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Colossians 2:6–12 So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. ⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. ⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of the sinful nature, not with a circumcision done by the hands of men but with the circumcision done by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism and raised with him through your faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.

Ever been deceived? There are various levels of deception. I don’t mean just falling for a prank, but I’m talking about a deception that had a serious impact on your life. It might have cost you a lot of money or a relationship. How did you feel when you discovered the truth? It hurts. It makes you angry. It makes you cry. I get especially angry at those who prey on the elderly and swindle them out of their savings. Deception can be devastating.

Paul warns the followers of Jesus to watch out:  See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. There are so many empty and false teachings in our world today that try to divert our attention away from the truth of God’s Word. They have always been around, but with all the technology and the competition among the media to get followers, they has been a proliferation of highlighting every perversion there is. And of course, you are told you must be accepting of these perversions or you are vilified.

I remember back in the 70s all the people who said, “We’re not going to force any religion on our child. We’ll let them decide for themselves.”  How’s that working out? It was a tool of Satan, the great deceiver, to steer people away from Jesus.

“We need to let children self-identify their gender rather than imposing a view on them.” All through history there has only been male and female. Sure, there has also been those who have same-sex attraction, but that does not change their gender. The world would have you believe that you can choose your gender. I saw an ad last week for a new show that features cross-dressing pre-teens.

Under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940, deliberately destroying — or even disturbing — a bald eagle’s egg or nest carries a $100,000 fine and a sentence of up to a year in prison for a first offense, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Yet an unborn child in a mother’s womb is repeatedly called a “lump of cells” and has no protection under our laws. Yes, Roe v. Wade was overturned, but now Pro-Abortion activists are finding ways to make sure that abortions will still be available.

Deceitful lies are all around us. That is why we must keep our eyes focused on Jesus. And I’m not talking about just following some great guy and good teacher. He was and is God Himself who took on human flesh and lived among us. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form. The miracle of the incarnation simply described. The God of creation came down here to rescue the fallen crown of His creation and give them forgiveness and life. He did that by sacrificing Himself to pay for mankind’s sin. The one who is fully God and fully man gives us everything we need: …you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. You and I need to be filled with the good news of who Jesus is and what He has done for us. We need to be filled with God’s Word so that we are not taken in by the deceptions of this world, the Devil and our own sinful desires. Be filled with God’s promises, His forgiveness, and the life He gives you now and forever.

Genesis 18:20–33 ²⁰ Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous ²¹ that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.” ²² The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. ²³ Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? ²⁵ Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” ²⁶ The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” ²⁷ Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, ²⁸ what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?” “If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.” ²⁹ Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?” He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?” He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” ³¹ Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?” He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.” ³² Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?” He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.” ³³ When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

If you have ever hosted a garage or yard sale, you are familiar with haggling. Lots of folks purposely put a high price on things so that they have some room to come down and still get a fair price for their items. It is how the game is played. And now it happens online. When you try to sell something online, people immediately ask you to sell it for a lower price before they have even seen the item. That’s a pretty bold move, and one I’m not fond of.

I’ve always been amazed at the boldness of Abraham bargaining with God in the passage above. I remember in my earlier days thinking, “I would never do that!” But then I realized that we all try to do that at times, don’t we? “Lord, if you just let _____ happen, I promise I will try to do better in my life.”

In Abraham’s situation, he wasn’t promising to do anything. He was just trying to see how how far He could push the Almighty. It seems as though He was trying to determine just how merciful and gracious God would be.

Something I didn’t fully understand until I became more mature in the faith is what made people “righteous.” Abraham was asking about “righteous people” that might be in Sodom. If there were righteous ones there, it was not because of what they did or their good behavior. The thing that makes people righteous, whether it was back in Abraham’s day or in our present time, is trusting God and believing His promises.

Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Abram (Abraham) believed God’s promise of a Savior, and that made Him righteous in God’s sight. People today believe that God kept that promise in sending Jesus. He was the one who did everything necessary for us to be forgiven. His perfect life, sacrificed on the cross, was the payment for the sins of the entire world. Our faith in Him makes us righteous.

