A Lenten Devotion

Lent is renowned for being a time of reflection, a time to acknowledge our sin-stained nature that led our Lord on His path to Golgotha. It is not popular today to focus upon our sins in an “affirming” society that requires that we only emphasize the “positive.” But Jesus’ road to the cross was not to be avoided and His sacrifice was all too essential for our salvation. Good thoughts could not save us, but only the atoning blood of the Son of God!

I have been reading the devotional meditations of Dr. O.P. Kretzmann in a compilation of his essays, The Road Back to God. Kretzmann’s poetic language displays the long-lost craft of the proverbial wordsmith as he discourses upon the significance of what Jesus accomplished on Calvary, for us.

Although they were written back in the 1930s when Kretzmann was executive secretary of the Walther League,his expressed thoughts still hold great wisdom in our day. I was especially struck by the timelessness of these words: “Twilight fell upon Jerusalem more than 1900 years ago. Twilight falls upon a troubled and bewildered

world today. Before it darkens down into a blacker night than we have ever known before, you must be safe in the arms of Jesus. Once more the final sunshine of His pity must fall sweet over the sick heart and the aching head, and in that last twilight you must find your heart’s desire and the end of your dreams.”

Mankind’s age-old longing is articulated best by St. Augustine’s familiar words, which Kretzmann quotes: “Our heart is restless until it rests in You.”

The work of the Lutheran Heritage Foundation is predicated upon the needs of sinful mankind, to hear the Law in all of its severity so that the message of the Gospel will resound in all of its triumphant majesty.

From our work at home and abroad,we know that Christ still reaches out to the spiritually sick and aching in Africa, Asia, South America and Europe. We thank you for sharing that good Word of our Savior with the lost so that they may find their rest in our Lord Jesus Christ.

- Rev. Matthew Heise LHF Executive Director