September ~ What Confessional Lutherans Say

To help us gain a better appreciation of our Lutheran Heritage our newsletter runs regular quotations from various Lutheran writers. We will be turning to the ABC's of the Lutheran Confessions. This month we look at the letter "R" -- Remain. In Martin Luther's Large Catechism he encourages God's people to remain in him. God keps us close to him and growing in our faith through the hearing and studying of his word. This is how God's Kingdom Comes.

We pray here at the outset that all this may be realized in us and that God's name may be praised through his holy Word and our Christian lives. This we ask, both in order that we who have accepted it may remain faithful and grow daily in it and in order that it may gain recognition and followers among other people and advance with power throughout the world. So we pray that, led by the Holy Spirit, many may come into the kingdom of grace and become partakers of salvation, so that we may all remain together eternally in this kingdom which has now made its appearance among us. God's kingdom comes to us in two ways: first, it comes here, in time, through the Word and faith, and secondly, in eternity, it comes through the final revelation (i.e. the return of Christ). Now we pray for both of these, that it may come to those who are not yet in it, and that it may come by daily growth here and in eternal life hereafter to us who have attained it. All this is simply to say: "Dear Father, we pray thee, give us thy Word, that the Gospel may be sincerely preached throughout the world and that it may be received by faith and may work and live in us. So we pray that thy kingdom may prevail among us through the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit, that the devil's kingdom may be overthrown and he may have no right or power over us, until finally the devil's kingdom shall be utterly destroyed and sin, death, and hell exterminated, and that we may live forever in perfect righteousness and blessedness."

 Large Catechism
 Book of Concord, page 427

May God's Kingdom come in our lives as we hear and study the Word of God in our homes, in worship, and in Bible class. Come, Lord Jesus.