Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Part of this sacrificial response is the act of faith, the act of committing one's self wholly and absolutely to God's grace in Christ Jesus, the giving up of any dependence upon the works that of righteousness that we have done or can do, the determination to cleave to Him in weal and woe and to regard everything that befalls us as a manifestation of His good and gracious will. Admittedly faith is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should have something to boast about. But even though faith is God's gift and utterly impossible without the Holy Spirit, it remains man's necessary response to God's grace, man's indispensable commitment of himself in freedom to divine mercy. - Arthur Carl Piepkorn, *The Church* p. 227