Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour - Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Salvation from God" for Saturday, 31 January 2015

Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour - Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Salvation from God" for Saturday, 31 January 2015

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved.[John 3:16-17]

Jesus left heaven, all the comfort, all the glory, all the honor, all the respect that He deserved, and became One of us. He had to be One of us; otherwise, He couldn't pay our ransom price.
Jesus became One of us. From cradle to cross, to grave, to resurrection, and beyond, Jesus did everything right. He fulfilled every law we had broken. That's major. He resisted every temptation to which we have consented. That's just as essential.
With stories and parables, He told people how they ought to live, and what ought to be important and of high priority. He got close to those who were alone, and He reached out to those who were untouchable. He healed those who were hurting. He cared. He showed us just how much God cared about us.
Now, for having done all this, you might think people would applaud and appreciate Him.
They didn't. They hit and hurt Him. They lied about Him, laughed at, and leered at Him. They struck Him and spit at Him and scourged Him. They condemned Him, and they crucified Him.
Jesus knew that would happen. He knew it had to happen that way. Before He had ever been born, God's holy writers had said His life would play out this way. He could have escaped; He chose not to. Instead, He took your sins, my sins, all sins with Him to the cross. There, as He hung on nails, suspended between heaven and earth, He erased every wrong and evil that we have ever committed.
On the cross Jesus wiped out every transgression we have ever contemplated, considered or done.
Jesus died for you. You didn't deserve it. You didn't earn it. Then, when Jesus came back to life, three days after He had been murdered, He showed to all the world that God had accepted His sacrifice. That is why all who by the Holy Spirit's power are brought to faith can say, "Jesus, my Savior, be merciful to me a sinner" -- and can be sure He is.
Faith that Christ has been your Substitute means that because your sin is gone, your worries, your weariness can also disappear.
Years ago I read about a lady who lived alone. Partly crippled, she relied upon the good will and help of her neighbors. Although she had little to record, each day she kept a diary. Eventually, she died. It took a number of days before anyone noticed. When the police looked through her diary, they found, not surprisingly, little of interest. Near the end of her life, as one day followed another, she wrote only three, pitiful words on each page. She wrote, "No one came."
Today I want you to know that Someone has come to save you. I want you to know that same Someone has invited you to come to Him.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, there are no words which can properly convey my gratitude for Your love and the Savior's sacrifice. May I be ever mindful that my salvation begins -- and will always continue -- because You have reached out to save me. This I ask in Jesus. Amen.

