“SIN BOLDLY” –MARTIN LUTHER


The fascinating, complex German reformer Martin Luther was many things. One of them was quotable!


 Luther’s views were condemned as heretical by Pope Leo X in the bull Exsurge Domine in 1520. He was, consequently, summoned to either renounce or reaffirm them at the Diet of Worms on 17 April 1521. When he appeared before the assembly, Johann von Eck, acting as spokesman for Emperor Charles the Fifth, showed Luther a table filled with copies of his writing. Eck asked if he still believed what these works taught. Luther requested time to think about his answer. Granted an extension, he prayed, consulted with friends and mediators, and presented himself before the Diet the next day.


The counselor put the same question to Luther. Here is Luther’s famous answer, “Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.“


On May 25, the Emperor issued his Edict of Worms, declaring Martin Luther an outlaw.



And here is Luther’s famous statement to Philipp Melanchton: “If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, sin boldly, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2. Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign.” [Letter 99.13, To Philipp Melanchthon, 1 August 1521.]

Roy, I & Jake just went for a lovely moonlight 9 p.m. run down our dirt country lane–access only, no cars.

He says I am just like Jake the Collie, in that I love to curl up all day, and pretend I like runs.

I said HE was like Jake the Collie, in that he loves to curl up all day, the only difference being that Jake loves runs, & Roy loves tea.

Having agreed on this, we both petted Jake, who happily wagged his tail!

St John at Patmos,

John’s vision of Patmos (a vision rather than a theophany, incidentally!)

Among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest.¹⁴His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. ¹⁵His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. ¹⁶In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
 ¹⁷When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. ¹⁸I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

John was exiled to Patmos. Ostensibly, the end of influence, the end of his ministry, the end of his life. His life had ended. (I have so often felt like that, that my life as I had envisioned it has come to to a dead end, and failed!).

Yet, because of the word of God, which can be spoken even in the absence of the written Scripture, when you think your influence and ministry is over, it can be the strongest. (Another example is the wonderful, soul-nourishing letters Paul wrote in the desert of prison.)

(Patmos was hot and barren, incidentally. It informed John’ss vision of heaven–Never again will they hunger;
never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat upon them,
nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd;
he will lead them to springs of living water.
And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”)

And in this desert place, in this wilderness season, he received a vision of God, and it made everything different. He saw Christ--pure, passionate, powerful, eternal, beautiful.

And with the the Revelation, the despised, forgotten, powerless prisoner becomes a prophet and a pastor, a pastor for the ages, as the best spiritual writers are.

The most important things happen on the inside.Our spiritual life is the most important dimension of our lives–not the intellectual, not the physical, not even love and friendship.

And these are the words Christ said to John which changed everything
“Do not be afraid.
I am the Alpha and the Omega. I encompass everything.
The alphabet, all human learning, everything that happened, is happening, can happen, and will happen, is in my hands.
I am the Living One.
And I see you. I control your life, and I will control your death.”

John gains strength. The powerless prisoner becomes a writer and a prophet with a gift for 21 centuries.

And everything can change in the desert, for there you have the best possible conditions for seeing God.

My thoughts have been full of Lolly Dunlap who left this life on the 8th of September. We met weekly almost exactly 8 years ago during a difficult season of my life. We met to pray, study Scripture, and talk–i.e. me soaking in her wisdom and loving spirit.

Frederick Buechner had this description of a vocation, “The vocation God calls you to is where your deep joy and the world’s deep need intersect.” 


I think the same can be said of a good and successful business idea. Find out how your skills, talents, and interests, what you could have fun doing, can somehow intersect with and serve the world’s deep need. No one can meet all the world’s needs. So discover people’s real needs in an niche which interests you and turns you on. Meet that need. Earn your living–plus–in that area.


So a business, ideally, should be an exchange of blessings. The business owner blesses the customer with his or her skills or products. The customer, in return, leaves cash–and good will.


When I seek God’s direction in our business, one thing I always seem to hear him say, is “Think bigger.” I think of how he told Abraham to look up, and count the stars…

I own a business, a small publishing company, and since I got into business 4 years ago, in my forties, with no previous training or experience, I need to run it by prayer. Which I do. Successfully when I remember to pray, stressfully when I do not.

I hardly ever watch thrillers, since I get emotionally over-involved in them, and hence nervous. However, I was fascinated by the premise of this novel when I first read a review of it–Smilla who can read snow. I remember studying in linguistics that people find words for what is important to them. The Eskimos, for instance, are supposed to have 17 words to describe snow.