Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Good News, Bad News" for Friday, January 19, 2018
1 Peter 3:15 - But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect.
Listening to the news a reasonable person would have to concede the world is in tough shape.
In our nation alone, men of power have been accused of abusing that power in their relationships with those who have none. The national anthem -- as well as statues honoring representatives of the Confederacy -- has divided athletic teams, historians, and communities. A steady march of hurricanes have buffeted our coasts and unseasonably cold weather has seen semi-frozen iguanas dropping from the trees of Florida. North Korea keeps threatening and most of the United Nations disapproves of where we would like our embassy. Unbelievably, when other countries look at our nation, they are envious that we have it so good.
Listening to the news, any sensible individual could easily conclude our small, blue planet is in an unstoppable, downward spiral.
In spite of all that has been said in these opening paragraphs, I am able to tell you there are people out there who believe things are better today than they have been at any other time.
One of those anti-pessimists is Swedish historian Mark Norberg.
Norberg takes a look at the human condition and divides it into nine areas: food, sanitation, life expectancy, poverty, violence, the state of the environment, literacy, freedom, equality, and the conditions of childhood. Amazingly, Norberg maintains, and has statistics to prove, that in most of those areas the world has seen considerable positive progress.
Do you need a few examples of this good news? Well, here you go:
Although most people believe poverty is steady or getting worse, according to the United Nations, the level of those who live in "extreme poverty" (10 percent), has never been lower.
Child mortality is at a record low; 50 percent fewer children under the age of five die today than they did three decades ago.
In 1900, average life expectancy was 31; today it is 71.
Find it hard to believe? You're not alone. According to a recent poll done by YouGov, only six percent of Americans believe the world is getting better. Nicholas Kristof, writer for the New York Times, really stuck his neck out when he said 2016 was "the best year in the history of humanity."
Me? I think Mr. Kristof is not quite right about "the best year."
If I wanted to find the best year in history, I'd go to Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago. There I'd listen to the angels tell of God's Good News of great joy which had come to us in the Person of the Savior. Maybe, a few decades later, I'd go to a borrowed, empty tomb outside Jerusalem's walls. With gladness I'd hear the angels say Jesus wasn't there because He had risen.
Those two years, along with what happened in between, have changed this world and the next; they have transformed our lives, our futures, our eternal destinies. Yes, those were the best of years, and for them we give thanks.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, for Your Son, our Savior, we give thanks. May the Good News He is, and has given, brighten our attitude and give peace to our days. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
The above devotion was inspired by a number of sources, including one written by Eric Metaxas and G. Shane Morris for Breakpo8nt on September 7, 2017. Those who wish to reference that article may do so at the following link, which was fully functional at the time this devotion was written: click here.
Listening to the news a reasonable person would have to concede the world is in tough shape.
In our nation alone, men of power have been accused of abusing that power in their relationships with those who have none. The national anthem -- as well as statues honoring representatives of the Confederacy -- has divided athletic teams, historians, and communities. A steady march of hurricanes have buffeted our coasts and unseasonably cold weather has seen semi-frozen iguanas dropping from the trees of Florida. North Korea keeps threatening and most of the United Nations disapproves of where we would like our embassy. Unbelievably, when other countries look at our nation, they are envious that we have it so good.
Listening to the news, any sensible individual could easily conclude our small, blue planet is in an unstoppable, downward spiral.
In spite of all that has been said in these opening paragraphs, I am able to tell you there are people out there who believe things are better today than they have been at any other time.
One of those anti-pessimists is Swedish historian Mark Norberg.
Norberg takes a look at the human condition and divides it into nine areas: food, sanitation, life expectancy, poverty, violence, the state of the environment, literacy, freedom, equality, and the conditions of childhood. Amazingly, Norberg maintains, and has statistics to prove, that in most of those areas the world has seen considerable positive progress.
Do you need a few examples of this good news? Well, here you go:
Although most people believe poverty is steady or getting worse, according to the United Nations, the level of those who live in "extreme poverty" (10 percent), has never been lower.
