The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Blessings in Abundance" for Sunday, January 17, 2016

The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "Blessings in Abundance" for Sunday, January 17, 2016

And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.[Genesis 12:2]
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The salvation story of Jesus Christ reaches around the world. So that the readers of our Daily Devotion may see the power of the Savior on a global scale, we have asked the volunteers of our International Ministry Centers to write our Friday devotions. We pray that the Spirit may touch your day through their words.
In Christ, I remain, His servant and yours,
Kenneth R. Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour
Blessings bring many opportunities and joys to our lives.
Those blessings come from many different sources: our parents, elders, pastors, teachers, etc. Properly given and received, those blessings are always real helps in our lives. Of course, it almost goes without saying the blessings of God remain the greatest, the most excellent gifts of all.
Scripture has many such examples of God's blessings being given.
For example, God selected Abraham and revealed Himself to the patriarch. Part of that choosing ended up with the descendants of Abraham, the Hebrews, knowing the true God. As long as the people appreciated the Lord's favor, that is, as long as they trusted in Him, they enjoyed favored lives. God's blessings resulted in them becoming a great nation.
Abraham received the promises of God and trusted in Him. In this way he became a forefather of believers and, centuries later, the Lord honored his name.
Over the centuries God has continued to bless His people. Truly, it is always a joyful thing to receive the Lord's heaven-sent bounties in our lives. But it is a double joy to be a blessing to others also.
After realizing he had reached a considerable age, Abraham gave a large share of his holdings, as well as many rights, to his relative Lot. Abraham passed on all the material gain he had won in his battles with his enemies and thereby gave Lot the tools to have a blessed and happy life.
Through this act, the fame of Abraham was increased. More importantly, in the form of blessings both old and new, the Lord continued to bestow His largesse upon the aged patriarch.
Stories like this from the Word of God help us understand that we are blessed not only through receiving the gifts we get from our Creator, but we are also blessed when we share those blessings with others.
Understand, here we are not talking about mere earthly things and stuff.
Our real blessings come via the sweet grace and special mercy of God. These are the Lord's never- tarnishing, never-failing gifts. When St. Paul took his problems to the Lord, God responded by saying, "My grace is sufficient for you" (see 2 Corinthians 12:9). It was that grace which sustained Paul through his trials.
It is the same grace by which, centuries later, our Lord blesses us by using us as good leaders to reach out to people and reflect His love to the lost -- as well as to each other.
In other words, in word and deed, we share the story of the Savior who gave His life, so all who believe on Him might be given salvation through the risen Redeemer.
THE PRAYER: Lord, our Heavenly Father, the Giver of all blessings, we thank You for all Your earthly and spiritual gifts we enjoy in our lives. Help us understand the greatest blessing is not only to receive -- but also to share -- our salvation with others whom You bring before us. In the Name of Jesus our Lord, we pray. Amen.
Biography of Author: Today's international devotion was written by Reverend D. Eben Titus. Reverend Titus received his degree from Serampore University in India. The good Reverend is married to Beril and they have a son and daughter. Pastor has served 16 years at Bethlehem Lutheran Church and four years at Calvary Lutheran Church. Since 2001, he has been at Grace Lutheran Church, Vallioor in the Nagercoil Synod. Pastor Titus has written numerous devotions and articles.
In this country of 1.2 billion people, Lutheran Hour Ministries-India is known as Christian Media Centre and began operations in 1951. Using Bible Correspondence Courses (BCC) in six languages -- Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Hindi Marathi, Gujarati and English, this ministry center in Chennai reaches out with the Gospel. It also utilizes the Internet to broadcast round-the-clock radio messages of love and hope. Beyond this, short dramas, devotional songs, stage plays, and dance convey the Gospel to audiences in remote villages and cities. Twice weekly this ministry center broadcasts television programs to reach out to Tamil-speaking people.
Check out how LHM-India is conducting free medical check-up camps as part of its proclamation program. You can read about it by clicking here to access its blog.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhm.org/international.