Something striking about the conversation between Abraham and the Lord is that the destruction of those who don’t trust God and believe His promises is avoidable.  It is more serious than our death from this life. Those who die without faith are separated from God and punished eternally. And God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, which is everyone. That is why He sent Jesus. Faith in Him makes us righteous in God’s sight. We are spared for Jesus sake. No haggling necessary. Jesus already paid the price for us.

Not too long ago I needed to by some new ankle socks. The manufacturer of the three-pack I bought thought it necessary to label the socks “L” and “R”.  For the more than six decades I have been wearing socks, I never knew there was a difference between the right and the left ones. But it gets even more confusing. The three pairs of socks in that package were each a different color. When I looked at the white pair, both were labeled “R.” Does that mean there is someone out there with two left feet?

I decided to research whether or not there was a difference between the socks that I could not discern. It turns out that many athletic socks are now asymmetrical fit socks, specifically designed to fit each foot. They even claim that such socks “greatly improve the performance of athletes.”

I didn’t know what I didn’t know. While I remain skeptical of their claim to improve athletic performance, these socks are supposedly specially made for each foot. I didn’t know what I didn’t know.

While I was pondering this, God made a connection for me. He reminded me of the Pharisees who rejected Jesus and were always trying to find fault with what He said or did. Read Matthew 12 for multiple accounts of this. They didn’t know what they didn’t know. On the contrary, they thought they knew everything they needed to know and that they were being righteous followers of God. But they were in fact rejecting the one God sent through His chosen people iHiHito be the Savior of all people. They needed to know who He was. Their ignorance led to a rejection of the very Messiah for whom they had been waiting. This rejection was so complete that after Jesus healed a man on the Sabbath, “…the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.” They didn’t know what they didn’t know.

This is still the reality for a lot of people today. They don’t know what they don’t know. We see them all around us, living lives that are in conflict with God’s Will. They are so busy following their own sinful desires and asserting their right to do so that they don’t even seem to care what anyone else thinks. Often times our first instinct is to speak poorly of them, criticize and belittle them for their sinful behavior. Ask yourself this: will that help them know what they don’t know or convince them that they want nothing to do with Christ and His Church? We need to do what we can to share the knowledge of Jesus and His love with them.

Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

How can we share the Good News with them? What can you do today to let someone know that Jesus has paid for their sins so that they can be forgiven? Something to keep in mind is that this is not a one shot thing. There is no magic formula you can use to automatically convert someone. That is the work of the Holy Spirit anyway. Our calling as followers of Jesus is to tell others about Him so the Spirit can lead them to faith and give them the confidence we have.

John 17:3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

They don’t know what they don’t know. But God is not content that they stay ignorant. Quite the contrary.

1 Timothy 2:4 [God] wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Those who have faith in Jesus have it because someone was a light shining in the darkness for them. You are now called to be that light shining in the darkness for others.

2 Corinthians 4:6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

Those without Christ don’t know what they don’t know. Lord, help us to share Jesus with them.

Yesterday I wrote about the danger of following your heart, which by nature is sinful. But I shared that as believers in Christ, God gives us the new heart we need. A clean heart and a right spirit (Psalm 51:10). That is what our faith in Jesus does for us here and now.

Even more, He is constantly renewing our hearts through His Word and Sacraments. We listen to and meditate on His Word, which assures us of our salvation. Through Baptism God has put His name on us, washed away our sins, and brought us into His family. In the Lord’ Supper we receive His body and blood to assure that we share in His payment and His victory.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

This is the confidence in which we live. We have a new heart.

Anyone who has received a heart transplant is grateful – such a person has a new resolve in his or her life. It should be no different for believers who have received a spiritual heart transplant. There should be a resolve in our lives guided by the Spirit of God to live as His children, because that is what we are. Listen to these encouragements:

1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

This message is too good to keep to ourselves.

