"This will be again." - "Tschakaaa - you can do it!" - "I'm calm, very calm, breathing deeply and evenly ..." - "Do not panic!" - "I am so beautiful, I'm so mad, I'm Anton from Tyrol."
How do you do when you need auto insurance? If a difficult task lies ahead, a check? Or if you feel it's just beyond there, your life is beside the track? If the faith losing themselves threatened?
The reformer Martin Luther is said to have in such situations with chalk written on the table in three words: "I am baptized, you were to him a shield against malicious misunderstanding and hostility so many.
"I am baptized!" Whether we are there to provide a legend or historical truth - the certainty, to be baptized, Luther has given his life force and hope that he is not of God left alone. What would happen ever in his life, God's promise to be with him would qualify. Therefore, Luther understood the baptism as the beginning and the center of the Christian Life.
I am baptized. So I say: I have a Father in heaven. I can always come to him. This is true even if I have failed. This is true even if I have a long time want to know anything about him. No blame could have so much power that they block my return to God. No one but God has given me life and wants me to live. Baptism makes visible God's yes. It can make people optimistic, give them a great confidence and strength when all seems to despair.
When anxiety becomes overwhelming, threatening to paralyze me: I am baptized!
When the world seems full of devils: I am baptized!
When pain, illness, Death make me create:
I am baptized!
If my little faith is not sufficient to satisfy the doubts: I am baptized! The
remains. This leads me the way through darkness and light, and gives me hope and confidence for a life that will succeed.
This post is as a radio devotional for SR2 and SR3 "pause" and published in summary form for Rockland Radio "Feels Like Heaven" and can be heard on their podcast offerings.
How do you do when you need auto insurance? If a difficult task lies ahead, a check? Or if you feel it's just beyond there, your life is beside the track? If the faith losing themselves threatened?
The reformer Martin Luther is said to have in such situations with chalk written on the table in three words: "I am baptized, you were to him a shield against malicious misunderstanding and hostility so many.
"I am baptized!" Whether we are there to provide a legend or historical truth - the certainty, to be baptized, Luther has given his life force and hope that he is not of God left alone. What would happen ever in his life, God's promise to be with him would qualify. Therefore, Luther understood the baptism as the beginning and the center of the Christian Life.
I am baptized. So I say: I have a Father in heaven. I can always come to him. This is true even if I have failed. This is true even if I have a long time want to know anything about him. No blame could have so much power that they block my return to God. No one but God has given me life and wants me to live. Baptism makes visible God's yes. It can make people optimistic, give them a great confidence and strength when all seems to despair.
When anxiety becomes overwhelming, threatening to paralyze me: I am baptized!
When the world seems full of devils: I am baptized!
When pain, illness, Death make me create:
I am baptized!
If my little faith is not sufficient to satisfy the doubts: I am baptized! The
remains. This leads me the way through darkness and light, and gives me hope and confidence for a life that will succeed.
This post is as a radio devotional for SR2 and SR3 "pause" and published in summary form for Rockland Radio "Feels Like Heaven" and can be heard on their podcast offerings.
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