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By the way we reckon time, it has been a month since my mom died from this life and entered the presence of Jesus. Her dear friend Lois has preceded her in death just three years earlier. Mon and Lois were both widowed and each other’s companion for many years. I came across a devotion I wrote just after the death of Lois based on Psalm 118, and decided to share it again today.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.” Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.” Let those who fear the Lord say: “His love endures forever.” In my anguish I cried to the Lord, and he answered by setting me free. The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? The Lord is with me; he is my helper. I will look in triumph on my enemies. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes. All the nations surrounded me, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They surrounded me on every side, but in the name of the Lord I cut them off. They swarmed around me like bees, but they died out as quickly as burning thorns; in the name of the Lord I cut them off. I was pushed back and about to fall, but the Lord helped me. The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous: “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things! The Lord’s right hand is lifted high; the Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!” I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done. The Lord has chastened me severely, but he has not given me over to death. Open for me the gates of righteousness; I will enter and give thanks to the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord through which the righteous may enter. I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation. The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes. This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O Lord, save us; O Lord, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. From the house of the Lord we bless you. The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

There is a lot of hope and comfort in there. I’d like to highlight a few of the promises we have from God in this psalm.

The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.

Fear is natural when we think about death, when we think about life going on without a loved one with us any longer. It will be different. There will be tears. It will be lonely. But there will also be smiles and laughter as we remember. And even though that loved one is gone, God is not. He remains. He is constant. He is with us every step of the way, no matter what. To the very end of the age.

The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation

We need strength in our lives. There are so many things going wrong all the time. There is always something “wrong” that causes stress and demands our attention. That is why you need to draw on the strength of the one who said He would never leave you or forsake you. You don’t have the power to face the problems that come your way. But God does, and He makes it available to you. That is why we sing His praises. eHe

God became your salvation by keeping His promise. He said He would provide the solution to our sin, our separation from Him, and He did that by coming down here Himself. When Jesus was born of Mary as one of us, He came for the expressed purpose of saving. He would live without sinning and offer His life of perfection on the altar of the cross as payment for the sins of the world. He declared His work accomplished as He died by proclaiming “It is finished.” He died and was buried. But wait, there’s more. He rose from death on the third day to share His victory over death with everyone who believes in Him. He has become our salvation.

I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done.

Every believer needs this confidence: I will not die but live!  That is what Jesus did for the world. That means He did it for each of you. And that is too good to keep to yourself. We need to tell others what the Lord has done.

This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

This is true even when someone dies. The message of Easter does not change. Because He lives, we will live also. And this confidence we have in Jesus allows us to acknowledge that He is always in control, He is always with us, and He will one day welcome us into His presence in heaven.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.

John 17:20–25 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.

As Jesus concludes His prayer, He offers petitions for those who will believe in Him because of the testimony of those first disciples. That means He was praying for us! We would not know Jesus if those first followers had not shared the good news. They could not help but speak about what they had seen and heard. They wanted more and more people to know that Jesus lived and died and rose again to pay for the sins of all and open heaven for us.

One of the take-aways from this is that if those who have not yet heard this good news today are going to hear it, we need to tell them. Those of us who know Jesus need to let our light shine for Him.

Father, help us to see and take advantage of the opportunities you place before us every day to let others know who you are and what you have done for us by sending Jesus to this world. Amen.

John 17:13–19 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.

Jesus wants you to have joy! Isn’t that a comforting thought? “…so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.” Our joy in Christ is not necessarily happiness, but it is certainty. I know that in any and all circumstances, no matter how bad a day I am having, no matter how bad I feel, I have the assurance of forgiven sin and life everlasting. That gives me joy that lives deep inside of me.

I don’t base this on how I feel or how much effort I have put into trying to be good. My joy is based on what God has told me in His Word. Even though this world will hate us for being the followers of Jesus, we know this world is not all there is. Jesus went to prepare our eternal home for our arrival, a place for us.

Before leaving, He prayed, “Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” To sanctify means to make holy. We are made holy by the truth which comes from God’s Word. Not “you have your truth and I have mine,” but THE truth. God’s Word. Where true joy is found.

Psalm 16:11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

The joy comes when you have heard and believed that Jesus came into the world to save you. He paid for your sin. He defeated death for you. He wants you to have the benefit of all He did and earned. God has rescued you.

John 14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

We are called to share that truth, and therefore that joy, with the world.

John 17:6–12 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one. While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.

This is a continuation the prayer of Jesus I mentioned two days ago. The words in this translation “I have revealed you” could also be translated “I have revealed Your name.” The phrases mean the same thing. God’s Name is who He is. That is why there is a commandment that forbids us to misuse His Name or “use His name in vain.” God revealed Himself to Moses as “I am who I am,” a form of the verb for existence. Jesus was revealing the one true God, the Maker of all things, to the disciples that were given to Him. He affirmed that “They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.”

