Cast Your Sins onto Jesus

From today's writing portion of Pray Now app (Treasury of Daily Prayer):

After man has thus become aware of his sin and is terrified in his heart, he must watch that sin does not remain in his conscience, for this would lead to sheer despair. Just as [our knowledge of] sin flowed from Christ and was acknowledged by us, so we must pour this sin back on him and free our conscience of it. Therefore beware, lest you do as those perverse people who torture their hearts with their sins and strive to do the impossible, mainly, get rid of their sins by running from one good work or penance to another, or by working their way out of this by means of indulgences. . . .

You cast your sins from yourself and onto Christ when you firmly believe that his wounds and sufferings are your sins, to be borne and paid for by him, as we read in Isaiah 53:6, "The Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." St. Peter says, "in his body has he borne our sins on the wood of the cross" [1 Peter 2:24]. St. Paul says, "God has made him a sinner for us, so that through him we would be made just" [2 Cor. 5:21]. You must stake everything on these and similar verses. The more your conscience torments you, the more tenaciously must you cling to them. If you do not do that, but presume to still your conscience with your contrition and penance, you will never obtain peace of mind, but will have to despair in the end. If we allow sin to remain in our conscience and try to deal with it there, or if we look at sin in our heart, it will be much too strong for us and will live forever. But if we behold it resting on Christ and [see it] overcome by his resurrection, and then boldly believe this, even it is dead and nullified. Sin cannot remain on Christ, since it is swallowed up by his resurrection. Now you see no wounds, no pain in him, and no sign of sin. Thus St. Paul declares that "Christ died for our sin and rose for our justification" [Rom. 4:25]

-- Martin Luther

Lutheran Study Bible

I have the hard cover version of the Lutheran Study Bible (so do the kiddos). But when it was announced that we could get the LSB on Kindle I was pretty excited. Irrationally excited, according to my children.

I love my LSB, but I don't like carrying it around out of the house. Or trying to pack it for the Higher Things conference coming up and carrying it around there. It is just too heavy for me. My back and neck hurt normally and then to add that weight. Well, I'm not a kid anymore. I could and did haul ~60 lbs of books in my backpack in college but that was a long, long time ago.

Now I've got the whole LSB in my purse when I go out. Tucked neatly on my iPod touch. Along with the Book of Concord on one app. And the Large Catechism on another (Stanza)...that one I can book mark and annotate. And about 50 other classics on various apps...oh and all of Shakespeare. Plus iBird (way cool!), music (or course!), games, etc. Can't wait until the hymnal and prayer book can be added to my iPod touch. Oh my. Just checked Amazon. The prayer book is already available on Kindle. I probably should have got bigger than an 8G iPod.

The first question people ask me when they see the Bible on my iPod is "How small is the print?" I then show them how the font size can be easily changed to suit the individual's needs. You can change the color of the text also. I like the sepia.

~

Bible Class

We studied Psalm 124 last night in Bible class.

Our Help Is in the Name of the Lord

1 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side--
let Israel now say--
2 if it had not been the LORD who was on our side
when people rose up against us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;
4 then the flood would have swept us away,
the torrent would have gone over us;
5 then over us would have gone the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the LORD,
who has not given us as prey to their teeth!
7 We have escaped like a bird from the snare of the fowlers;
the snare is broken, and we have escaped!
8 Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth.

And here are the notes from the Lutheran Study Bible (CPH) for verse 7:

Imagery of earthbound people nearly drowned in the flood (vv4-5) is followed by a comparison of people to birds caught in the subtlety of a snare. The flood's danger is open and frightening; the snare is hidden and tempting. But God delivers from both extremes.

And the final note for the entire psalm:

We need this psalm's reminder that our strength and safety come only by God's hand. We are in danger from flood and snare, the overwhelming and the enticing. But God is faithful for His name's sake. He rescues us so that we will continue to bless and call on His name.

Lead us safely, Lord so we may always give glory to Your name. Amen.

This psalm really came to life for me after this weekend and seeing the birds caught in the "snare". It truly is "hidden".












Our strength and safety come only by God's hand.

He rescues us so that we will continue to bless and call on His name.

God gets us out of the mess we are in.

Want to see what happens when I try to help or struggle as God is getting me out of the "snare".








I get stuck worse than I was at first.