The Joshua Victor Theory

  In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Lent always opens with Jesus’ wilderness temptation. 40 days of testing, and 40 days of Lent. Temptation, sin, and repentance are major Lent themes. Two sides are always at work in the struggle. Temptation vs. testing, Satan vs. God, our sinful will vs. God’s good will. The two sides of the struggle spring up from two different planted seeds. Planted seeds? What do you mean? In the parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, Jesus says the devil sows weed seed in God’s fields after God first plants good seed. The world is filled with bad seed mixed among the good, these two seeds that are planted with two outcomes, two sides in the struggle. James also looks at human sin and temptation as a weed seed that we plant in ourselves by an evil desire. An evil desire is a seed planted, that conceives and gives birth to sin, then matures into adulthood and brings forth death. That’s weed seed and its outcome. On the other h...

Out of the flood of images that pour out of the Passion reading, seize on the person of Peter for a moment. At the Last Supper, Jesus says “You will all fall away, for it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.’ But after I am raised up, I will go before you to Galilee.” Jesus is quoting from the prophet Zechariah, explaining how all His disciples would abandon Him in His hour of greatest need. But also, that Jesus would rise up from death, and rendezvous with them in Galilee (this of course they forgot until after the resurrection). But Peter is eager to proclaim his undying loyalty to Jesus: “Even though they all fall away, I will not.” Probably many of us at one time or another have imagined ourselves doing something heroic in the midst of danger. Or showing our loyalty to the extreme, or standing up bravely when others failed. But how will we be tested? And would we stand the test? Jesus soberly answered Peter’s boast: “Truly, I tell you, th...

With me Stands the Righteous One 78 78 77 LSB 609 Text: Joshua V. Schneider 1.Near me stood the Evil One, though from my own eyes he’s hidden. “Shall I throw the righteous down?” Mocking words into the heavens. “Will he trust in God each day; if you take his goods away?” 2.“Harm his family, harm his life, then we’ll see if he still raises; Prayer and thanks to God above lifting high his holy praises. Only when his life’s secure will his trust in You be pure.” 3.How could I perceive the cost, knowing not the war was waging; for my soul the devil wants, threats and accusations raging. “Ah dear God please tell me why, these afflictions round me lie?” 4.“Life on earth is all too short, Can’t you see this human weaken?” Father knows that we are dust, has compassion on His children Cast your burdens, every one On my Chosen, Righteous Son 5.Near Him stood the Evil One In the desert tried to tempt Him Mocked the H...

Note: for the full audio of the sermon, check out my podcast. This is a limited outline. • Cain and Abel—first brothers on earth, prototype of our conflicts, of worship of God, of temptation and the nature of our hearts under sin. • When Adam and Eve sinned, they gained something they didn’t have before—a knowledge of evil; and the persistent, slavish impulse to give in to it. We’ve carried that same impulse and slavery ever since. Cain is ruled over by it. “sin doesn’t take long to go right to the bottom” (Brandt). • Rejected offering. Why? Cain’s anger, and God’s warning. Genesis 4:7 “ If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it.” Sin personified. It’s desire is contrary to you. Sin and disobedience is against our own interest, but we are blind to that. We propel ourselves further in, without consideration to our harm (physical, mental, emotional, moral, spiritual) or...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Genesis 3 is one of the foundational events in the Bible. We often call it “The Fall” or the “Fall into Sin”. It was a turning point in very early human history. God had just completed creation, and Adam and Eve were in perfect harmony with Him. They tended the Garden of Eden; had access to the Tree of Life. But they had one command: to avoid the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If they ate of it they would surely die. But how quickly paradise came unraveled, as the devil whispered doubt into Eve’s ear: “ Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’? ” And doubts of God’s Word and commands have plagued humanity ever since. If we could only trust that the wise and all powerful God actually knows and tells us, His creatures, what is best for us, we would be infinitely better off. But ever since Eve first gave room for that doubt, and began to agree wit...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Today Jesus says that a little faith can do incredible things. ” If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea’ and it would obey you.” Elsewhere Jesus describes a faith that can cast mountains into the sea. If it only takes the faith of a tiny grain of mustard seed to do these amazing things, perhaps some of us are wondering why more Christians aren’t throwing trees and mountains into the ocean to demonstrate the power of their faith? Maybe they don’t even have faith this small? Unfortunately, however exciting that might be to see, Jesus doesn’t seem to be telling His disciples to throw more trees into the sea, or that it’s His Father’s will for them to do this. Rather, Jesus is instructing us about faith. He’s saying faith is needed for even more difficult and important jobs than tree-tossing and mountain throwing. And it’s not a gia...