A meeting with my Pastor last night really opened my eyes to what being a Christian really means.
During the Lenten season my Pastor thinks it is important to go back to the basics of being a Christian. There will be these mini "reminder" sessions during Lent where members of our congregation will speak on these basics.
However! Why wait! Pick up the Small Catechism and refresh yourself. Or better yet, pick up the Large Catechism and be enlightened!
The Preface to the Small Catechism written by Dr. Martin Luther is one of the best reads! He writes "....everyone says that they are Christians, have been baptized, and receive holy Sacraments, even though they cannot even recite the Lord's Prayer or the Creed or the Ten Commandments. They live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs. Now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all freedom like experts."
Luther was prompted to put together The Small Catechism because he discovered that people who called themselves Christians did not know the basics of what being a Christian meant.
A good metaphor Pastor brought up (him being a HUGE sports fan!) put it like this. When an athlete is going through a slump, what do they do? They go back to the basics of the game! Spring training for example is a time for baseball players to refresh themselves on the basics of the game.
Of course this is all from a Lutheran's point of view. But regardless of what religion you practice, it is always nice to refresh yourself with the basics, to get back to that understanding of your faith.
This weekend Sami received her first Bible from our Church. I spent a week talking to Sami about The Old and New Testament, the 4 major Gospels and so on. Then we were to pick out 1 verse to write in her Bible.
ONE VERSE from the ENTIRE Bible. I scanned the Bible thru and thru until I stopped at the book of Psalms. Psalms has always been one of my favorite books of the Bible simply because it is very uplifting.
ANYWAYS, when finding a verse to write in her Bible I really wanted to find one that she could refer to at any point in her life. When times get hard, something she could find comfort in.
Psalm 28: 7 reads as follows:
"The Lord is my strength and my
shield;
in him my heart trusts;
So I am helped, and my heart
exults,
and with my song I give
thanks to him."
Psalm 28 has always been one of my favorites to read because it is a prayer that has helped me through many personal problems. I don't know, it was just a special moment to read the verse and hand her the Holy Scriptures....a promise that I made to her at her Baptism.
