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| What happened to all the money for the couch and coffee church, lavishly praised in FICKLE? |
Luther's Sermon on the Epistle for the Second Sunday after Epiphany:
25. But giving is to be done with liberality — freely and gratuitously, to the honor of God alone, with no intent to secure favor, honor or profit; none shall dictate in the matter; and preference shall not be shown in giving much to the amiable and nothing to the uncongenial, as has been the case in the past in relation to the prebends and fiefs. These were distributed according to friendship and favor; for the sake of money, honor and profit.
The same is true of nearly all paid services in the matter of purgatory and hell. Freely, freely, we are to give, being careful only that it be well pleasing to God and bestowed according to necessity.
Paul, you will observe, frequently commends such liberality. It is rarely manifest, however. True gifts are made beyond measure, but they are unprofitable because not made with a free, liberal spirit; for instance, contributions to monasteries and other institutions. Not being given with liberality, God does not permit these gifts to be used for Christian purposes. Given in an unchristian manner, they must, in an unchristianlike way, be wasted; as Micah says (Micah 1:7): “Of the hire of a harlot hath she gathered them, and unto the hire of a harlot shall they return.”
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GJ - As Luther wrote in another place, a harlot is a woman who marries for money and leaves her husband when he is having financial problems.
Church leaders lavish praise and grace-soaked absolution upon rich adulterers, because they have so much in common. The church leaders are harlots who exchange "love" for money. Therefore, they hate the Word of God, which condemns them as harlots.
God limits the damage of the money given for harlotry, because it is wasted and not useful - in spite of the claims of the leaders' PR machine. Millions go to buildings that become money pits in short order. Millions are soaked up in wild hair projects, like the coffee and couches church. WELS would never devote a magazine article to a simple, faithful pastor who prepares his own sermons and visits his own members. Instead, they talk up this congregation with more staff than members. They promote the leader of this circus as a superstar of evangelism. And they move on to the next well funded disaster.
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| When is our next drunken spiritual retreat, DP Patterson? |
