Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "The Last Day of Class" for Tuesday, May 22, 2018
Ephesians 2:13-14 - But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in His flesh the dividing wall of hostility.Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a professor who taught at a Christian university.
At the beginning of every semester, the professor very clearly told the students what was expected. That explanation ended with him saying, "At the end of the course you will hand in a paper. The paper needs to be double-spaced and at least ten pages long. If the paper is not handed in the last day of class, you will fail the course. So ... hand in your papers on the last day of class."
As the weeks went by, the professor regularly reminded his students of their responsibility to get their paper in on the last day of class. Finally, the last day of class came and, you guessed it, three students didn't hand in their papers. The next day, one of the students told how his car had broken down and he couldn't get back to school; another explained his computer had crashed, and the third spoke of an emergency run to be with his father who had had a stroke. To each, the prof was sympathetic, but to each he finished with, "I'm sorry. You have failed the course."
The student body was outraged at the professor's conduct. A delegation came to him and said, "Yes, you had laid down your rules, but this is different. These students had legitimate excuses."
When the delegation grew silent, he said, "Those were the rules of the class. There are no exceptions. I wish things were different, but I must keep my word."
While I won't speak about how the students felt, I would like to know how you feel. Unless I miss my guess, most feel the professor was unfair; others think he could have made an exception: "Yes, we need to have rules, but every rule has its exceptions."
My friends, the Lord's rules about Judgment Day have no exceptions. On that day, we must stand before the Lord cleansed of our sins in Jesus' blood. If we are not cleansed, if we are tarnished by one small sin, we will fail. There will be no excuses. There will be no exceptions.
But ... suppose I told you that when the professor set out his rules, he also said, "Your paper must be handed in on the last day of class. No excuses accepted. But if you trust me, my son will write your paper for you. He will do the research, the work, everything. He will get your paper in on time, and it will be a better paper than you could ever write. All you need do is trust me, believe on him and everything will be taken care of."
How do you feel about that professor now? Pretty fantastic fellow, isn't he? How about his son who is doing all that work? Unbelievable!
And how do you feel about any student who refuses? How do you feel about the student who says, "No" or "Not now" or "I don't trust the prof"? Do you not agree theirs would be a pretty ungrateful and a very foolish decision?
I agree. It would be almost as bad as someone who says, "No!" to the salvation which is offered through Jesus Christ, God's Son, the world's Savior. Far better for the Holy Spirit to put saving faith into our hearts so that we will be ready when our time on earth is at an end. On that day, we want our Lord to tell us that we -- because of Jesus' great sacrifice -- have passed the class.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, truly, without the Savior, I would have failed and ended up in the place no man has ever wanted to go. Grant that I, most sincerely and eternally, will offer Him my thanks and praise. This I ask in the Savior's Name. Amen.
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: Psalms 7-8; John 7:28-53Psalms 7:1 (0) A shiggayon of David, which he sang to Adonai because of Kush the Ben-Y’mini:
2 (1) Adonai my God, in you I take refuge.
Save me from all my pursuers, and rescue me;
3 (2) otherwise, they will maul me like a lion
and tear me apart, with no rescuer present.
4 (3) Adonai my God, if I have caused this,
if there is guilt on my hands,
5 (4) if I paid back evil to him who was at peace with me,
when I even spared those who opposed me without cause;
6 (5) then let the enemy pursue me
until he overtakes me
and tramples my life down into the earth;
yes, let him lay my honor in the dust. (Selah)
7 (6) Rise up, Adonai, in your anger!
Arouse yourself against the fury of my foes.
Wake up for me; you commanded justice.
8 (7) May the assembly of the peoples surround you;
may you return to rule over them from on high.
9 (8) Adonai, who dispenses judgment to the peoples,
judge me, Adonai, according to my righteousness
and as my integrity deserves.
10 (9) Let the evil of the wicked come to an end,
and establish the righteous;
since you, righteous God,
test hearts and minds.
11 (10) My shield is God,
who saves the upright in heart.
12 (11) God is a righteous judge,
a God whose anger is present every day.
13 (12) If a person will not repent,
he sharpens his sword.
He has bent his bow, made it ready;
14 (13) he has also prepared for him
weapons of death, his arrows,
which he has made into burning shafts.
15 (14) Look how the wicked is pregnant with evil;
he conceives trouble, gives birth to lies.
16 (15) He makes a pit, digs it deep,
and falls into the hole he made.
17 (16) His mischief will return onto his own head,
his violence will recoil onto his own skull.
18 (17) I thank Adonai for his righteousness
and sing praise to the name of Adonai ‘Elyon.
8:1 (0) For the leader. On the gittit. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Adonai! Our Lord! How glorious
is your name throughout the earth!
The fame of your majesty
spreads even above the heavens!
3 (2) From the mouths of babies and infants at the breast
you established strength because of your foes,
in order that you might silence
the enemy and the avenger.
4 (3) When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and stars that you set in place —
5 (4) what are mere mortals, that you concern yourself with them;
humans, that you watch over them with such care?
6 (5) You made him but little lower than the angels,
you crowned him with glory and honor,
7 (6) you had him rule what your hands made,
you put everything under his feet —
8 (7) sheep and oxen, all of them,
also the animals in the wilds,
9 (8) the birds in the air, the fish in the sea,
whatever passes through the paths of the seas.
