Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Christmas Preparations" for Saturday, January 20, 2018
John 15:18-19 - (Jesus said) "If the world hates you, know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."
This is the last of our Christmas devotions until next year. I promise.
Indeed, I thought I was done until I came across an article about Christmas in Egypt, which was celebrated on January 7th. Now you and I both know that when our churches remember the Savior's birth, it takes a lot of preparation. There's the Advent wreath and special sermons and services; the church decorations and parament changes; the children's Christmas worship service presentations. The list goes on.
Still, as extensive as our preparations were this year, they pale in comparison to those which were undertaken by our brothers and sisters in the land of the pharaohs. Amazingly, those plans were made by the government as well as the congregations.
Yes, I said the government was involved.
The official announcement said, "Holidays and vacations are canceled for security personnel and officers at all security directorates across the country." In effect, that statement meant that 230,000 security personnel had been called up to protect that country's 2,626 churches.
That's 230,000 security people.
Their most obvious job was to protect the congregations, but security also increased their proactive round up of terrorists. They tightened security measures at the borders and showed a more obvious presence at tourism sites.
And the churches? They also made their Christmas preparations.
Unlike most of our congregations, Christmas preparations for an Egyptian congregation included adding more closed-circuit television cameras and installing metal detector systems to screen everyone who was coming to worship.
It is an amazing thing that so many people in every generation feel it their duty to violently persecute the followers of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. When the Savior was born, His ruler tried to have Him murdered; His hometown friends tried to kill Him, and His own church orchestrated His murder.
In the centuries since the Savior's death and resurrection, things have not improved. The Romans did their bit, as did the great, ancient nations of Asia. And today? This past November, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world." In the Middle East, one-half to two-thirds of Christians have been murdered or fled their countries.
Those are the facts. This is why I would suggest that each of us, when we begin our Christmas preparations next year, spend a bit of time remembering those whose festival is not tinsel and toys, presents and packages. Let us ask the Lord to preserve the Savior's followers who are hated and persecuted because our Lord of life is hated.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, the world still hates the Savior and those who follow Him. Grant that the Holy Spirit may preserve all those who have been called to faith in the Prince of Peace. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.
The above devotion was inspired by a number of sources, including one written by Amanda Casanova for Religion Today on December 20, 2018. 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.
This is the last of our Christmas devotions until next year. I promise.
Indeed, I thought I was done until I came across an article about Christmas in Egypt, which was celebrated on January 7th. Now you and I both know that when our churches remember the Savior's birth, it takes a lot of preparation. There's the Advent wreath and special sermons and services; the church decorations and parament changes; the children's Christmas worship service presentations. The list goes on.
Still, as extensive as our preparations were this year, they pale in comparison to those which were undertaken by our brothers and sisters in the land of the pharaohs. Amazingly, those plans were made by the government as well as the congregations.
Yes, I said the government was involved.
The official announcement said, "Holidays and vacations are canceled for security personnel and officers at all security directorates across the country." In effect, that statement meant that 230,000 security personnel had been called up to protect that country's 2,626 churches.
That's 230,000 security people.
Their most obvious job was to protect the congregations, but security also increased their proactive round up of terrorists. They tightened security measures at the borders and showed a more obvious presence at tourism sites.
And the churches? They also made their Christmas preparations.
Unlike most of our congregations, Christmas preparations for an Egyptian congregation included adding more closed-circuit television cameras and installing metal detector systems to screen everyone who was coming to worship.
It is an amazing thing that so many people in every generation feel it their duty to violently persecute the followers of Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. When the Savior was born, His ruler tried to have Him murdered; His hometown friends tried to kill Him, and His own church orchestrated His murder.
In the centuries since the Savior's death and resurrection, things have not improved. The Romans did their bit, as did the great, ancient nations of Asia. And today? This past November, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared that Christianity is "the most persecuted religion in the world." In the Middle East, one-half to two-thirds of Christians have been murdered or fled their countries.
