:: VFAM.ORG :: We're not rockstars, that's for sure.

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper, He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Words and Music by Martin Luther
A.D. 1529

One of my favorites. What about you?

Keeping our hearts pliable to the His message.

I was reading through Mark the other day and came across the following passage (Mark 2:21-22):

"No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins."

Interestingly, I have been "cleaning" out our old desktop computer this weekend by transferring old documents, pictures and videos to the new Macbook we got a few months back. I came across a folder where I used to save notes/journals from when I was in college. It was cool to just sit there and read through some of the things I was learning back then. I came across the following note, specifically about the above passage:

"Wineskins" were goatskins sewed together at the edges to form a watertight bag. Because new wine expands with age, it had to be put into new, pliable wineskins. A used wineskin, having become more rigid, would burst and spill the wine. Like old wineskins, the Pharisees were too rigid to accept Jesus, who could not be contained in their traditions or rules. Christianity required new approaches, new traditions, and new structures. We need to keep our hearts pliable so we can accept Jesus' life- changing message.

I'm pretty sure this came from this commentary, so I can't take credit. But the thought is challenging nonetheless. How often do we stick with what we know or what we've always done simply because it's easy or familiar? For me personally, I know that I learned a lot about worship during my college years by going to church affiliated with a different denomination than my home church. There I felt God showed me new ways to listen to Him, specifically in regards to music. The above message hits home for me because of this--a good reminder to not keep Jesus in a box.

Does this resonate with you?