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From The Pastsor

August 2, 2019 by Rev. John Hartman

From the Pastor

I don’t think anybody ever needed the doctrine of assurance as much as Larry the Sad Boy, one of the inhabitants of Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon: “Larry the Sad boy… was saved twelve times in the Lutheran church, an all-time record. Between 1953 and 1961, he threw himself weeping and contrite on God’s throne of grace on twelve separate occasions, — and this in a Lutheran church that wasn’t evangelical, had no altar call, no organist playing “Just as I Am Without One Plea” while a choir hummed and a guy with shiny hair took hold of your heartstrings and played you like a cheap guitar, —this is the Lutheran Church—not a bunch of hillbillies… These are Scandinavians and they repent in the same way that they sin: discreetly, tastefully, at the proper time, and bring a Jello salad for afterward.”

“Larry Sorensen came forward weeping buckets and crumpled up at the communion rail, to the amazement of the minister, who had delivered a dry sermon on stewardship, and who now had to put his arm around this limp, soggy individual and pray with him and see if he had a ride home. Twelve times … Granted, we’re born in original sin and are worthless and vile, but twelve conversions is too many. God didn’t mean us to feel guilt all our lives. There comes a point when you should dry your tears and join the building committee and start grappling with the problems of the church furnace and church roof and make church coffee and be of use, but Larry kept on repenting and repenting. He came up for Christmas and got drunk and knocked over the Christmas tree. That was before 2:00 pm. He spent the next eight hours apologizing for it, and the penance was worse than the crime.”

Friends, what we need to do is repent with true repentance. You know what true repentance is like? Sometimes I will be working at my computer and I will misspell a word or have an awkward sentence. Do you know what I do? I just delete it and go on. That’s not repentance! True repentance is like other times I’ve had. Times when I’ve been working on a document and my computer freezes up. The keys won’t work. Sometimes this will happen after I’ve been working on a project for an hour and haven’t saved what’s there. I get so frustrated. I get up, walk around the room fuming, and thinking terrible thoughts about Steve Jobs. But there’s a dawning awareness that if I want to move ahead, I’m going to hit control-alt-delete. I am going to have to shut down my computer and reboot. I must say goodbye to what was there before. Repentance is rebooting your life. It’s going dark and coming back to the light. It’s saying goodbye to what was there before and writing a whole new chapter of your life before God.

Please join us this Sunday, as we hear about David and his life with God. And so, get ready, as we repent, get right with God, and come to the table of grace for the Lord’s Supper. See you at 10:00 am in the Family Life Center.

Pastor John

“The Christian who walks with the Lord and keeps constant communion with Him will see many reason for rejoicing and thanksgiving all day long.” Warren Wiersbe

Warren Wendel Wiersbe was an American pastor, Bible teacher, conference speaker and a prolific writer of Christian literature and theological works.

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