Philippians 2:9–11 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

We gladly bow before our Lord and willingly speak the Good News of what He has done.

Ephesians 2:8–10 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Our response to the undeserved love of God should be to live as the children He has made us, those who gladly and willingly live according to His will.

When you hear “Follow your heart,” remember that without Christ in your  life, your heart is sinful and goes against God. And your old sinful self will continue to try to go against what God would have you do. The only time “Follow your Heart” is good advice is when you follow that new heart and right spirit that God has placed in you. Rejoice in the forgiveness and life and salvation that you have in Christ. Live in the confidence you have as a redeemed child of God.

“Follow your heart.” You’ve probably heard that advice many times in your life: Just follow your heart. We think that is sound advice. People want to believe that you will never go wrong if you just follow your heart.

But there is a problem with that sentiment. It needs clarification. Have you seen what  Scripture has to say about your heart?

Genesis 6:5 The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

And these warnings are not just in the Old Testament.

Matthew 15:19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.

Mark 7:21–23 For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ ”

Romans 7:18 I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.

In our fallen, sinful  state, we need help. It is not simply a matter of dusting ourselves off. It is not even an extreme makeover. It is more radical than that. We need a transplant.

Psalm 51:10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

God’s answer to that spirit-driven plea is plain and simple and exactly what we need.

Ezekiel 36:26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

God gives us what we need. And it was accomplished the only way it could be accomplished: God did it for us. He gives us a new, clean heart. It was not a self-improvement fixer upper – it was God’s gracious gift to us in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Listen to how Jesus explained it to His disciples the night before He was crucified.

John 14:1–6 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

He is the Way. The only way to life. His work has given us what we need. Jesus came to take care of the problem sin caused. He was born as one of us. He lived without sin to have a perfect life that He could offer as the payment for the sins of the world. And He did just that by allowing Himself to be arrested, tried, beaten, tortured and crucified. They took His dead body off the cross and buried it. The payment for sin was complete.

But Jesus did more. He defeated death for us as well by His triumphant resurrection from the grave. He gives His payment for sin and life everlasting to everyone who believes His promise. He gives us the new heart we need.

More on this tomorrow.

Isaiah 65:24 Before they call I will answer; while they are still speaking I will hear.

God sent some rain our way yesterday. Not as much as we needed, but He did send some. For that I thank Him.  The clouls and showers kept the temperatures more than 15 degrees cooler than yesterday for most of the day. For that I thank and praise Him.

Have you ever noticed that when people get what they have asked God to do for them they say, “God answered my prayer!” What they mean is “God answered my prayer in the way I wanted Him to answer.” I’ve also heard people say “God didn’t answer my prayer,” when in fact He gave them an answer they didn’t want to hear.

The reality is that God hears and answers every prayer offered with faith in Jesus.

1 John 5:14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

When we offer up our prayers in faith, we can be confident He hears and answers them. Every single one. The problem is we don’t always acknowledge Him when He says “No.”  But that is a legitimate answer. So is “Not now” or “wait awhile.” Paul recognized a “No” he received from God to His petitions.

2 Corinthians 12:8–9a Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

God, a loving Father, is going to answer in the way that is best for you. Sometimes it will be what you request. Sometimes He will say no. Sometimes He has something better than you asked for in store for you. He knows how to give good gifts.

Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

You know from God’s Word how giving God is. He already gave you His best when He sent Jesus. He has given you the payment for your sin so that you can have eternal life, starting today. Forgiveness is a reality in your life for Jesus’ sake. And God does not stop there. He invites you to come to Him with your wants and desires in Jesus’ name.

Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

Prayer is a simple thing. It is talking to God and making your requests known to Him. He will answer. It may not be the answer you are seeking, but it will be the answer that is best for you.

1 Thessalonians 5:17–18 pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

I thank God for yesterday’s showers. I will continue to implore Him to give us relief in the form of more rain. I know He will answer in His time and in the way that is best for me.

