Weekly Reflection

How often in life do we find ourselves confronted by the evils of this world in a very personal way?

Sure, there is the obvious evil like Hamas, school shooters, and other nightly headlines. But what about the personal evils?

What do you do when a coworker has decided that they don't like you and are going to go out of their way to get you demoted or fired? What do you do when someone in your social circle has decided that they're going to bad mouth you?

What do you do when a stranger has decided, for whatever reason, that they don't like you and they're going to go out of their way to make sure others feel the same (an oddly common occurrence on the internet)?

More often than not in our lives, the correct response to any kind of hardship is to simply pray, and then refrain from doing much of anything.

Prayer, I assume you will understand, is essential. You tell the Lord about the problem, and you tell Him (and yourself) that you are going to trust Him with said problem.

A lot of times, however, we then feel like we must needs do something. Except our judgement is tainted by sin - and this is even more clearly seen in issues where our pride is under attack.

It can be hard to simply forgive the aggressing party and then allow them to continue on, trusting the Lord to deal with it in His own timing and way. And yet that is generally the most correct response.

We must learn, as Christians, to give up our own pride and our own sense of self-worth, and instead find our worth and self in Christ.

This is challenging. I'm not saying I've mastered this. In fact, I'm certain that this response to persecution is something that takes a lifetime of practice to learn. Yet, we are not called to take vengeance, nor are we called to stand up for ourselves.

Rather, over and over, the witness of Scripture is that we are to trust in the Lord who fights for us.

Prayer

Psalm 70 (MEV)

Make haste, O God, to deliver me!
Make haste to help me, O Lord.

May those who seek my life
be ashamed and confused;
may those who desire my harm
be driven back and humiliated.
May they turn back as a consequence of their shame
who say “Aha! Aha!”
May all those who seek You
rejoice and be glad in You;
and may those who love Your salvation continually say,
“God be magnified!”

But I am poor and needy;
make haste to me, O God!
You are my help and my deliverer;
O Lord, do not delay!

What's New At LA This Week?

Pretty exciting times at the Lutheran Answers Compound this week. I've officially brought on a cohost, who will be revealed in due time. I've also scheduled out enough interviews to fill nearly all of season 3!

Comments Now Live! (and other things)

I spent some serious time improving the website as well! I've added in some features that I think are useful, as well as some fixes for issues that were specific to mobile users.

All articles, podcast episodes, and answers on the website now have a comment section available! This was included as a part of the upgrades I've done this week.

I've also added some sliders to the home page, and gotten all of season 1 of the podcast uploaded onto the website. I'm going to spend this week working on seasons 2!

Table Talk Membership

Another new feature is the membership program Table Talk! While asking for donations is cool (feel free, by the way), I think maybe people would be more willing to support Lutheran Answers if they got something out of it!

So I decided to create an exclusive membership program that I have named Table Talk (though I'm okay with renaming it, if everyone hates that).

With a Table Talk membership you get the following benefits:

• Exclusive Table Talk Merch
  ​There is merch that everyone can buy, and then there's the exclusive, only table-talker merch. Different types and styles of LA Merch based on the Table Talk crew's input.
  ​
• 20% off Everything Else
  ​And all merch in the store is 20% off for the Table Talkers thanks to an exclusive discount code.
  ​
• The Group Chat
  ​I'm making a group chat specifically for Table Talk members to hang out in and chat with myself the co-host. It's like an exclusive speak easy only there isn't alcohol and it's also somehow better!
  ​
• Early Episode Access
  ​As soon as the episodes are edited and uploaded, they're available for Table Talkers to listen to - even if they haven't been publicly released yet!
  ​
• Priority Responses
  ​Have a question, correction, or other input? Table Talk Members will get to jump to the front of the line.
  ​
• Watch Episodes LIVE!
  ​Okay, I've got to be honest: this is the coolest perk in my eyes. We record the episodes - audio and video - on Riverside.FM. Table Talk members will get exclusive access to the digital studio during recording to watch the interviews live as they happen!

And all of this for $7 a month. If that sounds like something you'd be up for, check it out below:

That's all I've got this week!

If it isn't obvious: I'm playing around with different formats and ways to do this newsletter. Do me a favor: Hit reply and let me know what you love and/or hate about my newsletter, and how I can make it more meaningful to you!

Thanks!

The Lord Bless You And Keep You

Remy Sheppard