It's midnight here and I'm still wide awake. Tonight, we had our monthly council and consistory meetings and I always have a hard time winding down after those meetings. It's not because we have knock-down, drag-out meetings, as sadly happens in some churches. We are blessed with great unity on both our council and our consistory and I'm very privileged to serve with these brothers. We also get our work done and go home. Our council meeting typically goes from 7:00-8:15 p.m. and our consistory meeting then lasts until about 9:15 p.m. No late night meetings here, for which I'm very thankful. But for some reason it takes me forever to get tired once I get home. So, as the rest of the family is fast asleep, I picked up one of my newest books, "Concerning the True Care of Souls" by Martin Bucer and I thought I'd share a quote with you from the first chapter...
"For the people have been led by them (leaders in the Roman Catholic Church) into thinking that if they have been baptized and take part in the common ceremonies, and do not interfere in the affairs of the so-called priests, then they belong to the church and congregation of Christ, even though they may never really have come to know Christ our Lord, and live in open sin, relying for their comfort in God not on Christ, but on the ceremonies of the so-called priests, their own good works, and the merits of dead saints. Indeed, they would be unable to place their trust in Christ the Lord, since in all their life and conduct they contemptuously despise him and his holy word."
What a great reminder that is for ministers to faithfully preach Christ and point our people to our only hope, the perfect and finished work of our Savior.
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