The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Living Advertisements" for Friday, January 15, 2016

The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Living Advertisements" for Friday, January 15, 2016

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.[2 Corinthians 5:20-21]
This last October I was driving down the street and saw a giant gorilla doll.
This six-foot doll was placed out in front of a party store in our neighborhood. You know, this is the kind of store that rents costumes and all kinds of party paraphernalia for birthdays, anniversaries and holiday events throughout the year.
As I was passing by, I thought to myself, the owners of that store better watch out or someone is going to steal that gorilla. A gorilla like that would look good in a college dorm or a fraternity house.
I was just about past the store when the doll turned and waved at me!
Before I knew what I was doing, in shock, I waved back. That's when I realized that this particular gorilla wasn't a stuffed doll or robot. There was a real, live person inside that suit. The gorilla was a living advertisement for the party store. Although I get impressed easily, this was a pretty impressive thing.
Has it ever occurred to you that we are to be living advertisements for the Savior?
Now, I know some folks might object to the word "advertise" when it's used that way. If you are among those who feel that way, let me share that this word "advertise" originally meant "to turn toward." So, in its purest form, we are advertising or turning people toward Jesus.
That's something we -- and the rest of God's people -- should never be ashamed to do.
Read through Scripture and you will find many others who were God's living advertisements.
* Moses advertised the Messiah when he, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, had foretold that the Savior, as He died for us, would have none of His bones broken (see Exodus 12:46; John 19:36).
* Suffering Job taught us all to cling to the promise that Jesus would be a Redeemer, the One who would, at the cost of His life, give us eternal life (see Job 19:25-27; Galatians 4:4).
* King David was a living advertisement to the Lord's resurrection when he wrote that God's Son would not, in death, see decay (see Psalm 16:8-10; Acts 2:27).
* Hundreds of years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Isaiah served as a living advertisement when He shared that the Shepherd would die for His sheep (see Isaiah 40:10-11; John 10:11). Of course, Isaiah went much further than that. He also wrote that Jesus would be scourged and spat upon (see Isaiah 50:6; Matthew 26:67); rejected by His people (see Isaiah 52:13; Mark 15:3-4); that He would be silent when He was accused (see Isaiah 53:7; Mark 15:3); and that He would be crucified with criminals (see Isaiah 53:12; John 12:37-38).
The Old Testament is filled with living advertisements to Jesus. But so is the New Testament. From John the Baptist to John the apostle and evangelist, God has raised up people to point others to the Savior.
It is no different today as the Lord has raised us up to direct a lost world to the blood-bought forgiveness which is theirs because of the Savior. It is no different as the Lord has asked us to be His Son's living advertisers.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, may I consider it an honor to direct the lost to their Redeemer. May the Holy Spirit touch their hearts so they may know the joys of having their sins forgiven. In the Savior's Name I ask it. 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:Job 17:1 “My spirit is broken, my days are quenched,

I am marked for the grave.

2 Mockers are all around me;

my eye meets only their hostility.

3 Be my guarantor, yourself!

Who else will put up a pledge for me?

4 For you have shut their minds to common sense;

therefore you will not let them triumph.

5 Should people share with their friends

when their own children’s eyes are so sad?

6 “He has made me a byword among the peoples,

a creature in whose face they spit.

7 I am nearly blind with grief,

my limbs reduced to a shadow.

8 The upright are perplexed at this,

the innocent aroused against the hypocrites.

9 Yet the righteous hold on to their way,

and those with clean hands grow stronger and stronger.

10 “But as for you all, turn around! Come back! —

yet I won’t find a wise man among you.

11 My days are over, my plans cut off,

which I had cherished so;

12 but they [try to] turn [my] night into day,

[saying,] ‘Light is near!’ — in the face of darkness.

13 “If I hope for Sh’ol to be my house;

if I spread my couch in the dark;

14 if I say to the pit, ‘You are my father,’

and to worms, ‘You are my mother and sister,’

15 then where is my hope?

And that hope of mine, who will see it?

16 Only those who go down with me

to the bars of Sh’ol,

when we rest together in the dust.”

18:1 Bildad the Shuchi said,

2 “When will you put an end to words?

Think about it — then we’ll talk!

3 Why are we thought of as cattle,

stupid in your view?

4 You can tear yourself to pieces in your anger,

but the earth won’t be abandoned just for your sake;

not even a rock will be moved from its place.

5 “The light of the wicked will flicker and die,

not a spark from his fire will shine,

6 the light in his tent is darkened,

the lamp over him will be snuffed out.

7 His vigorous stride is shortened,

his own plans make him trip and fall.

8 For his own feet plunge him into a net,

he wanders into its meshes.

9 A trap grabs him by the heel,

a snare catches hold of him.

10 A noose is hidden for him in the ground;

pitfalls lie in his path.

