34 “Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. 36 And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
-Matthew 10:34-36
Christ tells the Apostles that as they spread the Gospel to people division will be a necessary result. Not everyone will accept their message, not everyone will believe in Jesus - but some will, and those who do will find their lives in upheaval for a while.
This happens today as well. I knew a man who became a Christian while living with his girlfriend in sin. He decided that it was time to stop fornicating, for such sin displeases our Lord. His girlfriend did not take that change well. When he said that the only way they could have sex again was if they got married (and he could only marry her if she converted too), she threw a fit and began getting violent with him.
Needless to say, they broke up and it took a while for him to feel stable.
I also spoke in seminary with a missionary from India whose father was a hindu priest. He converted to Anglicanism, and when his father found out about it there was violence in the home. He was beaten severely, and the reason he went to the United States for seminary was the simple reason that otherwise his father might kill him. Later on he returned to India to begin evangelizing, but it was far away from his former household.
Ideally, our families and girlfriends and friends would all convert with us as we convert to Christianity and find life with Jesus. Unfortunately, we cannot control the actions of these people, nor stop them from resisting the Gospel. When such division happens though, the Christian is called to love his family and pray for them even if they persecute him. It is that same love and patience that God showed us when bringing us to the faith after all - now it is time to show it to our unbelieving friends and family.
-Matthew 10:34-36
Christ tells the Apostles that as they spread the Gospel to people division will be a necessary result. Not everyone will accept their message, not everyone will believe in Jesus - but some will, and those who do will find their lives in upheaval for a while.
This happens today as well. I knew a man who became a Christian while living with his girlfriend in sin. He decided that it was time to stop fornicating, for such sin displeases our Lord. His girlfriend did not take that change well. When he said that the only way they could have sex again was if they got married (and he could only marry her if she converted too), she threw a fit and began getting violent with him.
Needless to say, they broke up and it took a while for him to feel stable.
I also spoke in seminary with a missionary from India whose father was a hindu priest. He converted to Anglicanism, and when his father found out about it there was violence in the home. He was beaten severely, and the reason he went to the United States for seminary was the simple reason that otherwise his father might kill him. Later on he returned to India to begin evangelizing, but it was far away from his former household.
Ideally, our families and girlfriends and friends would all convert with us as we convert to Christianity and find life with Jesus. Unfortunately, we cannot control the actions of these people, nor stop them from resisting the Gospel. When such division happens though, the Christian is called to love his family and pray for them even if they persecute him. It is that same love and patience that God showed us when bringing us to the faith after all - now it is time to show it to our unbelieving friends and family.
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Forwarded from G.M. Ziegler
Everyone please pray for my mother she is having surgery this morning. I treasure her as much as anyone
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Yo here's the latest reupload in the Ranters series. Let's talk about the rhetoric they used then (and will use as their return gets worse):
https://youtu.be/p3GqPsA2vbo
https://youtu.be/p3GqPsA2vbo
YouTube
Reading Ranter Writings Pt.2 - Ranter Rhetoric
A new herd of wild hogs is on the horizon.
We'd better get ready before they trample all that we know.
Artwork by King Noticer
Support the VLP!
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We'd better get ready before they trample all that we know.
Artwork by King Noticer
Support the VLP!
verylutheran.gumroad.com/
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The Church Fathers series is BACK!
And after that short hiatus, thankfully Irenaeus treats us to a "back to basics" message about how the gnostics have the wrong number of deities: there's only ONE.
https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/reading-the-church-fathers
And after that short hiatus, thankfully Irenaeus treats us to a "back to basics" message about how the gnostics have the wrong number of deities: there's only ONE.
https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/reading-the-church-fathers
SoundCloud
Reading the Church Fathers: Irenaeus, Pt.25
Let's read through the Church Fathers, one by one, and get a picture of Church history from the ground floor.
Support the VLP!
verylutheran.gumroad.com/
Support the VLP!
verylutheran.gumroad.com/
👍1
The Very Lutheran Project pinned «The Church Fathers series is BACK! And after that short hiatus, thankfully Irenaeus treats us to a "back to basics" message about how the gnostics have the wrong number of deities: there's only ONE. https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/reading-the-church-fathers»
The Very Lutheran Project
Preview and hint for this week's Godcast
For 🤔 guy, I'll explain in the episode, tune in this Sunday my friend!
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37 Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
-Matthew 10:37-39
As the Apostles go on their missions trip and evangelize to the people of Judea, they will inevitably receive pushback from the people with *familial* arguments. Such arguments most likely went like this:
"Well Moses tells us to honor our father and mother, and my parents raised me to believe what I believe now. It doesn't make much sense to ditch what they believed in favor of this Jesus fellow that you proclaim."
Truth be told, this argument is still around these days, and it has even made a comeback with the neopagan movement. "I honor the gods of my ancestors, Christcuck 😡" and many other such nauseating statements are made. But the substance is no different from what the jews said in their contentions with the Apostles. Funny how that works, nonbelievers acting like the jews when it comes to rejecting Jesus, but I digress.
Jesus teaches the Apostles - and us! - how we must respond to this "family argument." The answer is simple: eternal life hangs in the balance, and only Christ can save you. Mommy and daddy cannot bring you to heaven, but Jesus can. My Frankish pagan ancestors who worshiped bees and cows between their acts of senseless violence - those men cannot save me, but Jesus can. Someone who rejects Christ in favor of their familial traditions or ancestral religion is not worthy of being His disciple, and they will end up in hell so long as they do not repent.
