Monday in the 9th week of Pentecost
Daily Readings
Joshua 2:1-14 Romans 11:1-12 Matthew 25:1-13
“The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.” (Jeremiah 23:28)
The world is full of dreamers. Visit any Christian bookstore or turn on any religious broadcast, and you will see. In fact, visit the majority of churches, and you will get an introduction to the dreams of men.
All of this is very old. Pandora’s Box was opened when the devil undermined the Word of God and Eve and Adam took the bait. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, a deception, a dream.
Men have been dream-weavers ever since, fabricating ways to God. One of the first attempts, at Babel, ended in confusion. How God wants to save us! Things haven’t changed since then, and God has not stopped trying.
The dreams men weave cry, “Peace! Peace!” where there is no peace. “Let’s just try to get along.” “Truth? What is truth? No one really knows what truth is, so let’s all be tolerant.”
The only bad thing in the world today, according to the dreams of men, is saying someone else is wrong, that some behavior is against God’s will, that what the Lord has given us will save everyone. Dreamers call people who think otherwise narrow-minded, legalistic, loveless, closed! And any attitude that veers away from these dreamers is condemned.
God calls it faithful when the people of God cling only to His Word, repeating only what He’s said, passing on what they’ve received. You can find a preacher for whatever your itching ears want to hear these days, but sound doctrine is still where the Gospel is taught purely and the Holy Sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution.
There, sin will be denounced as sin. Sinners will be taught to confess that nothing good resides in men, that no one seeks God. They will hear that only One is righteous, only One loves God, and He is Jesus. And Jesus didn’t pretend our sins can’t hurt us. He loved us too much not to tell us the truth, not to rescue us from lies. He died because the truth not only hurts, it kills. It killed the Son of God!
By that death, Jesus won salvation for all sinners. “Word!” “Truth!” Now we can say, “I’m not making this up! I’m no dreamer! Heaven’s won and handed out in Word and Water, Bread and Wine, because Christ took your sins and mine and suffered for them. They killed Him. Now, because He lives, we live as well.”
And anyone who tells you anything different – well, let that person dream. You listen to the Word of God. It saves you.
(Higher Things)