Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Why?" for Wednesday, 19 March 2014

Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Why?" for Wednesday, 19 March 2014
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.-John 3:16-17
The yellow Lab had three strikes against her. 
* Strike 1 - She had no microchip and no owner.
* Strike 2 - She had broken bones and internal bleeding.
* Strike 3 - She was laying in the middle of a busy Houston highway.
You know what the outcome for that dog should have been. After all, three strikes and you're out. Yes, that's the way it should have been. But it wasn't. You see, Mr. Rickey Young heard about the dog and decided to do something about the situation. Risking his own life, Mr. Young pulled over to the side of the road and, braving traffic, tried to snatch the dog to safety. Video footage of the event showed the dog didn't want to be snatched to safety, and she initially retreated from Mr. Young. It was only when the dog was tempted by the sandwich Mr. Young was carrying in his pocket that she allowed herself to be captured.
Mr. Young raced the dog to the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals where she was treated and, thank you very much, is doing just fine. I'm glad. That's the way it should be when a man risks his life to save a dog.
Reading that story, I began to wonder why would a man risk his life to save a dog which really doesn't want to be saved? Mr. Young gave his answer to that very question when he said, "I'm just kind of a softy on that stuff."
Good answer.
Having heard Mr. Young's answer, I wonder what the Lord would reply, if we were to ask Him, "Why did You send Your Son into this world to die for unworthy and unappreciative humankind? We had disobeyed You, rejected You, and had no desire to be saved by Jesus or anyone else. Lord, when Mr. Young went to rescue the dog, he did so in the belief he had a good chance of surviving the effort. Not so with Your Son. Jesus was born to suffer and die so that sinners might be forgiven and saved. Why did You send Jesus to save us?"
Well, we don't have to wonder about the Lord's answer.
He tells us. No, He doesn't say He's a softy on humanity like Mr. Young did. The word "softy" doesn't even appear in the Bible. Even so, God is both direct and honest as to why Jesus came. He says, "My Son came so that all who believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life."
So there you have it.
This means there is only one question left: what will be our response to God's most gracious act? The yellow Lab is absolutely devoted to the fellow who saved her. Will we be equally devoted to our Savior? I can only pray we will.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, please help me remember that You are almighty, all-powerful, and all-knowing, that Your love, mercy and grace are never ending, and that all I need to do is to trust and follow in Your way. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours, 
Pastor Ken Klaus 
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
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Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Numbers 23:1 Balaam said to Balak, “Build here seven altars for me, and prepare here seven bulls and seven rams for me.”
2 Balak did as Balaam had spoken; and Balak and Balaam offered on every altar a bull and a ram. 3 Balaam said to Balak, “Stand by your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps Yahweh will come to meet me. Whatever he shows me I will tell you.”
He went to a bare height. 4 God met Balaam, and he said to him, “I have prepared the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.”
5 Yahweh put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.”
6 He returned to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, he, and all the princes of Moab. 7 He took up his parable, and said,
“From Aram has Balak brought me,
    the king of Moab from the mountains of the East.
Come, curse Jacob for me.
    Come, defy Israel.
8 How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
    How shall I defy whom Yahweh has not defied?
9 For from the top of the rocks I see him.
    From the hills I see him.
Behold, it is a people that dwells alone,
    and shall not be listed among the nations.
10 Who can count the dust of Jacob,
    or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let me die the death of the righteous!
    Let my last end be like his!”
11 Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have blessed them altogether.”
12 He answered and said, “Must I not take heed to speak that which Yahweh puts in my mouth?”
13 Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place, where you may see them. You shall see just part of them, and shall not see them all. Curse them from there for me.”
14 He took him into the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar. 15 He said to Balak, “Stand here by your burnt offering, while I meet over there.”
16 Yahweh met Balaam, and put a word in his mouth, and said, “Return to Balak, and say this.”
17 He came to him, and behold, he was standing by his burnt offering, and the princes of Moab with him. Balak said to him, “What has Yahweh spoken?”
18 He took up his parable, and said,
“Rise up, Balak, and hear!
    Listen to me, you son of Zippor.
19 God is not a man, that he should lie,
    nor the son of man, that he should repent.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
    Or has he spoken, and will he not make it good?
20 Behold, I have received a command to bless.
    He has blessed, and I can’t reverse it.
21 He has not seen iniquity in Jacob.
    Neither has he seen perverseness in Israel.
Yahweh his God is with him.
    The shout of a king is among them.
22 God brings them out of Egypt.
    He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
23 Surely there is no enchantment with Jacob;
    Neither is there any divination with Israel.
Now it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel,
    ‘What has God done!’
24 Behold, the people rises up as a lioness.
    As a lion he lifts himself up.
He shall not lie down until he eats of the prey,
    and drinks the blood of the slain.”
25 Balak said to Balaam, “Neither curse them at all, nor bless them at all.”
26 But Balaam answered Balak, “Didn’t I tell you, saying, ‘All that Yahweh speaks, that I must do?’”
27 Balak said to Balaam, “Come now, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will please God that you may curse them for me from there.”
28 Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor, that looks down on the desert. 29 Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”
30 Balak did as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on every altar.
24:1 When Balaam saw that it pleased Yahweh to bless Israel, he didn’t go, as at the other times, to meet with enchantments, but he set his face toward the wilderness. 2 Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came on him. 3 He took up his parable, and said,
“Balaam the son of Beor says,
    the man whose eyes are open says;
4 he says, who hears the words of God,
    who sees the vision of the Almighty,
    falling down, and having his eyes open:
5 How goodly are your tents, Jacob,
    and your tents, Israel!