Those are the facts. This is why I would suggest that each of us, when we begin our Christmas preparations next year, spend a bit of time remembering those whose festival is not tinsel and toys, presents and packages. Let us ask the Lord to preserve the Savior's followers who are hated and persecuted because our Lord of life is hated.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, the world still hates the Savior and those who follow Him. Grant that the Holy Spirit may preserve all those who have been called to faith in the Prince of Peace. In Jesus' Name I pray. Amen.
The above devotion was inspired by a number of sources, including one written by Amanda Casanova for Religion Today on December 20, 2018. 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 30-31; Matthew 13:31-58Job 30:1 “But now those younger than I
hold me in derision,
men whose fathers I wouldn’t even
have put with the dogs that guarded my sheep.
2 What use to me was the strength in their hands?
All their vigor had left them.
3 Worn out by want and hunger,
they gnaw the dry ground in the gloom
of waste and desolation.
4 They pluck saltwort and bitter leaves;
these, with broom tree roots, are their food.
5 They are driven away from society,
with men shouting after them as after a thief,
6 to live in gullies and vadis,
in holes in the ground and caves in the rocks.
7 Among the bushes they howl like beasts
and huddle among the nettles,
8 irresponsible nobodies
driven from the land.
9 “Now I have become their song;
yes, I am a byword with them.
10 They loathe me, they stand aloof from me;
they don’t hesitate to spit in my face!
11 For God has loosened my bowstring and humbled me;
they throw off restraint in my presence.
12 At my right the street urchins attack,
pushing me from place to place,
besieging me with their ways of destruction,
13 breaking up my path,
furthering my calamity —
even those who have no one to help them.
14 They move in as through a wide gap;
amid the ruin they roll on in waves.
15 Terrors tumble over me,
chasing my honor away like the wind;
my [hope of] salvation passes like a cloud.
16 “So now my life is ebbing away,
days of grief have seized me.
17 At night pain pierces me to the bone,
so that I never rest.
18 My clothes are disfigured by the force [of my disease];
they choke me like the collar of my coat.
19 [God] has thrown me into the mud;
I have become like dust and ashes.
20 “I call out to you [God], but you don’t answer me;
I stand up to plead, but you just look at me.
21 You have turned cruelly against me;
with your powerful hand you keep persecuting me.
22 You snatch me up on the wind and make me ride it;
you toss me about in the tempest.
23 For I know that you will bring me to death,
the house assigned to everyone living.
24 “Surely [God] wouldn’t strike at a ruin,
if in one’s calamity one cried out to him for help.
25 Didn’t I weep for those who were in trouble?
Didn’t I grieve for the needy?
26 Yet when I hoped for good, what came was bad;
when I expected light, what came was darkness.
27 My insides are in turmoil; they can’t find rest;
days of misery confront me.
28 I go about in sunless gloom,
I rise in the assembly and cry for help.
29 I have become a brother to jackals
and a companion of ostriches.
30 My skin is black and falling off me,
and my bones are burning with heat.
31 So my lyre is tuned for mourning,
my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
31:1 “I made a covenant with my eyes
not to let them lust after any girl.
2 “What share does God give from above?
What is the heritage from Shaddai on high?
3 Isn’t it calamity to the unrighteous?
disaster to those who do evil?
4 Doesn’t he see my ways
and count all my steps?
5 “If I have gone along with falsehood,
if my feet have hurried to deceit;
6 then let me be weighed on an honest scale,
so that God will know my integrity.
7 “If my steps have wandered from the way,
if my heart has followed my eyes,
if the least dirt has stuck to my hands;
8 then let me sow and someone else eat,
let what grows from my fields be uprooted.
9 “If my heart has been enticed toward a woman,
and I have lain in wait at my neighbor’s door;
10 then let my wife grind for another man,
and let others kneel on her.
11 For that would be a heinous act,
a criminal offense,
12 a fire that would burn to the depths of Abaddon,
uprooting all I produce.
13 “If I ever rejected my slave or slave-girl’s cause,
when they brought legal action against me;
14 then what would I do if God stood up?
Were he to intervene, what answer could I give?
