the reason of the Hope that is in you! YOU ARE READY! Let’s do This Thing!
This world truly is not worthy of you, of even casting a glance on your holiness! This world should feel unworthy to even look you in the eyes because your righteousness is so great! They do not see it because Satan has blinded their eyes; and not only that, but because they refuse to believe the Truth, God has sent upon them a great delusion. No matter what happens, understand that this world is not worthy of you, you, who, in my opinion, have germinating in you the greatest faith He has ever given to any of His Own. True, because we are the dregs of Christianity we need this great faith to survive and endure. Nonetheless…
I am the most disgusting person in this family, and certainly the most disgusting so-called (self-called) prophet ever. If I am a prophet and if God ever called for a meeting of the prophets, I sincerely would slither into the room hoping not to be noticed! I could not mean anything more! But here is what I am proud of. I am God-proud of His work within me, having taken a product of this worst, last age, as a trophy of His grace unto Himself. I am a product of a broken society and a broken home; and I am a product of an impotent church which has virtually NOTHING with which to help such brokenness! NOTHING!!! I am ashamed to have to live in such a society which is bent on destroying everything God created and called “good”; and I am especially ASHAMED of ever having spent even one moment in this wicked false church—especially the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod! Why them? Because they are the true descendants of Luther and they have left the Truth, once for all delivered to the saints, to sniff the assess of the Baptists and other God-damned Zwinglians and Calvinists! May they live in torment forever! AND EVER!
Well, no matter what God has ordained that you endure, remember primarily the Promise of God in Communion: THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MY BLOOD, GIVEN TO YOU FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS. TAKE AND EAT. But also remember these words of Luther: “It is a great punishment and a severe judgment of God when man so hates God and His Word that he is unwilling to hear it and neither honors nor esteems the ministers of the Word.” YOU have loved the Word amidst great difficulty. No matter what happens always remember that His Own are NOT APPOINTED UNTO WRATH BUT TO OBTAIN SALVATION. No matter what happens understand and remember that the Ark was not being destroyed by the torrents of rain but by the unbelieving people.
Remember us for Good, O LORD. Remember us for Good.