Agnus Dei Ministries - From the Bishop

Numbers

2/24/2019

Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. Isaiah 46:4

This past week, my father-in-law celebrated his 100th birthday. He is the first person with whom I have been associated in family who made it to the century mark. While he has physical problems that come with advanced age, when he is "on his game", he is as sharp as when he was in his 50s.

When you get into what has been termed "old age', you are looking toward the end of your life. And the verse from Isaiah is a true comfort, because our God tells us very succinctly, He is with us. He will sustain us. He will carry us. He will rescue us.

But the even better news is that verse applies to every one of us, no matter what our age. God made us and will sustain us. He gives us strength to make it through whatever this world throws at us. Give thanks to Him for all that he does for us.

++Richard

CRUISE CONTROL

2/9/2019

Before I retired, I drove thousands of miles each year. One of the ways I was able to drive those many miles was putting my car on cruise control. Even when I had a manual shift car, I had cruise control so that when I was driving interstates I could let my legs relax. But you still needed to be on attention for those going more slowly so you could hit the brake and take off the cruise control.

When we bought our current car we found it has ADAPTIVE cruise control. What that means is that when you come up behind a slower car, the cruise control adapts and slows down to the same speed. And when you pull out to pass, it resumes to the speed where you had it set. But this cruise control is insidious. If the car in front is only going 1 or 2 mph slower, you don't realize you have slowed down. And if that car loses speed slowly, suddenly you find yourself going 5-10 mph slower than where you set the speed.

I wonder how often we set our spiritual life on cruise control. We keep on doing the same things, going along at the same speed, and then start slowing down, but we don't realize it because the cruise control adapted to the slower pace in our faith. We need to, every so often, kick off the cruise control and do something different in our faith life. Maybe it's reading a new book. Maybe it's going to a seminar. Maybe it's going on a retreat.

God wants us to keep expanding our faith and turning off the cruise control every so often is a way in which we can increase our love and fellowship with our God. Isn't it time for you to turn off your cruise control?

++Richard

DEAD END

1/17/2019

It's been a few months since I posted a blog. I think my mind was in idle through the first of the year. But today as I was driving, I saw a street sign that was different from most of what I usually see. Most of the street signs in North Carolina are green. This street sign was in blue. Then I remembered why. Streets that are through streets have their signs in green. Streets that are a dead end, with no way out, are in blue.

And it struck me how often we are on a path that leads to a dead end. We don't always look for the signs before we take off down a path, hoping for the best. Dead ends bring nothing but frustration, bad temper and despair. While there aren't any green or blue signposts to guide us, we do have direction.

Before we start any task, we need to take it to the Lord in prayer. We need to ask Him for direction on which path to take and check in with him along the way. And we also need to continue to consult the "direction atlas" he has given us, the Bible. We can't always see a street sign as we go through life, but if we look for the guidance from Our Father, the path will be one which we can see more clearly.

++Richard

Talk is cheap

8/2/2018

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.
—James 1:22

This passage is a challenge to all of us to "put your money where your mouth is." Or as one of my friend's noted when I posted this as my daily verse, "talk's cheap". All too often we Christians talk a good game, but our performance on the battlefield against evil is sorely lacking.

It's easy to say "I'll pray for you" or "You are in my thoughts and prayers." But even when we say that, how many of us get down in our knees and spend substantial time praying for those in need? How many of us go on with our busy lives with just a fleeing "Lord help them"?

James points out to us we are deceiving ourselves if we think that is enough. He comes right out and tells us..DO WHAT IT SAYS. To those Christians who have become complacent, James is telling us to get off our couches and out of our chairs and live the words of the Gospel. Be a living Christian, not one dead to the world. It is wonderful to be a contemplative person, praying and meditating on the Word of God. But God needs soldiers of the faith. God needs us to be active in the world. Do as James tells us. DO what the Gospel says.

++Richard

Summer reflections

7/29/2018

It's hot. Here in North Carolina we went through weeks of 90+ degree heat and oppressive humidity. My friends in Phoenix and Las Vegas are dealing with air temperatures of 118. And no, being a dry heat does NOT make it any cooler. 118 is 118.

While the world debates climate change, I'd like to talk about another kind of heat. The heat of Hell. You don't hear much about that any more. Used to be you could find at least one "hell, fire and brimstone" preacher around. Seems as if the church forgot about Hell. But we can't. Hell is real.

Whether we think of Hell as a place described in Dante's "Inferno" or simply a place in eternity where we are separated from God, it is real. Which means we need to make sure that we, as Christians, live the life that will send us to heaven, and not end up in eternal damnation.

We need to spend time thinking about our brothers and sisters who need us and not focus on ourselves all the time. We need to share our resources with those less fortunate who need the charity that Jesus told us about. We need to take time from our summer vacations to listen for God's guidance in His word.

While summer is a time when we can enjoy the outdoors, take time to praise the one who created this magnificent planet. Watch the ocean roll in and marvel at how it helps feed us and nourish us. Look at the mountains in all their splendor and let your heart burst with the glory God provides.

Enjoy the summer and the warmth it bring always praising the one who created it and live the life that assures us of a place in God's heaven above.