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 22:1 Next Elifaz the Teimani replied:

2 “Can a human be of advantage to God?

Can even the wisest benefit him?

3 Does Shaddai gain if you are righteous?

Does he profit if you make your ways blameless?

4 “Is he rebuking you because you fear him?

Is this why he enters into judgment with you?

5 Isn’t it because your wickedness is great?

Aren’t your iniquities endless?

6 “For you kept your kinsmen’s goods as collateral for no reason,

you stripped the poorly clothed of what clothing they have,

7 you didn’t give water to the weary to drink,

you withheld food from the hungry.

8 As a wealthy man, an owner of land,

and as a man of rank, who lives on it,

9 you sent widows away empty-handed

and left the arms of orphans crushed.

10 “No wonder there are snares all around you,

and sudden terror overwhelms you,

11 or darkness , so that you can’t see,

and a flood of water that covers you up!

12 “Isn’t God in the heights of heaven,

looking [down even] on the highest stars?

13 Yet you say, ‘What does God know?

Can he see through thick darkness to judge?

14 The clouds veil him off, so that he can’t see;

he just wanders around in heaven.’

15 “Are you going to keep to the old way,

the one the wicked have trodden,

16 the ones snatched away before their time,

whose foundations a flood swept away?

17 They said to God, ‘Leave us alone!

What can Shaddai do to us?’

18 Yet he himself had filled their homes with good things!

(But the advice of the wicked is far away from me.)

19 The righteous saw this and rejoiced;

the innocent laughed them to scorn —

20 ‘Indeed, our substance has not been not cut off,

but the fire has consumed their wealth.’

21 “Learn to be at peace with [God];

in this way good will come [back] to you.

22 Please! Receive instruction from his mouth,

and take his words to heart.

23 If you return to Shaddai, you will be built up.

If you drive wickedness far from your tents,

24 if you lay your treasure down in the dust

and the gold of Ofir among the rocks in the vadis,

25 and let Shaddai be your treasure

and your sparkling silver;

26 then Shaddai will be your delight,

you will lift up your face to God;

27 you will entreat him, and he will hear you,

and you will pay what you vowed;

28 what you decide to do will succeed,

and light will shine on your path;

29 when someone is brought down, you will say, ‘It was pride,

because [God] saves the humble.’

30 “He delivers even the unclean;

so if your hands are clean, you will be delivered.”

23:1 Then Iyov answered:

2 “Today too my complaint is bitter;

my hand is weighed down because of my groaning.

3 I wish I knew where I could find him;

then I would go to where he is.

4 I would state my case before him

and fill my mouth with arguments.

5 I would know his answering words

and grasp what he would tell me.

6 Would he browbeat me with his great power?

No, he would pay attention to me.

7 There an upright person could reason with him;

thus I might be forever acquitted by my judge.

8 “If I head east, he isn’t there;

if I head west, I don’t detect him,

9 if I turn north, I don’t spot him;

in the south he is veiled, and I still don’t see him.

10 Yet he knows the way I take;

when he has tested me, I will come out like gold.

11 My feet have stayed in his footsteps;

I keep to his way without turning aside.

12 I don’t withdraw from his lips’ command;

I treasure his words more than my daily food.

13 “But he has no equal, so who can change him?

What he desires, he does.

14 He will accomplish what is decreed for me,

and he has many plans like this.

15 This is why I am terrified of him;

the more I think about it, the more afraid I am —

16 God has undermined my courage;

Shaddai frightens me.

17 Yet I am not cut off by the darkness;

he has protected me from the deepest gloom.

24:1 “Why are times not kept by Shaddai?

Why do those who know him not see his days?

2 There are those who move boundary markers;

they carry off flocks and pasture them;

3 they drive away the orphan’s donkey;

as collateral, they seize the widow’s ox.

4 They push the needy out of the way —

the poor of the land are forced into hiding;

5 like wild donkeys in the wilderness,

they have to go out and scavenge food,

[hoping that] the desert

will provide food for their children.