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:
Genesis 33: Esau forgives Jacob
1 Jacob looked up and saw Esau approaching with four hundred men. Jacob divided the children among Leah, Rachel, and the two women servants. 2 He put the servants and their children first, Leah and her children after them, and Rachel and Joseph last. 3 He himself went in front of them and bowed to the ground seven times as he was approaching his brother. 4 But Esau ran to meet him, threw his arms around his neck, kissed him, and they wept. 5 Esau looked up and saw the women and children and said, “Who are these with you?”
Jacob said, “The children that God generously gave your servant.” 6 The women servants and their children came forward and bowed down. 7 Then Leah and her servants also came forward and bowed, and afterward Joseph and Rachel came forward and bowed.
8 Esau said, “What’s the meaning of this entire group of animals that I met?”
Jacob said, “To ask for my master’s kindness.”
9 Esau said, “I already have plenty, my brother. Keep what’s yours.”
10 Jacob said, “No, please, do me the kindness of accepting my gift. Seeing your face is like seeing God’s face, since you’ve accepted me so warmly. 11 Take this present that I’ve brought because God has been generous to me, and I have everything I need.” So Jacob persuaded him, and he took it.
12 Esau said, “Let’s break camp and set out, and I’ll go with you.”
13 But Jacob said to him, “My master knows that the children aren’t strong and that I am responsible for the nursing flocks and cattle. If I push them hard for even one day, all of the flocks will die. 14 My master, go on ahead of your servant, but I’ve got to take it easy, going only as fast as the animals in front of me and the children are able to go, until I meet you in Seir.”
15 Esau said, “Let me leave some of my people with you.”
But Jacob said, “Why should you do this since my master has already been so kind to me?” 16 That day Esau returned on the road to Seir, 17 but Jacob traveled to Succoth. He built a house for himself but made temporary shelters for his animals; therefore, he named the place Succoth.[a]
Dinah and the conflict at Shechem
18 Jacob arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan on his trip from Paddan-aram, and he camped in front of the city. 19 He bought the section of the field where he pitched his tent from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for one hundred qesitahs.[b] 20 Then he set up an altar there and named it El Elohe Israel.[c]
34:1 Dinah, the daughter whom Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to meet the women of that country. 2 When Shechem the son of the Hivite Hamor and the country’s prince saw her, he took her, slept with her, and humiliated her. 3 He was drawn to Dinah, Jacob’s daughter. He loved the young woman and tried to win her heart. 4 Shechem said to his father Hamor, “Get this girl for me as my wife.” 5 Now Jacob heard that Shechem defiled his daughter Dinah; but his sons were with the animals in the countryside, so he decided to keep quiet until they got back. 6 Meanwhile, Hamor, Shechem’s father, went out to Jacob to speak with him. 7 Just then, Jacob’s sons got back from the countryside. When they heard what had happened, they were deeply offended and very angry, because Shechem had disgraced Israel by sleeping with Jacob’s daughter. Such things are simply not done.
8 Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem’s heart is set on your daughter. Please let him marry her. 9 Arrange marriages with us: give us your daughters and take our daughters for yourselves. 10 Live with us. The land is available to you: settle down, travel through it, and buy property in it.”
11 Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “If you approve of me, tell me what you want, and I will give it to you. 12 Make the bride price and marriage gifts as large as you like, and I will pay whatever you tell me. Then let me marry the young woman.”
13 Jacob’s sons responded deviously to Shechem and his father Hamor because Shechem defiled their sister Dinah. 14 They said to them, “We can’t do this, allowing our sisters to marry uncircumcised men, because it’s disgraceful to us. 15 We can only agree to do this if you circumcise every male as we do. 16 Then we will give our daughters to you, and we will take your daughters for ourselves. We will live with you and be one people. 17 But if you don’t listen to us and become circumcised, we will take our daughter and leave.”
18 Their idea seemed like a good one to Hamor and Hamor’s son Shechem. 19 The young man didn’t waste any time doing this because he liked Jacob’s daughter so much. He was more respected than anyone else in his father’s household. 20 Hamor and his son Shechem went to their city’s gate and spoke to the men of their city: 21 “These men want peace with us. Let them live in the land and travel through it; there’s plenty of land for them. We will marry their daughters and give them our daughters. 22 But the men will agree to live with us and become one people only if we circumcise every male just as they do. 23 Their livestock, their property, and all of their animals—won’t they be ours? Let’s agree with them and let them live with us.” 24 Everyone at the city gate agreed with Hamor and his son Shechem, so every able-bodied male in the city was circumcised.
25 On the third day, when they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons and Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi took their swords, came into the city, which suspected nothing, and killed every male. 26 They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah from Shechem’s household, and left. 27 When Jacob’s other sons discovered the dead, they looted the city that had defiled their sister. 28 They took their flocks, their cattle, and their donkeys, whether in the city or in the fields nearby. 29 They carried off their property, their children, and their wives. They looted the entire place. 30 Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You’ve put me in danger by making me offensive to those who live here in the land, to the Canaanites and the Perizzites. I have only a few men. They may join forces, attack me, and destroy me, me and my household.”