Those first disciples had been given the knowledge necessary. The Holy Spirit would enlighten them further on Pentecost, but they had the understanding that Jesus was sent by the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Jesus prayed for them because He knew He would not be physically with them much longer. He would not be there to protect them. So He asked the Father to keep them safe “by the power of your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.”

God’s name, who He is, has the power to protect us. When I hear those words of Jesus in this prayer, I am reminded of Baptism. The powerful name of God is placed upon in this sacrament. God is at work here, washing away sin, claiming us as His own, bringing us into His family. “In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

God’s name is on you. That name continues to protect you. You remember that when you remember your Baptism.

It is still before 6 a.m. this Lord’s Day. I’ve been up for a while, as is normal for me. The temperatures dropped into the upper 30s overnight, so I put all the ingredients for a chicken and rice soup in the crock pot to greet us after we get home from worship and Bible Class. Today I will be reading the Scripture lessons and singing with the Praise Team in the late service, but for the most part I will get to sit with my bride and worship our good and gracious God with all the others in attendance. In a few minutes I will do some exercises trying to strengthen my old, aching knees before going on with the rest of my day.

This is a good day. That thought kept going through my head this morning, as did the refrain of a song by Fernando Ortega. He recounts all the events of a normal day where he lives, and then sings this refrain:

This good day It is a gift from You.
The world is turning in its place
because You made it to.
I lift my voice
To sing a song of praise
On this good day.

 This is a good day. I live in the assurance that God, the one who made everything, is still in control. I have the certainty that Jesus, who came down to this earth to pay for my sins and conquer death for me and everyone else, is reigning in heaven. I know that the Holy Spirit is continuing to work in me to keep me in the faith and help me to live a holy life that shows my faith to others. This Lord’s Day is a good day.

Don’t think that I am saying my life is trouble free or without problems. I’ve got my share of woes. But I try to keep my focus on Jesus and all that He has done for me. Which reminds me that this is a very good day.

 Psalm 118:24 This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Psalm 122:1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

You can listen to the song I mentioned above here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7nZVtZFE0A

John 17:1–5 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

On the night He instituted the Lord’s Supper, the night He would be betrayed and handed over to be crucified, while Jesus was still in the upper room with His disciples, He prayed for them.

He asked that God the Father would give Him glory as He was completing the work given to Him to fulfill. The payment for sin would be finished in less than 24 hours. Brutal hours lay ahead of Jesus, and He knew it, but He would give glory to the Father by going through with the task He had been given. He would offer Himself as the Lamb of God that would take away the sin of the world. That would make eternal life possible for all who trusted God’s promises before Jesus came and for those living while Jesus was on the earth and for all those who would live between the time of His Ascension and the Second Coming. Jesus was the Savior of the world. All people. You just have to know and believe in Jesus.

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

Thank you, Father, for Your love, which is a constant in our lives. That you for sending Jesus to be the Savior of all, and for leading us to know and believe in Him, that we might have the certainty of forgiveness and life eternal. In His name we pray. Amen.

On October 10, 1999, the American cable network A&E started counting down a list of the 100 most influential people (good or bad) of the millennium, from the year 1000 up through 1999. It was compiled by a group of 360 journalists, scientists, theologians, historians, and scholars from all over the world.

Do you know who was first? It was Gutenberg, the German printer who invented movable-type. Second on the list was Sir Isaac Newton, who contributed to physics, math, and the far reaches of the universe. Do you know who was third? Martin Luther. The guy who wasn’t a scientist, who never led an army, ruled a country, or painted a masterpiece. And it was not just the folks at Biography that felt this way about Luther. TIME Magazine put Luther in the second position of 100 most influential individuals of the last millennium. Here are some of the things he did:

• He stood up to the anti-Scriptural and misguided teachings of the church in his day.
• He gave people the Bible in their own language.
• He promoted education for everyone
• He wrote music
• He influenced almost every aspect of religious and secular life.

But here is something Luther did not do. He did not want people to call themselves “Lutheran.” In 1522, Luther, in his own colorful way, wrote:

“I ask that men make no reference to my name and call themselves not Lutherans but Christians. What is Luther? St. Paul would not allow Christians to call themselves Pauline or Petrine. How then should I, a poor evil-smelling maggot sack have men give to the children of Christ my worthless name?”

Luther had a way with words, didn’t he? And he took that position because, above and beyond everything else, he used the Bible to point people to the grace of God which is found only in Jesus Christ, God’s Son, the world’s Savior. Luther pointed out that the Bible wanted lost and sinful souls to realize that when the Holy Spirit gives them faith in the Savior, there is forgiveness and life eternal. That is why the Reformation is so significant. It is all about sharing Jesus.

