The Secret Wireless

  John W. Theilen  October 16, 2023  I Corinthians 6:20 (KJV) O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen. To Mom, Jessica & Jason, Rebekah, Cindy, Glenn, to all the grandchildren, family and friends gathered here today; grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The text that is given for your comfort today is Dad’s confirmation verse. I Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” “Ye are bought with a price.” John Theilen belongs to Jesus Christ. He was purchased 2000 years ago, not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood of God. The death of Jesus is the payment made for the redemption, the purchase, of the whole human race. The most precious substance in all the world, t...

  Some reactions to Matthew Bates’ Salvation by Allegiance Alone & Gospel Allegiance . Matthew Bates, associate professor of theology at Quincy University, has written two books ( Salvation by Allegiance Alone and Gospel Allegiance) that argue for a change in the way Christians, especially Protestants, talk about faith, the Gospel, justification, and salvation. This is not a book review, but more of a theological reaction to Bates’ arguments. These are just short observations. Obviously, to do justice to these arguments would take an entire book or two, and that is just not going to happen. First, the good.   In both Salvation and Gospel Allegiance Bates lays out what he believes should be the actual content of the Church’s Gospel. His summary looks a great deal like Saint Paul’s summary in First Corinthians 15 and the second article of the Apostles’ Creed. This is a needed reminder that a preacher is not called merely to talk about the Gospel, but is actually to ...

Cory Booker believes that women need men to stand with them. I couldn't agree more. His open letter to all men in GQ calls on all of us in the masculine sex "to listen, to speak out, and to take action." Let's do it. Start by listening to (and watching) an ultrasound. You can find them all over Youtube. It will change your life. My young bride (we were both barely 21) suspected that God might have blessed our marriage with a new life. She made an appointment and we went together to the physician. He confirmed what her own womanly knowledge had told her: she was 9 weeks pregnant. He also immediately prepared an ultrasound and we were able to see our first son, barely the size of a grape, with his vulnerable little heart firing off 153 beats per minute.    I do not have any experience in the baby-carrying portion of pregnancy. I do, however, have plenty of experience when it comes to listening to the rapid beat of human heart that is smaller than the tip of m...

It is not the raging critic who's words cut the deepest. It is the one who intends not harm, but help. A well thought out critique delivered in true concern pierces the soul, where an impassioned attack would have glanced off my defensive scales. No one else could have given that message. God chose the right messenger to sneak past my sinful armor and turn me to repent. Thank God for godly critics.

Hebrews 3 12 "Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,  'Today, if you hear his voice,  do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.'  16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief."             Despite what some Christians believe, it is possible for Christians to fall away...

In the forgiving Word of God the incomprehensible greatness of God, the intolerable glory of His Godhead, the glory of His grace, has appeared, has appeared to eyes that cannot comprehend it even as they gaze upon it.  It has been manifested to hearts that stand in trembling awe of it even as they believe in it.  This grace of which the psalmist sings is no cheap, easy grace, no easy commodity which complacency can casually appropriate.  We can be sure of it, surer of it than of ourselves, than of our own righteousness or our sins or our life or our death.  But we cannot be complacent about it.  Our souls still wait for the Lord, more than watchmen that wait for the morning.  They know the morning will come; they are sure that it will come, and yet they wait for it, and they hail its first graying as a new and wondrous thing. So we wait for the Lord and know that He is Lord and will forgive.  But forgiveness remains the perpetual miracle still. ...

#shoutyourabortion Go ahead.  You can shout.  Scream until your lungs give out.  But it won't work, because it is not the silence that is your problem.  It is the whisper. The case against abortion is becoming more solid.   The videos are piling up.  It is clear that abortionists are not only killing babies, they are harvesting their organs and selling them, padding their bottom line.   And that means you have been dead wrong about abortion. If you have been privately scandalized by the fleecing of the unborn but have not spoken publicly, or even failed to share your views and convictions with your close friends, then these videos leave you without defense.  You should have been speaking out long ago.  You should have stood up for the defenseless.  You should have shown compassion for hurting and confused mothers.  And shouting now will not silence the whisper. If you have supported abortion rights, if you have been pro...

On August 19, 2015 the Center for Medical Progress released yet another video detailing the closed room practices of Planned Parenthood and their partner StemExpress in procuring fetal body parts.  These groups have been harvesting the organs of aborted babies, exchanging money, and using the flesh for scientific experimentation.  It is sickening.  The videos are not for the faint of heart, but if you desire to watch you can find them here . In the most recent video a former procurement technician for StemExpress, Holly, relates the story of how she came to know she could no longer work for this agency.  She tells of how another technician called her into a room where she was cleaning a newly aborted baby (so newly aborted that the heart would still beat when pricked by an instrument) to prepare it for organ harvesting. Holly was told that day she would be harvesting the baby's brain.  The other technician began the process by making an incision under the ...

Is sex becoming boring? My mind pondered this idea a few days ago on my way into Saint Louis.  Before you cross the Mississippi River into Missouri there is a certain strip club one must pass on the interstate.  Said strip club always has a billboard advertising the latest special feature.  As you might guess these billboards do not vary greatly.  The billboard is usually a photograph of a woman from the shoulders up looking rather seductive and inviting any travelers to stop in.  This time, however, was different.  As I passed the billboard there were no women.  Rather than advertising the club’s newest dancer, they were advertising “wrestling midgets”.  So the naked dancing women were replaced by short, clothed, male wrestlers.  I don’t get it.  Has sex really gotten that boring?  A more serious example stuck in my mind comes from a PBS documentary I caught just a few minutes of several months ago....

Tullian Tchividjian, the well known pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, has resigned his position.  According to his own statement both he and his wife committed adultery.  This disqualifies him from the pastoral office.  He has willingly acknowledged his affair and peacefully stepped aside. It is a sad day when a pastor must resign his call for any reason, but especially for living an immoral life.  Tchividjian's case gives a great deal of pause for Lutherans in particular since he was highly influenced by Luther's writings and those of contemporary Lutheran scholars such as Robert Kolb.  Tullian, in recent years, has sought to clarify the proper distinction of Law and Gospel in his own preaching as well as to spread that teaching to a wider audience. As Lutherans we have a high view of God's Word in general and of the Gospel in particular.  When a Lutheran pastor falls into temptation does he really need to resign?  Can he not simply be ...

What did you do last Sunday? We...           ...watched an old man drown in a puddle of water.           ...witnessed a fresh man's resurrection.           ...heard the Almighty Voice.           ...experienced the power of the Divine.           ...received healing for our souls.           ...petitioned the Ultimate Power.           ...sang with the archangels.           ...feasted on the flesh and blood of God. If your church did anything less it's time to think about trading up.

Amen!   That is the word of the day.   Jesus has taught us, in the Lord’s Prayer, to pray as sons.   Not as slaves.   Not as beggars.   Not as strangers.   But as sons, “ Our Father in heaven.”                 In the Lord’s Prayer we ask for some rather lofty things.   These are no mere trifles and trinkets.   This is the stuff of necessity.   And it is costly, worth a king’s ransom and more.                  We pray that God’s name would be kept holy, that we would live according to His Word.   We pray that His kingdom would come, that the Church would grow in faith and love and that Christ would return to raise the dead.   We pray that God’s will would be done, that His gracious desires would be fulfilled for our good.       ...