A good way to teach about Martin Luther

This one is for you, my Lutheran friends, specially you, yes you Simon.

Martin Luther on Discipline

A good teacher hates the laziness or ill will of a pupil, and he takes care to correct him with discipline, not that he hates the pupil or is in the grips of a kind of lust for flogging boys, though I saw many of this kind in the schools years ago when I was a boy, b ut he loves the boy very much and is moved by this love when he chastises him.

Actual fact and experience teach that there is need of discipline. Our heavenly Father follows the same method in chastising the godly. Therefore the man who can endure this discipline and persevere will at length experience what is stated in Heb. 12:11: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” -- 

Martin Luther

Great Documentary on Luther and the Reformation

Luther on Arrogance

“It’s remarkable that men should be so arrogant and secure when there are so many, indeed countless, evidences around us to suggest that we ought to be humble. The hour of our death is uncertain. The grain on which we live is not in our hands. Neither the sun nor the air, on which our life depends, lies in our power, and we have no control over our sleeping and waking. I shall say nothing of spiritual things, such as the private and public sins which press upon us. Yet our hearts are hard as steel and pay no attention to such evidence.” -- Martin Luther

Talking about the Reformers, check this out

Up till the 16th century, Weddings were conducted at the entrance to the Church (and no further in) and the Priest stood merely as witness as the couple exchanged their vows.  It was Calvin who moved the ceremony itself into the Church.  And it was Luther who saw to it that the Clergy were centrally involved and not mere witnesses.  Meanwhile, Zwingli thought it best to leave marriages in the hands of the civil government.

Luther on Peace

He did have his good moments:

The righteous man has peace with God but affliction in the world, because he lives in the Spirit.

The unrighteous man has peace with the world but affliction and tribulation with God, because he lives in the flesh.

But as the Spirit is eternal, so also will be the peace of the righteous man and the tribulation of the unrighteous.

And as the flesh is temporal, so will be the tribulation of the righteous and the peace of the unrighteous. -- Martin Luther

Luther's idea for driving Satan off

From the Tischreden-

On April 5 a pastor came from the church in Süptitz, near Torgau, to complain of apparitions and disturbances caused by Satan. He said that Satan disturbed his peace with nocturnal tumults and the smashing of all the utensils in his house. Satan hurled pots and dishes close to his head, so that they broke in pieces, and Satan annoyed him by laughing outloud, although he saw nothing of him. For a whole year, the pastor said, he had endured these and many other trials, so that his wife and children wished to leave [the house].

Luther responded, “Dear Brother, be strong in the Lord and firm in your faith! Don’t give in to that robber! Suffer the outward things and the minor damage that comes from the breaking of pots, for it can’t harm you in body and soul, as you have found, for the angel of the Lord is with you. Let Satan play with the pots. Meanwhile pray to God with your wife and children [and say], ‘Be off, Satan! I’m lord in this house, not you. By divine authority I’m head of this household, and I have a call from heaven to be pastor of this church. I have testimony from heaven and earth, and this is what I rely on. You enter this house as a thief and robber. You are a murderer and a scoundrel. Why don’t you stay in heaven? Who invited you to come here?’ In this way you should sing him his litany and his legend and let him play as long as he pleases.

“I was often pestered [by the devil] when I was imprisoned in my Patmos, high up in the fortress in the kingdom of the birds. I resisted him in faith and confronted him with this verse: God, who created man, is mine, and all things are under his feet.129 If you have any power over him, try it!”

Then he told a story about a woman in Magdeburg who, when Satan disturbed her, drove him away by breaking wind. “This example is not always to be followed and is dangerous,” Luther said, “because Satan, who is the spirit and author of presumption, is not easily mocked and put to flight. Reliance on such an example can prove that it’s not at all appropriate for somebody else. So it once happened that a horned specter of Satan lost his horn when a godly man boasted of his baptism, but when another man foolishly tried to imitate this example, he was killed by Satan.”

Good on Luther. But let's remember, his drinking sprees led him to say such things. Breaking wind to drive off the Satan. That's a new one for me!!!!