Child mortality is at a record low; 50 percent fewer children under the age of five die today than they did three decades ago.
In 1900, average life expectancy was 31; today it is 71.
Find it hard to believe? You're not alone. According to a recent poll done by YouGov, only six percent of Americans believe the world is getting better. Nicholas Kristof, writer for the New York Times, really stuck his neck out when he said 2016 was "the best year in the history of humanity."
Me? I think Mr. Kristof is not quite right about "the best year."
If I wanted to find the best year in history, I'd go to Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago. There I'd listen to the angels tell of God's Good News of great joy which had come to us in the Person of the Savior. Maybe, a few decades later, I'd go to a borrowed, empty tomb outside Jerusalem's walls. With gladness I'd hear the angels say Jesus wasn't there because He had risen.
Those two years, along with what happened in between, have changed this world and the next; they have transformed our lives, our futures, our eternal destinies. Yes, those were the best of years, and for them we give thanks.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, for Your Son, our Savior, we give thanks. May the Good News He is, and has given, brighten our attitude and give peace to our days. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
The above devotion was inspired by a number of sources, including one written by Eric Metaxas and G. Shane Morris for Breakpo8nt on September 7, 2017. Those who wish to reference that article may do so at the following link, which was fully functional at the time this devotion was written: click here.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Job 28-29; Matthew 13:1-30Job 28:1 “There are mines for silver
and places where gold is refined;
2 iron is extracted from the earth,
and copper is smelted from ore.
3 Miners conquer the darkness
and dig as far in as they can,
to the ore in gloom and deep darkness.
4 There where no one lives, they break open a shaft;
the feet passing over are oblivious to them;
far from people, suspended in space,
they swing to and fro.
5 “While the earth is [peacefully] yielding bread,
underneath, it is being convulsed as if by fire;
6 its rocks have veins of sapphire,
and there are flecks of gold.
7 Birds of prey don’t know that path,
no falcon’s eye has seen it,
8 the proud beasts have never set foot on it,
no lion has ever passed over it.
9 “[The miner] attacks the flint,
overturns mountains at their roots,
10 and cuts out galleries in the rock,
all the while watching for something of value.
11 He dams up streams to keep them from flooding,
and brings what was hidden out into the light.
12 “But where can wisdom be found?
Where is the source of understanding?
13 No one knows its value,
and it can’t be found in the land of the living.
14 The deep says, ‘It isn’t in me,’
and the sea says, ‘It isn’t with me.’
15 It can’t be obtained with gold,
nor can silver be weighed out to buy it.
16 It can’t be purchased with choice gold from Ofir,
or with precious onyx or sapphires.
17 Neither gold nor glass can be compared with it;
nor can it be exchanged for a bowl of fine gold,
18 let alone coral or crystal;
for indeed, the price of wisdom is above that of pearls.
19 It can’t be compared with Ethiopian topaz,
and it can’t be valued with pure gold.
20 “So where does wisdom come from?
where is the source of understanding,
21 inasmuch as it is hidden from the eyes of all living
and kept secret from the birds flying around in the sky?
22 Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a rumor about it with our ears.’
23 “God understands its way,
and he knows its place.
24 For he can see to the ends of the earth
and view everything under heaven.
25 When he determined the force of the wind
and parceled out water by measure,
26 when he made a law for the rain
and cleared a path for the thunderbolts;
27 then he saw [wisdom] and declared it,
yes, he set it up and searched it out.
28 And to human beings he said,
‘Look, fear of Adonai is wisdom!
Shunning evil is understanding!’”
29:1 Iyov went on speaking:
2 “I wish I were as in the old days,
back in the times when God watched over me;
3 when his lamp shone over my head,
and I walked through the dark by its light;
4 as I was when I was young,
and God’s counsel graced my tent.
5 Then Shaddai was still with me,
my children were around me;
6 my steps were awash in butter,
and the rocks poured out for me streams of olive oil.
