To the one who is lost and sunk in the practical—or real—atheism of our present culture, to you I say: Without God, you have nothing, because without God there is nothing. Without Him you will never have anything. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. If you want to get anywhere, start there.
To those who accept that God is, but who know nothing of what He has revealed, or what He is like, or anything He has done, I say: Look to Christ, who is God, God in human form. Jesus is the light of the world, who reveals God to us. In Him is summed up all that God is, all that He has done, all that he does, and all that He will do. If you know Him, you know God.
To those who profess Christ as the One Sent from Heaven, but who have no congregation, no pastor, no place in the Kingdom—and there are many of you!—I say, seek out a House of Worship, a place where believers gather, where your faith in Jesus can be formed and disciplined—else, your faith is too much all about you.
To those who have a church, but who participate in it only occasionally, and maybe even only rarely, to you I say, get serious. “Hallowed be Thy Name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done”—is not a part-time, casual, as-you-feel-the-need-for-it kind of commitment. Get serious with your worship, get serious with your congregation, or I fear you are wasting your time.
To those who have a church home (“home”, I say, for you are serious) but no solid understanding of the big picture, to you I say, seek instruction in the basics, embrace the basics, learn the catechism and the creeds, which are the condensed and distilled wisdom of the Scriptures. This is a firm and sure foundation for all that is yet to come to you. Don’t be ashamed to become a child in this. We all must start out as children. Our post-truth world doesn’t understand foundations. But you have come to the Truth, which is the foundation.
To those who know the basics of the Truth, the ancient creeds, the catechism’s answers, the sound and cadence of people at worship, at praise, and at prayer, then to you I say, go to the Scriptures, and seek out a yet deeper knowledge of God there. Learn the stories and the names and the events by which God has made Himself known to us. Study the words and the phrases and the verses and the passages and the images that are the stuff of the Truth.
To those whose faith has been formed by a confession and a catechism and a congregation and a liturgy and the Scripture, whose place in a pew—the very place you sit—is well known to a pastor in a pulpit, to a pastor whose face and voice is well known to you, to you I say this: Sunday morning is not the end of it. Search the Scriptures daily and pray without ceasing. Yes, by yourself, but not on your own. The Church prays together on Sunday mornings, but it prays separately every day, and you are a part of that Church which prays every day.
To those who have mastered all of this, I have nothing to add. But would you please pray for me? I am still on my way.
James D. Burns
Pastor, First Lutheran Church (LC-MS)
Benton, Arkansas
First Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) 