10 (9) Adonai! Our Lord! How glorious
is your name throughout the earth!
John 7:28 Whereupon Yeshua, continuing to teach in the Temple courts, cried out, “Indeed you do know me! And you know where I’m from! And I have not come on my own! The One who sent me is real. But him you don’t know! 29 I do know him, because I am with him, and he sent me!”
30 At this, they tried to arrest him; but no one laid a hand on him; because his time had not yet come. 31 However, many in the crowd put their trust in him and said, “When the Messiah comes, will he do more miracles than this man has done?”
32 The P’rushim heard the crowd whispering these things about Yeshua; so the head cohanim and the P’rushim sent some of the Temple guards to arrest him. 33 Yeshua said, “I will be with you only a little while longer; then I will go away to the One who sent me. 34 You will look for me and not find me; indeed, where I am, you cannot come.” 35 The Judeans said to themselves, “Where is this man about to go, that we won’t find him? Does he intend to go to the Greek Diaspora and teach the Greek-speaking Jews? 36 And when he says, ‘You will look for me and not find me; indeed, where I am, you cannot come’ — what does he mean?”
37 Now on the last day of the festival, Hoshana Rabbah, Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! 38 Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” 39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who trusted in him were to receive later — the Spirit had not yet been given, because Yeshua had not yet been glorified.)
40 On hearing his words, some people in the crowd said, “Surely this man is ‘the prophet’”; 41 others said, “This is the Messiah.” But others said, “How can the Messiah come from the Galil? 42 Doesn’t the Tanakh say that the Messiah is from the seed of David[John 7:42 2 Samuel 7:12] and comes from Beit-Lechem,[John 7:42 Micah 5:1(2)] the village where David lived?” 43 So the people were divided because of him. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.
45 The guards came back to the head cohanim and the P’rushim, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46 The guards replied, “No one ever spoke the way this man speaks!” 47 “You mean you’ve been taken in as well?” the P’rushim retorted. 48 “Has any of the authorities trusted him? Or any of the P’rushim? No! 49 True, these ‘am-ha’aretz do, but they know nothing about the Torah, they are under a curse!”
50 Nakdimon, the man who had gone to Yeshua before and was one of them, said to them, 51 “Our Torah doesn’t condemn a man — does it? — until after hearing from him and finding out what he’s doing.” 52 They replied, “You aren’t from the Galil too, are you? Study the Tanakh, and see for yourself that no prophet comes from the Galil!” [John 7:52 Most scholars believe that 7:53–8:11 is not from the pen of Yochanan. Many are of the opinion that it is a true story about Yeshua written by another of his talmidim.] 53 Then they all left, each one to his own home. (Complete Jewish Bible).
32 The P’rushim heard the crowd whispering these things about Yeshua; so the head cohanim and the P’rushim sent some of the Temple guards to arrest him. 33 Yeshua said, “I will be with you only a little while longer; then I will go away to the One who sent me. 34 You will look for me and not find me; indeed, where I am, you cannot come.” 35 The Judeans said to themselves, “Where is this man about to go, that we won’t find him? Does he intend to go to the Greek Diaspora and teach the Greek-speaking Jews? 36 And when he says, ‘You will look for me and not find me; indeed, where I am, you cannot come’ — what does he mean?”
37 Now on the last day of the festival, Hoshana Rabbah, Yeshua stood and cried out, “If anyone is thirsty, let him keep coming to me and drinking! 38 Whoever puts his trust in me, as the Scripture says, rivers of living water will flow from his inmost being!” 39 (Now he said this about the Spirit, whom those who trusted in him were to receive later — the Spirit had not yet been given, because Yeshua had not yet been glorified.)
40 On hearing his words, some people in the crowd said, “Surely this man is ‘the prophet’”; 41 others said, “This is the Messiah.” But others said, “How can the Messiah come from the Galil? 42 Doesn’t the Tanakh say that the Messiah is from the seed of David[John 7:42 2 Samuel 7:12] and comes from Beit-Lechem,[John 7:42 Micah 5:1(2)] the village where David lived?” 43 So the people were divided because of him. 44 Some wanted to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him.
45 The guards came back to the head cohanim and the P’rushim, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” 46 The guards replied, “No one ever spoke the way this man speaks!” 47 “You mean you’ve been taken in as well?” the P’rushim retorted. 48 “Has any of the authorities trusted him? Or any of the P’rushim? No! 49 True, these ‘am-ha’aretz do, but they know nothing about the Torah, they are under a curse!”
50 Nakdimon, the man who had gone to Yeshua before and was one of them, said to them, 51 “Our Torah doesn’t condemn a man — does it? — until after hearing from him and finding out what he’s doing.” 52 They replied, “You aren’t from the Galil too, are you? Study the Tanakh, and see for yourself that no prophet comes from the Galil!” [John 7:52 Most scholars believe that 7:53–8:11 is not from the pen of Yochanan. Many are of the opinion that it is a true story about Yeshua written by another of his talmidim.] 53 Then they all left, each one to his own home. (Complete Jewish Bible).
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CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
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