O Lord, grant to Your faithful people pardon and peace that they may be cleansed from all their sins and serve You with a quiet mind; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
No, the antidote to the days’ evil is not in forgetting it. It is not in putting it out of your mind, in numbing your pain, or soothing your anguish with what you consume, and in so doing, being consumed by sloth and dissipation. Rather, the antidote to the days’ evil is in remembering. Remembering not that the days are evil, for this is evident. It is in remembering that the God and Father of us all is good.
Almighty and everlasting God, who governs all things in heaven and earth, mercifully hear the prayers of Your people and grant us Your peace through all our days; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Today you rejoice, the church sings, and the company of heaven mingle their voices with ours. But even while we rejoice and sing, the world scoffs, and the demons rage. The world scoffs because it no longer understands the wisdom of patriarchy and submission. It is ignorant of the goodness of the patriarchy of our Father in heaven, and does not know the beauty of the submission of the Church to her head, Christ. But the demons rage because they do know. They rage for the same reason that you rejoice, the church and all heaven sings. They know it, but they hate it.
Be near me, Lord Jesus; I ask Thee to stay Close by me forever and love me, I pray.
“Blessed, rather, are those who hear the word of God and keep it.”
And so it is quite fitting that our Lord’s first sign takes place at a wedding. For in the changing of the water into wine, Jesus shows us what he came to do: to make all things new.
When we speak of grace, we must first ask the question: What is grace? Grace is God’s undeserved favor toward sinners. Grace is God’s unmerited good intention, His loving disposition toward those who have gone astray and are dead in sin and by nature children of wrath (Eph 2:1, 3). Grace, then, is something that resides in God and not in man.
“Many are called, but few are chosen.” Not everyone goes to heaven. The Lord has atoned for the sins of the whole world. All are invited. No one need pay for his own sins, go unclothed or hungry, but some choose to anyway. They refuse the invitation and they stay out of heaven.
We’re called put off our old natures. The old nature is the old Adam. And put on the new nature by the renewing of our minds. The old Adam, your old nature has been put off in the putting on of the new. The new man, the new nature is the sanctified, redeemed child of God. Your new life, body and soul, is a life forgiven and restored. This is given in Baptism, when the death dies, and the Holy Spirit kicks the Devil out.