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Dear Fellow Redeemed,
Greetings in our Lord Jesus Christ during this Pentecost
season!
The month of July is a
good time to remind ourselves of God’s institution of both
the Church and the State.
The State: Independence Day is July 4th and then later came
the founding of our constitutional, democratic, federal
republic - the United States of America. It was and is a
great blessing for temporal life and grants us our civic
freedoms.
God established the State as His “minister (servant)” as it
says in Romans 13:1-7 ”The authorities that exist have been
established by God...do what is right and he will commend
you...he is God’s servant to do you good...he does not bear
the sword for nothing...he is God’s servant (minister), an
agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer...the
authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to
governing.”
(The State is called “The Kingdom of the God’s Left Hand”-
it has the office of the sword and rules by Civil
Government)
The Church: Established by the Holy Spirit on Pentecost, it
continues today in Word and Sacrament- the holy, catholic,
apostolic church- and gives great blessings of eternal life
and spiritual freedom.
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God established the Church as His “minister” as it
says in 2 Corinthians 4:1 “Since through God’s mercy we
have this ministry...we do not preach ourselves but
Jesus Christ as Lord....” and in 5:18 “All this is from
God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and
gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting
men’s trespasses against them.” Also in 1 Corinthians
4:1 “Men ought to regard us as ministers/servants of
Christ and as those entrusted with the secret things
(sacraments/mysteries) of God”
(The Church is called “The Kingdom of God’s Right Hand”
- it has the office of the keys and rules by Word and
Sacrament.)
Thank God for His good gifts to us in our nation and in
our church! They are all by grace, we deserve none of
them! But God grants them to us as our merciful
Heavenly Father! Therefore, let us pray for “all those
in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives
in all godliness and holiness.” (1 Tim. 2:2)
The our Lord Jesus,!
-Pastor Nehrenz
 From
the VicarThis past month
classes were concluded for this academic year at OU. That
also means that the LSF activities have wound down to a
close. It was an excellent year with the students... (Continued...)
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