31 They said, “But didn’t he treat our sister like a prostitute?”
Jacob establishes worship at Bethel
35:1 God said to Jacob, “Get up, go to Bethel, and live there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you ran away from your brother Esau.”
2 Jacob said to his household and to everyone who was with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you. Clean yourselves and change your clothes. 3 Then let’s rise and go up to Bethel so that I can build an altar there to the God who answered me when I was in trouble and who has been with me wherever I’ve gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all of the foreign gods they had, as well as the rings in their ears, and Jacob buried them under the terebinth at Shechem. 5 When they set out, God made all of the surrounding cities fearful so that they didn’t pursue Jacob’s sons. 6 Jacob and all of the people with him arrived in Luz, otherwise known as Bethel, in the land of Canaan. 7 He built an altar there and named the place El-bethel,[d] because God had revealed himself to him there when he ran away from his brother. 8 Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died and was buried at Bethel under the oak, and Jacob named it Allon-bacuth.[e]
9 God appeared to Jacob again, while he was on his way back from Paddan-aram, and blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but your name will be Jacob no longer. No, your name will be Israel.” And he named him Israel. 11 God said to him, “I am El Shaddai.[f] Be fertile and multiply. A nation, even a large group of nations, will come from you; kings will descend from your own children. 12 The land I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, I give to you; and I will give the land to your descendants after you.” 13 Then God ascended, leaving him alone in the place where he spoke to him. 14 So Jacob set up a sacred pillar, a stone pillar, at the place God spoke to him. He poured an offering of wine on it and then poured oil over it. 15 Jacob named the place Bethel where God spoke to him.
Benjamin’s birth and Rachel’s death
16 They left Bethel, and when they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel went into hard labor. 17 During her difficult labor, the midwife said to her, “Don’t be afraid. You have another son.” 18 As her life faded away, just before she died, she named him Ben-oni,[g] but his father named him Benjamin.[h] 19 Rachel died and was buried near the road to Ephrath, that is, Bethlehem. 20 Jacob set up a pillar on her grave. It’s the pillar on Rachel’s tomb that’s still there today. 21 Israel continued his trip and pitched his tent farther on near the tower of Eder.
Jacob’s family
22 While Israel stayed in that place, Reuben went and slept with Bilhah his father’s secondary wife, and Israel heard about it.
Jacob had twelve sons. 23 The sons of Leah were Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, and Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. 24 The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. 25 The sons of Bilhah, Rachel’s servant, were Dan and Naphtali. 26 The sons of Zilpah, Leah’s servant, were Gad and Asher. These were Jacob’s sons born to him in Paddan-aram.
Isaac’s death
27 Jacob came to his father Isaac at Mamre, that is, Kiriath-arba. This is Hebron, where Abraham and Isaac lived as immigrants. 28 At the age of 180 years, 29 Isaac took his last breath and died. He was buried with his ancestors after a long, satisfying life. His sons Esau and Jacob buried him.[Footnotes:
Genesis 33:17 Or temporary shelters
Genesis 33:19 A monetary weight
Genesis 33:20 Or El, God of Israel
Genesis 35:7 Or God of Bethel
Genesis 35:8 Or oak of weeping
Genesis 35:11 Or God Almighty or God of the Mountain
Genesis 35:18 Or my suffering son
Genesis 35:18 Or right-hand son or strong son]
Matthew 20: Jesus predicts his death and resurrection
17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the Twelve aside by themselves on the road. He told them, 18 “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Human One[a] will be handed over to the chief priests and legal experts. They will condemn him to death. 19  They will hand him over to the Gentiles to be ridiculed, tortured, and crucified. But he will be raised on the third day.”
Request from James and John’s mother
20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came to Jesus along with her sons. Bowing before him, she asked a favor of him.
21 “What do you want?” he asked.
She responded, “Say that these two sons of mine will sit, one on your right hand and one on your left, in your kingdom.”
22 Jesus replied, “You don’t know what you’re asking! Can you drink from the cup that I’m about to drink from?”
They said to him, “We can.”
23 He said to them, “You will drink from my cup, but to sit at my right or left hand isn’t mine to give. It belongs to those for whom my Father prepared it.”
24 Now when the other ten disciples heard about this, they became angry with the two brothers. 25 But Jesus called them over and said, “You know that those who rule the Gentiles show off their authority over them and their high-ranking officials order them around. 26  But that’s not the way it will be with you. Whoever wants to be great among you will be your servant. 27  Whoever wants to be first among you will be your slave— 28 just as the Human One[b] didn’t come to be served but rather to serve and to give his life to liberate many people.”
Healing of two blind men
29 As Jesus and his disciples were going out of Jericho a large crowd followed him. 30 When two blind men sitting along the road heard that Jesus was passing by, they shouted, “Show us mercy, Lord, Son of David!”
31 Now the crowd scolded them and told them to be quiet. But they shouted even louder, “Show us mercy, Lord, Son of David!”
32 Jesus stopped in his tracks and called to them. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
33 “Lord, we want to see,” they replied.
34 Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they were able to see, and they followed him.[Footnotes:
Matthew 20:18 Or Son of Man

Matthew 20:28 Or Son of Man]
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