God is my witness that my heart is filled with concern and anxiety that unless Judgment Day intervenes God will withdraw his word and visit the German nation with such blindness and hardening of the heart that the thought of it makes me shudder.
Lord, heavenly Father, if we must fall into sin, let us fall into any other sin, but deliver us from a hardening of the heart, and keep us in and with him whom you appointed Lord over sin and innocence. If we do not deny him or lose sight of him, all sin, death, and hell will not harm us. Yes, what is there that might harm us? (Luther’s Works, v.43, p.67)
Art. X Das mit Brot und wein im H. Abendmahl der ware leib und Blut emfangë werde.
With bread and wine in the Lord’s Supper, the body and blood are received.
Matt. 26, v. 26 ; “And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, ‘Take, eat; this is My body.’”
1st Cor. 11, v. 23 ; “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;
[All of the pictures for this year’s posts are from an etching entitled “Augsburg Confession” by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677) and found in the Royal Collection Trust.]