Category:Farther Along

Farther Along is a weekly look at the Catechism using the Order of Matins from Lutheran Service Book. This study is one of the options available beyond Lutheran Basics with Mormon Mondays and Evangelical Hymn of the Week (both forthcoming) to strengthen your faith beyond the basics.

"Father Along" is a hymn written by W.B. Stevens that teaches that we won't know everything that we want to know in this life. "Farther along we'll understand why" the trials, tribulations and hardships of this life have hit us. Especially as 21st-century Christians living in a post-Christian world, this hymn gives us great comfort that everything is in God's hands and that He is working everything for our good (Romans 8:28) and that we will understand it when it is our time to understand.

As a child who sang this hymn very often, it was one that I despised singing. I didn't want to acknowledge that full knowledge wouldn't happen until we get to the great "by and by." As I have matured as a Christian, especially during my time as a Lutheran pastor, the comfort of this hymn has really come alive in my soul. We won't understand everything, but Jesus doesn't require us to understand everything. He simply calls us to believe.

These services are designed to focus around a reading from Luther's Small Catechism with an expository reading from Scripture. There will also be a parallel passage from the Large Catechism or one of the other Lutheran Confessions to further expound on the reading. Each day will also have a hymn to focus our minds toward the readings. In place of a sermon, there is a reading from a commentary based on the daily Scripture reading.

Every part of these prayer services is designed to strengthen your faith in Christ through the basic building blocks He has given to us through His Church.