The preposition

6/16/2018

Today I posted the following for the verse of the day which I post on my personal Facebook page, the Agnus Dei Ministries Facebook page and the Lutheran Orthodox Church Facebook page:

Should we not have compassion on others the way the Lord has compassion on us?
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.
—Psalm 103:13

Within minutes I got a call from my oldest (daughter Lisa, trained as an English teacher) who asked me, "Shouldn't the preposition be have compassion for others?" My response was that when we have compassion "for" someone it's an internal felling we have. When we have compassion ON someone, it's a tangible action.

God had compassion ON us when he sent His Son to live with us and for us and then die for our sins. All too often we, as Christians, feel compassion FOR a situation or a person, but we fail to take action and have compassion ON them.

The next time you find yourself having pity and feeling compassion FOR someone, take action and have compassion ON them.

Peace and blessings.

++Richard

Orthodoxy for Protestants

Praise the Lord

6/5/2018

Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.
--1 Chronicles 29:11

Often we use the word ACTS as an acronym for the way in which we should pray. It goes like this:

Adoration: Give God praise and honor for who he is as Lord over all.
Confession: Honestly deal with the sin in your prayer life.
Thanksgiving: Verbalize what you’re grateful for in your life and in the world around you.
Supplication: Pray for the needs of others and yourself.

But in practice, we often skip the first word. Learning to "Praise the Lord" if often difficult for those of us in liturgical churches. Our evangelical brothers and sisters don't have a monopoly on praising the Lord, but they do have a head start.

There are hundreds of passages of scripture verses which praise the Lord. Psalms is a wonderful place to start if you want to learn praising the Lord. Look at Psalms 8, 65, 76, 100,111,146 and 150. Think about the Sunday liturgy and remember the many songs and hymns of praise we sing as part of the Eucharistic service.

God loves it when we give Him praise. He is our creator, our redeemer and our sanctifier. Why shouldn't we take time out of our every day to praise Him for all He has done for us?
Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Praise Him all creatures here below.
Praise Him above the heavenly host
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost.
Praise the Lord!

++Richard

Orthodoxy for Protestants

Why can't we all just get along?

5/21/2018

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
--1 Corinthians 1:10

Even in Paul's day, there were divisions among the Christians. Since the beginning of the church, there have been disagreements, heresies and challenges to authority. Today there are hundreds of Christian denominations and independent churches all claiming to be "the way, the truth and the light."

Yet despite these disagreements on how we worship, when we worship and the ways we worship, Paul's call for no divisions still rings true. Which means in order for us to be perfectly united in mind and thought we all need to agree on one thing...the inerrancy of scripture. Just as there is one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, there is only one scripture. We may read different translations, but the Word of God is pure and true.

There is no "wiggle room" in scripture. It is what it says. And we are called to live the life that scriptures calls us to,; to love, be holy and pure and in communion with our brothers and sisters and Christ. If we can all agree on the purity of Holy Scripture we will take the first steps towards Paul's appeal that "there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought."

Orthodoxy for Protestants

Salt of the Earth

5/8/2018

Make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.
--Colossians 4:5-6

Many of us have heard the phrase "you might be the only Jesus that someone ever sees." And we understand that this means that the way in which we live reflects on the way in which people judge us as Christians.

These verses in Colossians challenge us to do even more. They tell us to take every opportunity to spread the good news and be prepared to share the Gospel. But one phrase in the verses takes a little more in depth discussion. Paul tells the church at Colossae to have conversation that is "seasoned with salt". So how do you do that?

I admit that, despite my doctor's advice, I salt everything. It's the spice that I seem to see in order to be able to have my food taste the way I want it to. And Paul is telling the young Christians that they need to be able to season their conversations with something that makes their conversations and arguments "full of grace". What he's talking about is scripture.

We need to be able to share the good news whenever we are able. And in order to do this, we need to be able to salt the conversation with the solid truths of God the creator, Jesus his Son and the Holy Spirit. Take time each day to prepare the spices you need to salt your conversations with others. Study scripture and be prepared to use it to "salt" your conversations. Be the salt of the earth to those who need some "spicing up in their life".

++Richard

Orthodoxy for Protestants

Take it to the Lord in prayer

5/2/2018

This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him.
—1 John 5:14-15

These wonderful verses were the "verse of the day" today. And there was some wonderful promises included in them. First, because of the saving grace through Jesus Christ, we have confidence in approaching God. We do not need be afraid but boldly go to Our Father in prayer. We can lift up our voices to Him.

And He hears us. This is one of the wonderful mysteries of our faith. Our God, the creator of the universe, takes time and is able to hear our still small voice among the cacophany of voices and listen to us. And when he hears, He delivers But there is one small caveat. If we ask anything ACCORDING TO HIS WILL

That's the part many of us forget. We can ask for anything. We can pray for anything. But it only is delivered if it is "Gods will". So we can have confidence our God hears out voice. We can have faith that He will deliver. But we must always continue to seek Him and find His will for us.

Continue in prayer and contemplation with our Lord. He does and will answer prayer.

Peace and continued blessings.

++Richard

Orthodoxy for Protestants

Right Reverend Richard Wagner

Rt. Rev. Richard Wagner is Archbishop for the Lutheran Orthodox Church Diocese of Eastern North Carolina based in Fayetteville, NC. He is a member of the LOC Council of Bishops and sits on the LOC corporate board as Vice President and Director of New Members Services and Applicants. Bishop Wagner is currently in residence at Agnus Dei Lutheran Orthodox Church in Fayetteville.

Archives

August 2018
July 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018

Categories