When we celebrate the Reformation and the way God used Luther to restore the truth of His Word, we are not pointing people to Martin Luther. We are pointing people to Jesus. And it isn’t about our size or our strength. It is about what God can do. That was the reminder He issued through Zechariah when His people were given the daunting task of rebuilding the Temple after the Babylonian Captivity:

Zechariah 4:6 So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

As the ones who have the Reformation as part of our heritage, we need to trust God’s power at work in us as we continue to point others to Jesus as the only hope for a fallen world. It is all about Jesus. He alone is our hope for life and forgiveness and salvation.

1 John 3:1–10 How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work. No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God’s seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.

When you become a follower of Jesus, when you put your faith in Him and believe that He is your Savior, you have the desire to live a life that shows your gratitude to God. It would be wonderful if we never sinned again, but that will not be achieved on this side of heaven. Christians would love to stop sinning completely, but unfortunately, we all continue to sin. That is why we are told to confess our sins and hear God’s promise of forgiveness for Jesus’ sake.

In the prayer Jesus taught us, we pray “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Luther explained it this way in his Small Catechism.

What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

“We daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment.” We admit this is the reality of our lives. But sin is no longer our master. Jesus is. His grace gives us the forgiveness we don’t deserve, but which Jesus earned for us. Our desire is to serve Him, not to keep on sinning. And we cling to the truth that John wrote in the passage above:

But you know that he [Jesus] appeared so that he might take away our sins. … The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.

May God help us to be more like Him in our living and forgiving.

Luke 17:1–2 Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

I’ve been thinking about this passage a lot recently. I have seen online posts by people loudly proclaiming, “I’m a pastor!” and then saying things that are in direct opposition to God’s Word. A woman pastor claimed that if Jesus were here today, His beatitudes would include “Blessed are those who end pregnancies (have or administer abortions), for they will be known for their loving kindness.” How does that align with Jeremiah 1:5?

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart;”

Another self-identified pastor says she affirms those identifying as a gender other than the way they were born because that is the loving thing to do. What’s next? Affirming pedophiles because “they were born that way?”

This is what happens when you don’t let God be God and put yourself in that position. Don’t be surprised when you are issued a millstone. What you are teaching and proclaiming as “God’s Word” is a far cry from what it actually says. I agree with you that Jesus wants us to love. But never, not even once, did Jesus condone sinful behavior. He never said it was loving to let people remain in their sins. Yes, He died for us while we were still sinners (Romans 5:8), but He doesn’t want us to stay that way. Instead, He lovingly offered correction and forgiveness, and said, “Go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).

God is love. He offers forgiveness. He wants all people to get it. Jesus earned it for everyone. But there is a catch. You have to believe. You don’t have to earn it, but you must admit your sin, turn from it and toward God, and accept the gift He is giving. He wants us all to “leave your life of sin.”

I pray for those who, under the guise of preaching God’s Word, lead people away from God and His will. I don’t want them to have those millstones. I want them to repent, to turn from their sin, and receive the forgiveness He earned for them.

I want that for all of you. God wants it for you even more.

In his brief letter to the believers in Colossae, Paul thanks God for them and gives a reminder of what Christ accomplished for them through his death and resurrection. He then goes on to describe the kind of life they should live and the kind of life they should not live, all in response to knowing that Jesus died and rose again for them.

In the NIV translation, there is a heading over chapter 3 that was added by the translators. It says, “Rules for Holy Living.” Often times we bristle at rules, not liking someone telling us what to do. However, these are set in the context of having been raised with Christ. To put it another way, knowing what Jesus has already done for us should make us want to live this way. These verses struck a chord with me:

Colossians 3:12-14 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

I have seen these things displayed in the lives of believers, particularly among the congregations I served. I’m not saying that they mastered these virtues or had them down to a science, or that they were better than other believers – I’m just sharing what I’ve seen in my realm of experience. More often than not the believers I served did a good job of being compassionate, kind, gentle and bearing with each other. It was easy to see when someone was in the hospital or there had been a death in a family. But there was more to it than that.

I saw it in the way they were concerned for each other day in and day out. I saw it when they worked on a benefit for someone they didn’t even know. I saw it in the calls I got asking me to pray for a friend or neighbor who was going through a difficult time. I saw it when people called to say, “Pastor, I want to help my friend, but I don’t know what to do!” I saw it in the smiles and hugs and handshakes shared when we gathered together.

This had nothing to do with those folks being any better than any other sinners in this world. It was not because of their family, their congregation, or their pastor. It was because they were led by the Holy Spirit to know that they are God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved. When you know you are a loved child of God, new life is possible. And you have the most convincing proof of God’s love when you look at the cross and the empty tomb. With this in your experience, you want to follow the rules, live a new way, display the virtues described in this passage, and over them all put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

John described it this way: We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).