6 They must reap in fields that are not their own

and gather late grapes in the vineyards of the wicked.

7 They pass the night without clothing, naked,

uncovered in the cold,

8 wet with mountain rain,

and hugging the rock for lack of shelter.

9 “There are those who pluck orphans from the breast

and [those who] take [the clothes of] the poor in pledge,

10 so that they go about stripped, unclothed;

they go hungry, as they carry sheaves [of grain];

11 between these men’s rows [of olives], they make oil;

treading their winepresses, they suffer thirst.

12 Men are groaning in the city,

the mortally wounded are crying for help,

yet God finds nothing amiss!

13 “There are those who rebel against the light —

they don’t know its ways or stay in its paths.

14 The murderer rises with the light

to kill the poor and needy;

while at night he is like a thief.

15 The eye of the adulterer too waits for twilight;

he thinks, ‘No eye will see me’;

but [to be sure], he covers his face.

16 When it’s dark, they break into houses;

in the daytime, they stay out of sight.

[None of them] know the light.

17 For to all of them deep darkness is like morning,

for the terrors of deep darkness are familiar to them.

18 “May they be scum on the surface of the water,

may their share of land be cursed,

may no one turn on the way of their vineyards,

19 may drought and heat steal away their snow water

and Sh’ol those who have sinned.

20 May the womb forget them,

may worms find them sweet,

may they no longer be remembered —

thus may iniquity be snapped like a stick.

21 They devour childless women

and give no help to widows.

22 “Yet God keeps pulling the mighty along —

they get up, even when not trusting their own lives.

23 However, even if God lets them rest in safety,

his eyes are on their ways.

24 They are exalted for a little while;

and then they are gone,

brought low, gathered in like all others,

shriveled up like ears of grain.

25 “And even if it isn’t so now,

still no one can prove me a liar

and show that my words are worthless.”

Matthew 12:1 One Shabbat during that time, Yeshua was walking through some wheat fields. His talmidim were hungry, so they began picking heads of grain and eating them. 2 On seeing this, the P’rushim said to him, “Look! Your talmidim are violating Shabbat!” 3 But he said to them, “Haven’t you ever read what David did when he and those with him were hungry? 4 He entered the House of God and ate the Bread of the Presence!” — which was prohibited, both to him and to his companions; it is permitted only to the cohanim. 5 “Or haven’t you read in the Torah that on Shabbat the cohanim profane Shabbat and yet are blameless? 6 I tell you, there is in this place something greater than the Temple! 7 If you knew what ‘I want compassion rather than animal-sacrifice’[Matthew 12:7 Hosea 6:6] meant, you would not condemn the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of Shabbat!”

9 Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue. 10 A man there had a shriveled hand. Looking for a reason to accuse him of something, they asked him, “Is healing permitted on Shabbat?” 11 But he answered, “If you have a sheep that falls in a pit on Shabbat, which of you won’t take hold of it and lift it out? 12 How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore, what is permitted on Shabbat is to do good.” 13 Then to the man he said, “Hold out your hand.” As he held it out, it became restored, as sound as the other one. 14 But the P’rushim went out and began plotting how they might do away with Yeshua. 15 Aware of this, he left that area.

Many people followed him; and he healed them all 16 but warned them not to make him known. 17 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through Yesha‘yahu the prophet,

18 “Here is my servant, whom I have chosen,

my beloved, with whom I am well pleased;

I will put my Spirit on him,

and he will announce justice to the Gentiles.

19 He will not fight or shout,

no one will hear his voice in the streets;

20 he will not snap off a broken reed

or snuff out a smoldering wick

until he has brought justice through to victory.

21 In him the Gentiles will put their hope.”[Matthew 12:21 Isaiah 42:1–4]

22 Then some people brought him a man controlled by demons who was blind and mute; and Yeshua healed him, so that he could both speak and see. 23 The crowds were astounded and asked, “This couldn’t be the Son of David, could it?”

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