Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour
Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of the Lutheran Hour - "The
Right Destination" - Tuesday, 3 December 2013
(Jesus said) "And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil."(Matthew 6:13)
In life a person can make mistakes he will
never live down.
Included on my uncomfortably long list of
never-forgotten errors is the time I congratulated a lady on the fact she was
expecting. Then I asked her when the baby was due. Long story short: there was
no due date because she wasn't expecting. Then there was the time ... but,
enough about me. I'm sure you have such moments of your own.
High on the list of never-live-downs now
belong to the pilot of a cargo-carrying jumbo jet who landed at a small Kansas
airport instead of his intended destination: McConnell Air Force base in
Wichita. After the landing the pilot and two air-traffic controllers tried to
figure out which airport was currently hosting the jumbo jet. In the course of
the conversation the pilot gave his coordinates, but in doing so he mixed up
east and west. He apologized by saying, "I couldn't read my
handwriting."
Now I'm pleased nobody was hurt and the
jumbo jet eventually did reach its proper destination. Still, I imagine that
pilot will never again be able to enter a room filled with airmen without
seeing smiles breaking out and someone asking him, "Hey, pal! Where you
goin' today?"
Yes, the story is an amusing one.
Amusing does not describe the situation
of millions of souls in this world who, with a terrible pilot in control of
their lives, are headed for a very bad landing. If things don't change, on
Judgment Day these folks will find that their pilots, sin and Satan, have deliberately
taken them to the undesirable destination we call eternal damnation.
And they will never, not through all
eternity, ever be able to live it down.
Now the worst part of these sad stories
is this: all the tragedies were totally unnecessary. More than 2,000 years ago
God's sinless Son came into this world to do everything necessary to make sure
our final landing would be in heaven.
So that God might once again take control
of our lives, it was necessary for Jesus to carry our sins, resist every temptation,
and die the death our transgressions had earned. It was a sacrifice that was
unparalleled in commitment and unequaled in completion. Jesus' third-day
resurrection from the dead shows He finished the work of redemption, which had
been entrusted to Him.
Now all who believe on Him and trust in
Him are forgiven and saved.
In other words, because of Jesus, we are
going to land in the right place.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks that
by the Holy Spirit's power You are in control of my final destination. Today I
pray for the many millions who are headed for a disastrous landing, a landing
they will regret for eternity. Please touch their hearts, bring them to
repentance, and take them safely to heaven. This I ask in the Name of Jesus, my
Savior. Amen.
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In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
660 Mason Ridge Center Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63141
1-800-876-9880
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Lutheran Hour Ministries Advent Devotions
2013 Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us by Reverend Wayne Palmer - Tuesday, 3
December 2013 "What Was Before the Beginning?"
Read Psalm 139: The Inescapable God
To the leader. Of David. A Psalm.
1 O Lord, you have searched me and known
me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I
rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away.
3 You search out my path and my lying
down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before a word is on my tongue,
O Lord, you know it completely.
5 You hem me in, behind and before,
and lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain it.
7 Where can I go from your spirit?
Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness shall
cover me,
and the light around me become night,”
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For it was you who formed my inward
parts;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I praise you, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.
Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
15
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes beheld my unformed
substance.
In your book were written
all the days that were formed for me,
when none of them as yet existed.
17 How weighty to me are your thoughts, O
God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 I try to count them—they are more than
the sand;
I come to the end[a]—I am still with you.
19 O that you would kill the wicked, O
God,
and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
20 those who speak of you maliciously,
and lift themselves up against you for evil![b]
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O
Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked[c] way in
me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.[d]
Footnotes:
Psalm 139:18 Or I awake
Psalm 139:20 Cn: Meaning of Heb uncertain
Psalm 139:24 Heb hurtful
Psalm 139:24 Or the ancient way. Compare
Jer 6.16(NRSV). In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2)
If you didn't buy all your Christmas
presents on Black Friday, you might want to start thinking about what you're
going to put under the tree. Have you ever taken a short cut and just went out
and bought the first thing you saw? How did it feel sitting around the tree at
Christmas and watching your loved one open that present, knowing you could have
done better? Now is the time to start thinking about those special people God
has brought into our lives, and what they mean to us.
The same is true of the Christmas Child.
To grasp the full significance of His birth, we need to think about who He is.
John begins his account of Jesus' birth at the exact same moment Moses began
the Book of Genesis, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth."
The Word who would be conceived and born
of the Virgin Mary was right there sharing an intimate, eternal fellowship and
communion with God His Father. But before we can jump to the false conclusion
there must be two Gods, John immediately sets us straight, "And the Word
was God." There is only one God, but He exists in three Persons, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit.
Long before Jesus was born a human baby
and laid in Bethlehem's manger, He already existed as the Second Person of the
Holy Trinity. No, Christmas isn't about any ordinary child. It's about God's
one and only Son becoming one of us. What Christmas gift could be more special
than that?
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660 Mason Ridge Center Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63141
1-800-876-9880
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