Session #3 Guarding God’s Gift of Faith

1. “Guard What Has Been Entrusted to Your Care!”(1 Timothy 6:20)Encouraging brothers in ministry to guard four key gifts supporting ministry-long growth Session #3 Guarding God’s Gift of Faith

2. Special Protection for His Angels! Revelation 1:12,13, 16,20I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man”….in his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword…. “The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”

3. Spiritual Self-Care?!?!?! • With what theological challenge may the Lutheran pastor wrestle when it comes to the issue of caring for his/her own soul? “Watch your life (ἐπέχωσεαυτοῦ) and your doctrine closely….” (1 Tm 4:16)“Keep watch over yourselves (προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς) and all the flock….”(Acts 20:28)

4. Spiritual Self-Care Spend the next five minutes with two or three others brainstorming a list of other obstacles that get in our way as pastorsspending time in Word and prayer for no other purpose than the needs of our own souls.

5. Spiritual Self-Care What obstacles did your group identify? Keep track of all obstacles listed to see if we have answered them all before this session is finished.

6. Obstacle #1: I’m Already in the Word!

7. Evidence of Neglecting Our Own Spiritual Growth? • How many days during the typical week do you spend in personal devotional reading or study of the Word that is not directly related to preparing for a sermon or Bible class? • # of Days All 2003 1993 1983 • None 3% 10% 0% 0% • One 13% 30% 11% 0% • Two 10% 10% 11% 8% • Three 13% 10% 0% 25% • Four 17% 30% 22% 0% • Five 23% 0% 22% 50% • Six 10% 0% 33% 0% • Seven 10% 10% 0% 17% • Survey conducted in November 2008 with a randomly selected group of 33% of all WLS graduates from each of these graduating classes.

8. Obstacle #1: I’m Already in the Word! “[Jesus] wants to catch [the pastor] again and again with the net of his grace and mercy” (205).

9. Obstacle #2: Approaching time in Word and prayer as something we do for God • Consider how easy it is to slip into living from the law in every area of ministry, but especially when it comes to our devotional life! • What are the problems that rise up when we think we are doing God a favor by maintaining our devotional life?

10. An Answer to This Obstacle:Living from the Gospel Rather Than the Law

11. Kleinig’s Three Truths on Which Christian Meditation Is Based • The risen Lord Jesus is present with his disciples of all time just as he promised (Mt 28:20) • Christ’s Word has life-giving and life-sustaining power because it is inspired and filled with the Spirit (Jn 6:63) • We are already fully loved and justified children of God in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, through faith in him we stand in grace (Ro 5:1-2)

12. The Answer to This Obstacle • Reclaiming our Lutheran heritage: a devotional piety with grace as it’s beating heart • Luther believed that God uses three things to fashion us into theologians: • oratio, meditatio, tentatio. • How is oratio primarily God’s gracious activity? • How is meditatioprimarily God’s gracious activity? • How is even tentatio God’s grace at work for us?

13. Obstacle #3: Expecting Daily Mountaintop Experiences…and the Answer! • “As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: it will not return tom empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:10-11) • “The harvest does not come immediately.  Growth is slow and is not always evident, for the roots must go down deep before the stalk springs up tall.  We do not immediately experience the results of meditation as soon as we begin to meditate, or even while we meditate. …It is only now that I am reaping the harvest from what I meditated on long ago” (Grace Upon Grace, 114). How long does it take snow to make the earth bud and flourish? Since we live by faith and not sight, why shouldn’t this “delay” surprise us?

14. Obstacle #4: Being Driven by a Reading Schedule…and the Answer • “It happens often that in my meditation I come across such rich thoughts, that I disregard the other six petitions. When such a wealth of ideas comes, one should forego other petitions and make room for such thoughts, listen silently and certainly not hinder them from coming. Under these conditions the Holy Spirit is preaching and in his sermon one word is better than a thousand in our prayer” (A Simple Way to Pray, 12-13). How do these words of Luther seem to encourage a non multasedmultumapproach to our meditating on Scripture? At the same time, what can be the advantages of a more rapid reading of Scripture? Whatever pattern you select, don’t let a guilty conscience betray you into discouragement.

15. Obstacle #5: No one may have taught us how to meditate on the Word “academic” • Much of what is taught as meditation is more dangerous than helpful • Luther turned meditation upside down! • Different from lectio divina of the mystics • Mystics (ancient and modern) use the Word as a three step springboard to soar into heaven for direct communion with God • Luther’s four questions seek to slow us down and keep us focused on the Word: • What is God saying to me here? • For what does this lead me to give thanks? • What sins does this lead me to confess? • For what does this lead me to pray?

16. “…read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest…” • Spend 10 minutes reading through the brief excerpt from Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book. • Spend 10 minutes discussing: • In what ways may we at times resemble Hans when we read Scripture? • Discuss the value of Peterson’s insight gained as he compared what his dog does with a bone to the meaning of the Hebrew words for “meditating.” • Share with your group anything that has helped you to do what we pray at the close of worship: “May we so hear them, read, learn, and take them to heart, that being strengthened and comforted by your holy Word, we may cling to the blessed hope of eternal life.”

17. Some General Encouragements Other ideas you have found helpful? Any obstacles still unaddressed? Don’t slavishly copy patterns of others, learn from them, but develop patterns that work for you Consider including the Confessions in your pattern (especially Small Catechism) Including hymns (OT & NT) and canticles can provide rich variety Consider establishing a pattern for intercessory prayer Consider using John Jeske’sTreasures Old and New Many have found useful a time and place that is “sacred” for this Ponder the wisdom of changing your patterns regularly

18. Impact of Having a Set Time Each Day on Frequency of Personal Devotional Time

19. Impact of Having a Set Time Each Day on Length of Time Spent in Word and Prayer

20. An Open Invitation Also to You, His Shepherd! “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).