President's Piece for Peace
With this early Fall edition of the IDE Today we bring to a close the four part series from C.F.W. Walther on The Exercise of a Congregation's Duty to do it's Share that the Church in General may be Established and Promoted. I do hope that the first three points Walther made (the topic of the previous three IDE Today articles) would be used as discussion material by the congregation and it's leadership. The fourth and final point Walther makes is "Finally if I claimed to be a sincere Christian, I would invoke from God abundant success upon my endeavors by means of my most ardent prayers."
Walther began and ended each day with fervent prayer. He believed he could do nothing well without invoking from the Lord of the Church His blessing and grace. He bids us to do the same when it comes to the outreach of the congregation with the Gospel. Before plans are made, before efforts are expended, before resources are used; Walther urges us to pray. He does so especially with regard to promoting the Church in your community.
Walther is re-calling us to Luther's Small Catechism in the third chief part on the Lord's Prayer. The second petition is "Thy Kingdom Come." When asked what we mean when we pray this petition Luther responded "we ask that God would extend His Kingdom of Grace on earth." He then directs us to Holy Scripture in Matthew 9:38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest. Again in II Thessalonians 3:1 Brethren, pray for us that the Word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified.
Edward Koehler explains what Luther meant by this when he wrote "In the same manner the kingdom of God comes to others, the heathen. The first thing necessary, then, is that the Gospel be preached to them. Hence we pray that God would send missionaries into His harvest, that we support the work of these men with our prayers and with our gifts, and that we ourselves do mission work by speaking to others about the salvation in Christ and by bringing them to our churches and schools." The latter sentence is a simple yet powerful word from Koehler. Invite them to our churches and schools.
Walther would agree whole heartedly with the point Koehler makes. It is one thing to pray for our missionaries and our pastors who preach the Word, it is yet very important that we pray that we are also in the work of promoting the church. Pray, pray and pray yet more "Thy Kingdom Come." As we do, recognize we are also praying that each one of us becomes a mouth piece for the sake of promoting the Church. It is the biblical way, it is the way of Luther, of Walther and of the Lord's church on earth.
Rev. Dr. Brian Saunders
President of Iowa District East.