7 I would go out to the city gate
and set up my seat in the open space;
8 when young men saw me they would hide themselves,
while the aged arose and stood;
9 leaders refrained from speaking —
they would lay their hands on their mouths;
10 the voices of nobles were silenced;
their tongues stuck to their palates.
11 Any ear that heard me blessed me,
any eye that saw me gave witness to me,
12 for I delivered the poor when they cried for assistance,
the orphan too, who had no one to help him.
13 Those who had been about to die would bless me,
and I made widows sing in their hearts for joy.
14 I clothed myself with righteousness, and it clothed itself with me;
my justice was like a robe and a crown.
15 I was eyes for the blind,
and I was feet for the lame.
16 I was a father to the needy,
and I investigated the problems of those I didn’t know.
17 I broke the jaws of the unrighteous
and snatched the prey from his teeth.
18 “I said, ‘I will die with my nest,
and I will live as long as a phoenix;
19 my root will spread till it reaches water,
and dew will stay all night on my branch;
20 my glory will always be fresh,
my bow always new in my hand.’
21 “People would listen to me;
they waited and were silent when I gave advice.
22 After I spoke, they didn’t talk back;
my words were like drops [of dew] on them.
23 They waited for me as if for rain,
as if for spring rain, with their mouths open wide.
24 When I joked with them, they couldn’t believe it;
and they never darkened the light on my face.
25 I chose their way [for them], sitting as chief;
I lived like a king in the army,
like one who comforts mourners.
Matthew 13:1 That same day, Yeshua went out of the house and sat down by the lake; 2 but such a large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there while the crowd stood on the shore. 3 He told them many things in parables:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell alongside the path; and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky patches where there was not much soil. It sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow; 6 but when the sun had risen, the young plants were scorched; and since their roots were not deep, they dried up. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 But others fell into rich soil and produced grain, a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as had been sown. 9 Those who have ears, let them hear!”
10 Then the talmidim came and asked Yeshua, “Why are you speaking to them in parables?” 11 He answered, “Because it has been given to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it has not been given to them. 12 For anyone who has something will be given more, so that he will have plenty; but from anyone who has nothing, even what he does have will be taken away. 13 Here is why I speak to them in parables: they look without seeing and listen without hearing or understanding. 14 That is, in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Yesha‘yahu which says,
‘You will keep on hearing but never understand,
and keep on seeing but never perceive,
15 because the heart of this people has become dull —
with their ears they barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
so as not to see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their heart,
and do t’shuvah,
so that I could heal them.’
16 But you, how blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear! 17 Yes indeed! I tell you that many a prophet and many a tzaddik longed to see the things you are seeing but did not see them, and to hear the things you are hearing but did not hear them.
18 “So listen to what the parable of the sower means. 19 Whoever hears the message about the Kingdom, but doesn’t understand it, is like the seed sown along the path — the Evil One comes and seizes what was sown in his heart. 20 The seed sown on rocky ground is like a person who hears the message and accepts it with joy at once, 21 but has no root in himself. So he stays on for a while; but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, he immediately falls away. 22 Now the seed sown among thorns stands for someone who hears the message, but it is choked by the worries of the world and the deceitful glamor of wealth, so that it produces nothing. 23 However, what was sown on rich soil is the one who hears the message and understands it; such a person will surely bear fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
24 Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while people were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, then went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads of grain, the weeds also appeared. 27 The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where have the weeds come from?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants asked him, ‘Then do you want us to go and pull them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, because if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot some of the wheat at the same time. 30 Let them both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest-time I will tell the reapers to collect the weeds first and tie them in bundles to be burned, but to gather the wheat into my barn.’”
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Silent WitnessesDid you ever wish that you could have been there at Jesus’ passion? The men and women who were eyewitnesses of these events have left their testimony in the pages of the Gospels. In Silent Witnesses, we consider the objects, animals and places that played a part during key moments of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection. We find them in the pages of the Gospels as well. Though they cannot speak, they can show us something of His love and mercy toward us.
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CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
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