Saint Louis, Missouri, United States - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "One Answer, One Way" Sunday, 27 July 2014This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.(1 Timothy 2:3-6)
So, how's a person -- a sinful person -- going to find peace?
If you go to the library or a large bookstore, you will find many volumes with many suggestions on which way the author thinks you should proceed. You will find volumes written by therapists. Sadly, a therapist can offer some self-help suggestions, but he offers no promises.There are some religions which encourage, "Change your state of mind and you will be lifted up" or "Here are rules to help you escape your sin." Tragically, you can never be sure how far you've gone. Some world religions offer all kinds of mental and physical exercises to help you. Of course, if you fall short, which everybody does, you get recycled and get to try again.
Science can tell you there is no such thing as sin. After all, from the scientific point of view, you are a human animal. That's what science says, but your conscience says differently. Name a philosophy or a religion, all will fail to give you the absolute peace and assurance of salvation that you need.
All will fail, except for Christianity.
Most folks reading that line will say, "That's a pretty strong statement." They will say that because we live in a time where there are many ways to heaven, if there is a heaven. Ours is a time when folks want to believe all religions are the same, with every road leading you to God, if there is a god.
In contrast to what is fashionable, only Christianity supplies complete answers to life's questions. That's because Jesus' church is the only church that says we are saved by God's grace and not by our actions.
Those of us who have been brought into the Lord's light rejoice because they are absolutely sure Jesus is the Answer. Please notice I didn't say Jesus is an answer, nor is He one of many answers.
Jesus, alone, is the Good News of great joy, which the angels announced at His birth. Jesus is the Answer, the Message of Hope the angels spoke about at the entrance to the empty tomb on Resurrection Sunday.
Jesus is the Answer. He is the Answer who toppled the Greek gods from Olympus and closed down the oracle at Delphi. Jesus is the Answer who shut down the temples of Isis in Egypt, and made sure the mystery religions remained a mystery.
Jesus is the Answer. He is the Answer who turned the world upside down 2,000 years ago, and He remains the only Answer to humanity's spiritual needs today. This explains why the Holy Spirit continues to bring comfort to those who mourn, and joy to those who live.
It all happens because Jesus alone is the Way, and the Truth, and the Life.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, may I always follow Your Son who is the only Savior this world will ever see. May others also reject the theological and psychological inventions of humankind and place their trust in Jesus, who gave His life so we might have life eternal. In His Name. Amen.
The Savior asked His followers to share His story of salvation. Sadly, doing so can be frightening and intimidating. If you would like to learn how to be more comfortable fulfilling the Lord's request, Lutheran Hour Ministries is holding a SENT Outreach Conference in Detroit, covering the dates of July 24-27. For more information, see www.lhm.org/conference.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours, 
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Psalms 99:1-3 God rules. On your toes, everybody!
He rules from his angel throne—take notice!
God looms majestic in Zion,
He towers in splendor over all the big names.
Great and terrible your beauty: let everyone praise you!
Holy. Yes, holy.
4-5 Strong King, lover of justice,
You laid things out fair and square;
You set down the foundations in Jacob,
Foundation stones of just and right ways.
Honor God, our God; worship his rule!
Holy. Yes, holy.
6-9 Moses and Aaron were his priests,
Samuel among those who prayed to him.
They prayed to God and he answered them;
He spoke from the pillar of cloud.
And they did what he said; they kept the law he gave them.
And then God, our God, answered them
(But you were never soft on their sins).
Lift high God, our God; worship at his holy mountain.
Holy. Yes, holy is God our God.
A Thanksgiving Psalm
100:1-2 On your feet now—applaud God!
Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
3 Know this: God is God, and God, God.
He made us; we didn’t make him.
We’re his people, his well-tended sheep.
4 Enter with the password: “Thank you!”
Make yourselves at home, talking praise.
Thank him. Worship him.
5 For God is sheer beauty,
all-generous in love,
loyal always and ever.
A Prayer of One Whose Life Is Falling to Pieces, and Who Lets God Know Just How Bad It Is
102:1-2 God, listen! Listen to my prayer,
listen to the pain in my cries.
Don’t turn your back on me
just when I need you so desperately.
Pay attention! This is a cry for help!
And hurry—this can’t wait!
3-11 I’m wasting away to nothing,
I’m burning up with fever.
I’m a ghost of my former self,
half-consumed already by terminal illness.
My jaws ache from gritting my teeth;
I’m nothing but skin and bones.
I’m like a buzzard in the desert,
a crow perched on the rubble.
Insomniac, I twitter away,
mournful as a sparrow in the gutter.
All day long my enemies taunt me,
while others just curse.
They bring in meals—casseroles of ashes!
I draw drink from a barrel of my tears.
And all because of your furious anger;
you swept me up and threw me out.
There’s nothing left of me—
a withered weed, swept clean from the path.
12-17 Yet you, God, are sovereign still,
always and ever sovereign.
You’ll get up from your throne and help Zion—
it’s time for compassionate help.
Oh, how your servants love this city’s rubble
and weep with compassion over its dust!
The godless nations will sit up and take notice
—see your glory, worship your name—
When God rebuilds Zion,
when he shows up in all his glory,
When he attends to the prayer of the wretched.
He won’t dismiss their prayer.
18-22 Write this down for the next generation
so people not yet born will praise God:
“God looked out from his high holy place;
from heaven he surveyed the earth.
He listened to the groans of the doomed,
he opened the doors of their death cells.”
Write it so the story can be told in Zion,
so God’s praise will be sung in Jerusalem’s streets
And wherever people gather together
along with their rulers to worship him.
23-28 God sovereignly brought me to my knees,
he cut me down in my prime.
“Oh, don’t,” I prayed, “please don’t let me die.
You have more years than you know what to do with!
You laid earth’s foundations a long time ago,
and handcrafted the very heavens;
You’ll still be around when they’re long gone,
threadbare and discarded like an old suit of clothes.
You’ll throw them away like a worn-out coat,
but year after year you’re as good as new.
Your servants’ children will have a good place to live
and their children will be at home with you.”
Acts 17: Athens
1 The longer Paul waited in Athens for Silas and Timothy, the angrier he got—all those idols! The city was a junkyard of idols.
17-18 He discussed it with the Jews and other like-minded people at their meeting place. And every day he went out on the streets and talked with anyone who happened along. He got to know some of the Epicurean and Stoic intellectuals pretty well through these conversations. Some of them dismissed him with sarcasm: “What an airhead!” But others, listening to him go on about Jesus and the resurrection, were intrigued: “That’s a new slant on the gods. Tell us more.”
19-21 These people got together and asked him to make a public presentation over at the Areopagus, where things were a little quieter. They said, “This is a new one on us. We’ve never heard anything quite like it. Where did you come up with this anyway? Explain it so we can understand.” Downtown Athens was a great place for gossip. There were always people hanging around, natives and tourists alike, waiting for the latest tidbit on most anything.
22-23 So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, to the god nobody knows. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with.
24-29 “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it?
30-31 “God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”
32-34 At the phrase “raising him from the dead,” the listeners split: Some laughed at him and walked off making jokes; others said, “Let’s do this again. We want to hear more.” But that was it for the day, and Paul left. There were still others, it turned out, who were convinced then and there, and stuck with Paul—among them Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris.
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