11 Terrors overwhelm him on every side

and scatter about his feet.

12 “Trouble is hungry for him,

calamity ready for his fall;

13 disease eats away at his skin;

the first stages of death devour him gradually.

14 What he relied on will be torn from his tent,

and he will be marched before the king of terrors.

15 “What isn’t his at all will live in his tent;

sulfur will be scattered on his home.

16 His roots beneath him will dry up;

above him, his branch will wither.

17 Memory of him will fade from the land,

while abroad his name will be unknown.

18 He will be pushed from light into darkness

and driven out of the world.

19 “Without son or grandson among his people,

no one will remain in his dwellings.

20 Those who come after will be appalled at his fate,

just as those there before were struck with horror.

21 “This is how things are in the homes of the wicked,

and this is the place of those who don’t know God.”

19:1 Then Iyov answered:

2 “How long will you go on making me angry,

crushing me with words?

3 You’ve insulted me ten times already;

aren’t you ashamed to treat me so badly?

4 Even if it’s true that I made a mistake,

my error stays with me.

5 “You may take a superior attitude toward me

and cite my disgrace as proof against me;

6 but know that it’s God who has put me in the wrong

and closed his net around me.

7 If I cry, ‘Violence!’ no one hears me;

I cry aloud, but there is no justice.

8 “He has fenced off my way, so that I can’t pass;

he has covered my paths with darkness.

9 He has stripped me of my glory

and removed the crown from my head.

10 He tears every part of me down — I am gone;

he uproots my hope like a tree.

11 “Inflamed with anger against me,

he counts me as one of his foes.

12 His troops advance together,

they make their way against me

and encamp around my tent.

13 “He has made my brothers keep their distance,

those who know me are wholly estranged from me,

14 my kinsfolk have failed me,

and my close friends have forgotten me.

15 Those living in my house consider me a stranger;

my slave-girls too — in their view I’m a foreigner.

16 I call my servant, and he doesn’t answer,

even if I beg him for a favor!

17 “My wife can’t stand my breath,

I am loathsome to my own family.

18 Even young children despise me —

if I stand up, they start jeering at me.

19 All my intimate friends abhor me,

and those I loved have turned against me.

20 My bones stick to my skin and flesh;

I have escaped by the skin of my teeth.

21 “Pity me, friends of mine, pity me!

For the hand of God has struck me!

22 Must you pursue me as God does,

never satisfied with my flesh?

23 I wish my words were written down,

that they were inscribed in a scroll,

24 that, engraved with iron and filled with lead,

they were cut into rock forever!

25 “But I know that my Redeemer lives,

that in the end he will rise on the dust;

26 so that after my skin has been thus destroyed,

then even without my flesh, I will see God.

27 I will see him for myself,

my eyes, not someone else’s, will behold him.

My heart grows weak inside me!

28 “If you say, ‘How will we persecute him?’ —

the root of the matter is found in me.

29 You had best fear the sword,

for anger brings the punishment of the sword,

so that you will know there is judgment!”

Matthew 10:21 “A brother will betray his brother to death, and a father his child; children will turn against their parents and have them put to death. 22 Everyone will hate you because of me, but whoever holds out till the end will be preserved from harm. 23 When you are persecuted in one town, run away to another. Yes indeed; I tell you, you will not finish going through the towns of Isra’el before the Son of Man comes.

24 “A talmid is not greater than his rabbi, a slave is not greater than his master. 25 It is enough for a talmid that he become like his rabbi, and a slave like his master. Now if people have called the head of the house Ba‘al-Zibbul, how much more will they malign the members of his household! 26 So do not fear them; for there is nothing covered that will not be uncovered, or hidden that will not be known. 27 What I tell you in the dark, speak in the light; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim on the housetops.

28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are powerless to kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gei-Hinnom. 29 Aren’t sparrows sold for next to nothing, two for an assarion? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground without your Father’s consent. 30 As for you, every hair on your head has been counted. 31 So do not be afraid, you are worth more than many sparrows.

32 “Whoever acknowledges me in the presence of others I will also acknowledge in the presence of my Father in heaven. 33 But whoever disowns me before others I will disown before my Father in heaven.

34 “Don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Land. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword! 35 For I have come to set

36 a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law,

so that a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.[Matthew 10:36 Micah 7:6]

37 Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me. 38 And anyone who does not take up his execution-stake and follow me is not worthy of me. 39 Whoever finds his own life will lose it, but the person who loses his life for my sake will find it.

40 “Whoever receives you is receiving me, and whoever receives me is receiving the One who sent me. 41 Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive the reward a prophet gets, and anyone who receives a tzaddik because he is a tzaddik will receive the reward a tzaddik gets. 42 Indeed, if someone gives just a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my talmid — yes! — I tell you, he will certainly not lose his reward!”

---------------------

The Lutheran Hour

660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141, United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
---------------------