The prospect can be scary for a nonbeliever. To go with Jesus means giving up their life as they knew it. The Church will exhort them to give up their favorite sins, to witness to their families (who might reject them), and to ditch the traditions and culture that were marked by their former false religion. It sounds like dying, and to make matters even more odd the Church preaches to them that in Baptism they shall literally die (Romans 6:3-4). To give up their identity in favor of Jesus is akin to picking up a cross and being ready to asphyxiate everything about their old life.
And Jesus says that is necessary: there will be no salvation otherwise.
That said, this is the only way to receive one's life back. The man who identifies solely with his acestral religion and culture will find his eternal fate bereft of all of them. Damnation includes none of the things that they value here on earth. The man who burns in the lake of fire will not be with his ancestors, nor will he enjoy any of their traditions. The Japanese man in hell will never enjoy another tea ceremony, the jew in hell will never sing Hava Nagila again, and no one will enjoy being with those parents they idolized.
The saints, however, will get to enjoy all of these things throughout eternity. Germans in Heaven still get to enjoy their oompah music, the native Americans will still get to do their dances, the African saints will have the ethos of celebration that their ancestors gave them. And when it comes to family, Christ assures us that there is more than enough family in the New Heavens and New Earth to rejoice in forever.
But first one must put Christ above all, take up his cross, and follow our Lord through the trials that attend the faith.
-Matthew 10:37-39
As the Apostles go on their missions trip and evangelize to the people of Judea, they will inevitably receive pushback from the people with *familial* arguments. Such arguments most likely went like this:
"Well Moses tells us to honor our father and mother, and my parents raised me to believe what I believe now. It doesn't make much sense to ditch what they believed in favor of this Jesus fellow that you proclaim."
Truth be told, this argument is still around these days, and it has even made a comeback with the neopagan movement. "I honor the gods of my ancestors, Christcuck 😡" and many other such nauseating statements are made. But the substance is no different from what the jews said in their contentions with the Apostles. Funny how that works, nonbelievers acting like the jews when it comes to rejecting Jesus, but I digress.
Jesus teaches the Apostles - and us! - how we must respond to this "family argument." The answer is simple: eternal life hangs in the balance, and only Christ can save you. Mommy and daddy cannot bring you to heaven, but Jesus can. My Frankish pagan ancestors who worshiped bees and cows between their acts of senseless violence - those men cannot save me, but Jesus can. Someone who rejects Christ in favor of their familial traditions or ancestral religion is not worthy of being His disciple, and they will end up in hell so long as they do not repent.
The prospect can be scary for a nonbeliever. To go with Jesus means giving up their life as they knew it. The Church will exhort them to give up their favorite sins, to witness to their families (who might reject them), and to ditch the traditions and culture that were marked by their former false religion. It sounds like dying, and to make matters even more odd the Church preaches to them that in Baptism they shall literally die (Romans 6:3-4). To give up their identity in favor of Jesus is akin to picking up a cross and being ready to asphyxiate everything about their old life.
And Jesus says that is necessary: there will be no salvation otherwise.
That said, this is the only way to receive one's life back. The man who identifies solely with his acestral religion and culture will find his eternal fate bereft of all of them. Damnation includes none of the things that they value here on earth. The man who burns in the lake of fire will not be with his ancestors, nor will he enjoy any of their traditions. The Japanese man in hell will never enjoy another tea ceremony, the jew in hell will never sing Hava Nagila again, and no one will enjoy being with those parents they idolized.
The saints, however, will get to enjoy all of these things throughout eternity. Germans in Heaven still get to enjoy their oompah music, the native Americans will still get to do their dances, the African saints will have the ethos of celebration that their ancestors gave them. And when it comes to family, Christ assures us that there is more than enough family in the New Heavens and New Earth to rejoice in forever.
But first one must put Christ above all, take up his cross, and follow our Lord through the trials that attend the faith.
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SUNDAY RESOURCES NOW UP!
For this week's homily, let's talk about the book of Lamentations and make sense of its troubling, depressing tone:
Audio: https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/weeping-and-hope-26apr2026
Video: https://youtu.be/CbZS2fwKzWw
And for the LEVITICUS BIBLE STUDY, let's discuss the shift in focus in Leviticus and why it matters:
Audio: https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/leviticus-pt-8-the-priestly
Video: https://youtu.be/CVTZtvRZWtc
PDF manuscripts can be found here:
https://verylutheran.biz/resources
Support the VLP! If you can't, please let someone know about us, it helps to spread the word!
https://verylutheran.gumroad.com/
https://verylutheran.biz/contact
God bless your weekend everyone!
For this week's homily, let's talk about the book of Lamentations and make sense of its troubling, depressing tone:
Audio: https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/weeping-and-hope-26apr2026
Video: https://youtu.be/CbZS2fwKzWw
And for the LEVITICUS BIBLE STUDY, let's discuss the shift in focus in Leviticus and why it matters:
Audio: https://soundcloud.com/verylutheran/leviticus-pt-8-the-priestly
Video: https://youtu.be/CVTZtvRZWtc
PDF manuscripts can be found here:
https://verylutheran.biz/resources
Support the VLP! If you can't, please let someone know about us, it helps to spread the word!
https://verylutheran.gumroad.com/
https://verylutheran.biz/contact
God bless your weekend everyone!
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