e Gospel was meant to be preached under duress. Jesus instituted his church for times such as these. Your faith is meant to bear up under demonic attack and prevail. Jesus said, \u201cI have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world\u201d (John 16:33).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Remember that when Peter and John were commanded not to speak in the name of Jesus, to keep from stirring up trouble among the people, the church prayed to the Lord in thanksgiving. Can you imagine? In thanksgiving! How dim our faith has become for this to take us by surprise! Read Acts 4 and see how their thanksgiving was founded on promise of Psalm 2, that the world and its leaders would rage and plot against the Lord and his Christ. They remembered that the Lord and his Christ, who sits at the right hand of divine majesty, laughs at the best the demons and the world\u2019s princes throw at the church. Therefore, they prayed for boldness: \u201cAnd now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your Word with all boldness\u201d (Acts 4:29). Indeed. The Lord blessed them and granted the Word to continue its work of subduing demonic strongholds and rending men\u2019s hardened hearts in contrition and faith to this day. The gates of hell have not nor will they overcome Christians\u2019 faithful confession of the Lord\u2019s saving name (Matthew 16:18).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Take heart. You don\u2019t know what the next day will bring, but your Redeemer knows. Before your birth, the Lord knew the times and the troubles you\u2019d have to live through. \u201cYour eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them\u201d (Psalm 139:16). The Lord remembers your affliction and wanderings through this godless world. That\u2019s why he gives you comfort for your body and soul that the world in its rage cannot touch. \u201cFor the Lord will not cast off forever, but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion according to the abundance of his steadfast love; for he does not afflict from his heart or grieve the children of man.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
God\u2019s \u201cabundance of steadfast love\u201d has been revealed in the sacrificial death of his Son. It\u2019s is given to you in the tangible Word of Baptism (Mark 16:16) and the Supper of Jesus\u2019 body and blood (Matthew 26:28). These means of grace bless you with the Lord\u2019s crucified compassion. In them you obtain the treasures purchase and won by Christ\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You obtain salvation. You obtain pardon for your offenses. You obtain the Father\u2019s unconditional mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trusting in Jesus\u2019 promise both preached and bound to the elements of the sacraments, you discover the depths to which your Lord is willing to go to rescue you from every evil power of the devil and your flesh. What a sublime mystery that God would give himself into death to reconcile his enemies. But that\u2019s what he did in the person of Christ. And now that same Christ is raised and ascended. His voice resounds in heaven\u2019s courts. He has the Father\u2019s ear and he speaks kindly of you. \u201cChrist Jesus is the one who died \u2013 more than that, who was raised \u2013 who is at the right hand of god, who is interceding for us\u201d (Romans 8:34).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jesus has saved you from sin and death. As he rose from the grave, so too will you rise to live in the joy of his presence forever. The nations and kings may plot. The devil and the demons may lie in wait to devour. But who are they to us? \u201cHe who did not spare his Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things\u201d (Romans 8:32)?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Lord grant his peace and strengthen your faith, dear saints.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Pr. Flamme<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
e Gospel was meant to be preached under duress. Jesus instituted his church for times such as these. Your faith is meant to bear up under demonic attack and prevail. Jesus said, \u201cI have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-teach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":254,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/church.immanuelroswell.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}