President’s Message March 2012

Dear members and friends of our ELS:
Going with the flow. That is literally how it was for some Minnesota fishermen last December. Unusually warm weather meant that some people needed a rescue from floating ice on Lake Mille Lacs—twice in one week! In one case, the breakaway section was so large, and since it occurred at night, fishermen did not immediately realize they were moving. One man said he was inside his ice fishing house and it suddenly felt like he was trolling. This has happened before, but not where so many needed to be carried to safety.
That ice floe pictures a far more dangerous situation facing each Christian. Whether in areas of morality or in confessing doctrine, a constant threat exists for believers to “go with the world’s flow.” How gradually it can happen! Mentally and spiritually we may be “on the move” without noticing the major shift that puts our souls in peril.
In his second epistle, the apostle Peter urges us to ward off false teaching. He alludes to the way error creeps on the scene. He tells Christians to “be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:17–18).
Pastor David Thompson, in his book What in the World is Going On?, mentions the subtle impact society often has in changing Christians’ personal beliefs. He writes: “A popular false worldview can be very effective at making the unacceptable acceptable and the acceptable unacceptable. Christians will probably not even realize that their beliefs are changing” (2010 NPH publication, p. 80).
Lent is a time for repentance. It is also a time for renewal. “My cry comes before you, O Lord; give me understanding according to your word” (Psalm 119:169). The more we delve into what God tells us concerning the sinners’ salvation secured by the Passion of our Redeemer, the more we will be moved to dig deeper into all of the promises and precepts laid down in His holy and fixed Word.
Luther noted we cannot stop the birds from flying over our heads, but we can keep the same birds from nesting in our hair! Through Word and Sacrament, focused on the suffering Christ, we take our stand—not just for us, but for generations to come.
“We are not to be like reeds shaken by the wind, as Jesus said, but to be like rocks in a mountain stream; not to be like fish floating with the stream, but to swim against the stream—even the cultural mainstream” (J. Stott).
Rev. John A. Moldstad, ELS President