The REAL WORLD

With so many reality shows on TV these days, the speediness of technology and the hustle and bustle of everday life it can be hard to come to grips with the reality of life that we face each day. I thought that Dr. Meyer's critique of the real world as noted by the sainted Dr. Oswald Hoffman was a good point for all of us to realize not only today, but for the rest of our lives. We are living in the real world today no matter where we are or who we are. All of us live our lives each day and each and every one of us are going to die some day, regardless of who we are or what we do. Our fates are all sealed the same way, because of the sin we are born into from birth, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
NIV 1 Corinthians 15:55 "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. Continue each day in the Lord and know that He will one day take you home to be with Him as He did so to Dr. Hoffman this past Friday...

Last Thursday Rev. Oswald Hoffmann died. Dr. Hoffmann was one of America’s best known and loved clergymen. For 33 years he was the Speaker of TheLutheran Hour radio program, the world’s oldest syndicated weeklyreligious program. He had a unique voice, I’ve never heard anything likeit, and it conveyed a down-to-earth humanity that he mixed naturally withheavenly optimism centered in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Dr. Hoffmann once told me about a preaching tour in Viet Nam during thewar. One day he was struggling over a message he was to deliver to thetroops, not knowing how best to express that good word from God that thetroops needed to hear. He found the way. One of the soldiers told him inconversation that he couldn’t wait to get out of Nam and get back to thereal world. That was it, Dr. Hoffmann told me, that was his message. Soldier, this is the real world. Fightings and fears and death, this isthe real sinful world and it was for this that Jesus Christ came, Christ“who has destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light throughthe gospel” (2 Timothy 1:10 ). Resurrection was the part of the messagehe never forgot. Let’s not forget in our versions of the real world!
Copyright © Dale A Meyer 2005
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