6 As valleys they are spread out,
    as gardens by the riverside,
    as aloes which Yahweh has planted,
    as cedar trees beside the waters.
7 Water shall flow from his buckets.
    His seed shall be in many waters.
His king shall be higher than Agag.
    His kingdom shall be exalted.
8 God brings him out of Egypt.
    He has as it were the strength of the wild ox.
He shall eat up the nations his adversaries,
    shall break their bones in pieces,
    and pierce them with his arrows.
9 He couched, he lay down as a lion,
    as a lioness; who shall rouse him up?
Everyone who blesses you is blessed.
    Everyone who curses you is cursed.”
10 Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together. Balak said to Balaam, “I called you to curse my enemies, and, behold, you have altogether blessed them these three times. 11 Therefore now flee you to your place! I thought to promote you to great honor; but, behold, Yahweh has kept you back from honor.”
12 Balaam said to Balak, “Didn’t I also tell your messengers who you sent to me, saying, 13 ‘If Balak would give me his house full of silver and gold, I can’t go beyond Yahweh’s word, to do either good or bad of my own mind. I will say what Yahweh says’? 14 Now, behold, I go to my people. Come, I will inform you what this people shall do to your people in the latter days.”
15 He took up his parable, and said,
“Balaam the son of Beor says,
    the man whose eyes are open says;
16     he says, who hears the words of God,
    knows the knowledge of the Most High,
    and who sees the vision of the Almighty,
    Falling down, and having his eyes open:
17 I see him, but not now.
    I see him, but not near.
A star will come out of Jacob.
    A scepter will rise out of Israel,
and shall strike through the corners of Moab,
    and break down all the sons of Sheth.
18 Edom shall be a possession.
    Seir, his enemies, also shall be a possession,
    while Israel does valiantly.
19 Out of Jacob shall one have dominion,
    and shall destroy the remnant from the city.”
20 He looked at Amalek, and took up his parable, and said,
“Amalek was the first of the nations,
    But his latter end shall come to destruction.”
21 He looked at the Kenite, and took up his parable, and said,
“Your dwelling place is strong.
    Your nest is set in the rock.
22 Nevertheless Kain shall be wasted,
    until Asshur carries you away captive.”
23 He took up his parable, and said,
“Alas, who shall live when God does this?
24     But ships shall come from the coast of Kittim.
They shall afflict Asshur, and shall afflict Eber.
    He also shall come to destruction.”
25 Balaam rose up, and went and returned to his place; and Balak also went his way.
25:1 Israel stayed in Shittim; and the people began to play the prostitute with the daughters of Moab; 2 for they called the people to the sacrifices of their gods. The people ate and bowed down to their gods. 3 Israel joined himself to Baal Peor. Yahweh’s anger burned against Israel. 4 Yahweh said to Moses, “Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up to Yahweh before the sun, that the fierce anger of Yahweh may turn away from Israel.”
5 Moses said to the judges of Israel, “Everyone kill his men who have joined themselves to Baal Peor.”
6 Behold, one of the children of Israel came and brought to his brothers a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses, and in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel, while they were weeping at the door of the Tent of Meeting. 7 When Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from the middle of the congregation, and took a spear in his hand. 8 He went after the man of Israel into the pavilion, and thrust both of them through, the man of Israel, and the woman through her body. So the plague was stayed from the children of Israel. 9 Those who died by the plague were twenty-four thousand.
10 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 11 “Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from the children of Israel, in that he was jealous with my jealousy among them, so that I didn’t consume the children of Israel in my jealousy. 12 Therefore say, ‘Behold, I give to him my covenant of peace. 13 It shall be to him, and to his offspring[a] after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood, because he was jealous for his God, and made atonement for the children of Israel.’”
14 Now the name of the man of Israel that was slain, who was slain with the Midianite woman, was Zimri, the son of Salu, a prince of a fathers’ house among the Simeonites. 15 The name of the Midianite woman who was slain was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur. He was head of the people of a fathers’ house in Midian.
16 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 17 “Harass the Midianites, and strike them, 18 for they harassed you with their wiles, with which they have deceived you in the matter of Peor, and in the matter of Cozbi, the daughter of the prince of Midian, their sister, who was slain on the day of the plague in the matter of Peor.”
Footnotes:
a. Numbers 25:13 or, seed
Mark 16:1 When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, that they might come and anoint him. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen. 3 They were saying among themselves, “Who will roll away the stone from the door of the tomb for us?” 4 for it was very big. Looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back.
5 Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed. 6 He said to them, “Don’t be amazed. You seek Jesus, the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen. He is not here. Behold, the place where they laid him! 7 But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He goes before you into Galilee. There you will see him, as he said to you.’”
8 They went out,[a] and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had come on them. They said nothing to anyone; for they were afraid. 9 [b]Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him, as they mourned and wept. 11 When they heard that he was alive, and had been seen by her, they disbelieved. 12 After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country. 13 They went away and told it to the rest. They didn’t believe them, either.
14 Afterward he was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at the table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they didn’t believe those who had seen him after he had risen. 15 He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. 17 These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
19 So then the Lord,[c] after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen.
Footnotes:
a. Mark 16:8 TR adds “quickly”
b. Mark 16:9 NU includes the text of verses 9-20, but mentions in a footnote that a few manuscripts omitted it. The translators of the World English Bible regard Mark 16:9-20 as reliable based on an overwhelming majority of textual evidence, including not only the authoritative Greek Majority Text New Testament, but also the TR and many of the manuscripts cited in the NU text.
c. Mark 16:19 NA adds “Jesus”
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