Pastor David Nehrenz
tlcnormanpastor@gmail.com
FROM THE PASTOR’S DESK
Dear Disciples of Jesus,
The 40 days of Lent are a time for prayer, fasting and repentance over the sin of taking God’s gifts for granted. Instead, do not neglect your holy obligation to be present among the saints in receiving God’s gifts to us and offering your bodies as living sacrifices to God, holy and pleasing in His sight! Be with us for all of our Lenten services! Read about these services in this newsletter.
The Holy Week Services will begin with Palm Sunday on April 13th with both 8:00 a.m. and 10:30 a.m. Divine Services of Holy Communion. Special hymns and music with the choir and the children will prepare for us the events of Holy Week.
We encourage you to attend the worship services taking us to the Cross of Calvary and the Empty Tomb.
During the Lenten season and Holy Week, be sure to bring your children to the special services. You will not realize until later the important spiritual impact these services have on your children. We are shaped and formed by the Word of God and prayer as they come to us in readings, lessons, hymns, psalms and liturgy. These affect your children in ways we often don’t see until they are adults. May your whole family be present with us as you make it a priority in your home!
I remember how much I enjoyed going to the Lenten and Holy Week services when I was a child. The first evening Lenten services usually started in the dark of winter. Gradually, as we came closer to Holy Week, the days led us into the spring season. The services focused, as they still do today, on the sufferings and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ. This left a big impression on me as a child.
The ancient tradition of these Passiontide services draws us into the wondrous love of God in the Divine Drama by which He intervened in human history. And Divine Drama it is indeed!
In our Lord Jesus Christ,
Pastor Nehrenz
Vicar Tanner Sawall
tlcnormanvicar@gmail.com
FROM THE VICAR
“The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge. In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and His children will have a refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that one may turn away from the snares of death.”
– Proverbs 14:18, 26-27
“Deeds, not creeds!” says the biblically illiterate nondenominational pastor. “Jesus was against religiosity but all about relationship.” We have heard these sayings uttered from well-intentioned but ignorant Christians.
And yet, here we read in Proverbs that the prudent are crowned with knowledge. But what kind of knowledge are the prudent crowned with? It is not complex mathematical formulas or deep insight into physics or psychology. Rather, it is referring to divine doctrine as revealed by God Himself in Scripture. It is referring to the truth that God Himself reveals to His people so that they might know Him and cling all the more to the cross of Christ.
To say that creeds, which are the summation of divine doctrine, are not needed but rather deeds is akin to telling a farmer, “Do not worry about good seed, worry about good fruit!” Say that to a farmer and watch him look at you cross-eyed. Worse yet, it is a denial of the fear of the Lord. How can we fear the Lord if we have incorrect doctrine? How could we properly fear God if we believe, confess, and spread lies about Him? It is simple. We can’t fear Him without believing His Word, the doctrines that He Himself has enlightened His people with.
And what is religiosity other than the adherence to a set of beliefs? And if one’s religiosity is predicated and founded upon the religion of Christ (I.E. the doctrine that He Himself bestows), how could Christ stand if He was against all religiosity? He would be divided against Himself.
This is why there is not a single doctrine of the Church that is inconsequential, for every doctrine is in service to the Gospel of Christ and immediately applicable to the life of a Christian. The fear of the Lord produces a strong confidence, because when we know what God Himself has declared, it is as true as the sky above us and the ground beneath us.
The fear of the Lord is the fountain of life because in it there is the Spirit of Christ – faith. Faith comes from hearing the Word, and the Word is the communication of the doctrines of life eternal. It is the illumination of pure doctrine that turns the wise away from the snares of eternal death, for in divine doctrine is wisdom and life. In divine doctrine, to put it simply, is Christ Himself, the Word Incarnate.
So, allow this to be an exhortation for you to delve into Scriptures in your personal devotion. Hear what your Lord has to say to you – what wisdom He has to give you out of His Fatherly divine goodness and mercy. Open your bibles, and breathe in the breath of God.
In Christ,
Vicar Sawall