One of the volunteer activities I really enjoy is working with Habitat for Humanity. I’ve been doing that for quite some time, but even more so since retirement. On a recent build, I was up on a ladder taking a measurement for a guy on the ground, and it was 19 5/8 inches. I made a comment, “that’s the year I was born.” The guy on the ground had a shocked look on his face. He said, “No. Really?” I said, “Yeah, 1958.” The other guy said, “That means I’m older than you!” He was surprised by that. I wasn’t sure how to take that!

A few minutes later, when I was back on the ground, we continued the conversation. He said he would soon be 65 years old. I told him that was a good thing, to which he replied, “The way I look at it is that I’m that much closer to being dead.” My immediate response was, “Oh, I don’t worry about that.” Again, he had the shocked look on his face, but it soon turned to a smile. You see, he knows I’m a Christian. We’ve had many conversations about that. I openly share my confidence that Jesus paid for my sins and I know I’m going to heaven because of what He did for me. I try to make it part of my everyday conversations.

Colossians 4:2–6 Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful. And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.

Sometimes I do that well. Others times not so much. At the LCMS Youth Gathering in Houston last week, it was about a fifteen minute walk from my hotel to the convention center where I was volunteering as one of the people who answered the gathering helpline calls. Most times I walked down that street, the same woman was sitting or sleeping on the same sidewalk bench. One morning I was walking briskly to the 7 a.m. shift and she looked at me and said “Good morning.” I replied, “Good morning to you.” I had put a cold soda in my backpack that I was taking to my shift, but I said, “Would you like something cold to drink?” She eagerly accepted it and said, “God bless you.” My response was “God bless you, too” and I hurried off to my shift. A couple of minutes later, I realized I did not make the most of that opportunity. I should not have been in such a hurry to keep going. I should have had more of a conversation with that lady and offered to pray with her. I should have made sure she knew I gave her that soda in Jesus’ name and that she knew that He loved her and died for her, too.

Father, thank you for bringing me to know and believe that Jesus is my Savior and giving me the certainty of life and forgiveness. Help me to proclaim that message clearly as I should in my day to day life. Help me to fill my conversations with grace, your grace, so that I can make the most of every opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus. In His most holy and precious name I pray. Amen.

Romans 10:8–17 (NIV84)  “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. As the Scripture says, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

My wife taught Preschool for a number of years. She will tell you that the parents of preschoolers have no secrets. Their children tell their teachers everything they hear their parents say and everything they see them do. One day in the middle of class a student of hers said, “My daddy likes to dance around the house in his underwear!”  That was an image she did not want to have in her head.  She also heard about the “bad words” parents would use. Those children were watching and listening, and then they shared what they knew.

As a disciple of Jesus, someone who believes that He is your Savior, you need to be aware that the world around you is watching and listening. They are looking for inconsistencies, chinks in the armor, evidence that you are no better than they are. And they won’t have to observe long before they see those things. We understand that we live under grace and mercy, that we have forgiveness for our sins and failings, but the world around us does not have that understanding.

I’m not saying that it is okay to sin. It is not. God hates sin. Always. He does not want anyone to do it. Ever. And that is why we strive to live a new life. You and I understand that the burden of all our sin was placed on Jesus on that cross. He bore that weight and paid our penalty so that we could have forgiveness. We believe in Him so that we will not perish but have eternal life. Someone shared that message with you, you heard it, and by the power of the Holy Spirit you believed it. It is now our task to share that message with the world around us. You need to share what you know to be true.

While those around us are watching and hoping to see us slip up, they are listening. That is why we need to be sure to share the message that was shared with us from God’s Word. Be sure to give God praise and glory in your conversation. Paul reminds you here: For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.  When you speak your faith that saves you, others will hear it. It is the message they need to hear so that the Spirit can work through the Word in their lives. A few verses latter Paul affirms:  faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

Remember that you are being watched. People are listening. Strive to live the New Life to which you have been called. And share the reason for the hope that is in you:  Jesus Christ, crucified and risen!