As the summer winds down, not the calendar summer but the “vacation” summer, this week has been filled.  Two grandchildren started school this week.  Our second oldest son and his family have been visiting from Maryland.  Their school doesn’t start until after Labor Day.  And, of course there plenty of Olympics to watch.  Furthermore, I’ve got Sunday off for the first time since May and also decided that since the Friday Morning Bible Class I teach hasn’t taken any of my hints to shut down for a time, I’m taking today off myself.   Chris, the new vicar, will seek to “rodeo” the class this morning.

Through it all Luther’s comments on the words of Paul in Philippians 3:12 still come to mind.  “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”

Luther writes: Hence the whole life of the new and the faithful and spiritual people consists in the fact that with the inward groaning of their hearts, with the cry of their works, with the toil of their bodies they desire and implore for this one gift: that they may be justified until death; that they may never stand still, never think themselves to have already attained, never regard any work as the goal of a justification actually already attained, but await it as though it were beyond their reach as long as they still commit sins.