15 Didn’t he who made me in the womb make them too?
Didn’t the same one shape us both before our birth?
16 “If I held back anything needed by the poor
or made a widow’s eye grow dim [with tears],
17 or ate my portion of food by myself,
without letting the orphan eat any of it —
18 No! From my youth he grew up
with me as if with a father,
and I have been her guide
from my mother’s womb! —
19 or if I saw a traveler needing clothing,
someone in need who had no covering,
20 who didn’t bless me from his heart
for being warmed with the fleece from my sheep,
21 or if I lifted my hand against an orphan,
knowing that no one would dare charge me in court;
22 then let my arm fall from its socket,
and let my forearm be broken at the elbow!
23 For calamity from God has always terrified me;
before his majesty I could never do a thing [like that].
24 “If I made gold my hope,
if I said to fine gold, ‘You are my security,’
25 if I took joy in my great wealth,
in my having acquired so much;
26 or if, on seeing the shining sun
or the full moon as it moved through the sky,
27 my heart was secretly seduced,
so that I would wave them a kiss with my hand;
28 then this too would be a criminal offense,
for I would have been lying to God on high.
29 “Did I rejoice at the destruction of him who hated me?
Was I filled with glee when disaster overtook him?
30 No, I did not allow my mouth to sin
by asking for his life with a curse.
31 “Was there anyone in my tent who didn’t say,
‘No one can find a single person
whom he has not filled with his meat’?
32 No stranger had to sleep in the street;
I kept my house open to the traveler.
33 “If I concealed my sins, as most people do,
by hiding my wrongdoing in my heart,
34 from fear of general gossip
or dread of some family’s contempt.
keeping silent and not going outdoors —
35 I wish I had someone who would listen to me!
Here is my signature; let Shaddai answer me!
I wish I had the indictment my adversary has written!
36 I would carry it on my shoulder;
I would bind it on me like a crown.
37 I would declare to him every one of my steps;
I would approach him like a prince.
38 “If my land cried out against me,
if its furrows wept together,
39 if I ate its produce without paying
or made its owners despair;
40 then let thistles grow instead of wheat
and noxious weeds instead of barley!
“The words of Iyov are finished.”
Matthew 13:31 Yeshua put before them another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man takes and sows in his field. 32 It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up it is larger than any garden plant and becomes a tree, so that the birds flying about come and nest in its branches.”
33 And he told them yet another parable. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”
34 All these things Yeshua said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without using a parable. 35 This was to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet,
“I will open my mouth in parables,
I will say what has been hidden since the creation of the universe.”[Matthew 13:35 Psalm 78:2]
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. His talmidim approached him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world. As for the good seed, these are the people who belong to the Kingdom; and the weeds are the people who belong to the Evil One. 39 The enemy who sows them is the Adversary, the harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will collect out of his Kingdom all the things that cause people to sin and all the people who are far from Torah; 42 and they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where people will wail and grind their teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let him hear!
44 “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. A man found it, hid it again, then in great joy went and sold everything he owned, and bought that field.
45 “Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for fine pearls. 46 On finding one very valuable pearl he went away, sold everything he owned and bought it.
47 “Once more, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a net thrown into the lake, that caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen brought the net up onto the shore, sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad fish away. 49 So it will be at the close of the age — the angels will go forth and separate the evil people from among the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace, where they will wail and grind their teeth.
51 “Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they answered. 52 He said to them, “So then, every Torah-teacher who has been made into a talmid for the Kingdom of Heaven is like the owner of a home who brings out of his storage room both new things and old.”
53 When Yeshua had finished these parables, he left 54 and went to his home town. There he taught them in their synagogue in a way that astounded them, so that they asked, “Where do this man’s wisdom and miracles come from? 55 Isn’t he the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother called Miryam? and his brothers Ya‘akov, Yosef, Shim‘on and Y’hudah? 56 And his sisters, aren’t they all with us? So where does he get all this?” 57 And they took offense at him. But Yeshua said to them, “The only place people don’t respect a prophet is in his home town and in his own house.” 58 And he did few miracles there because of their lack of trust.
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Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
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