Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour
Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of the Lutheran Hour - "A
Poor Substitute" - Sunday, 1 December 2013
(Jesus said) "I do not ask that You
take them out of the world, but that You keep them from the evil one. They are
not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth;
Your Word is truth."(John 17:15-17)
Years ago I heard about a farmer who
decided to cut down the homestead's old, unproducing fruit tree.
That piece of news caused concern to the
man's son who had, in that tree, found a wonderful and secret spot to be a boy.
In that tree, the lad could dream dreams and imagine the impossible. He could
captain a steamship up the Amazon, escape marauding man-eating lions in the
Congo, and be master of all he surveyed. But, what could the little boy do? If
he talked to his father, his secret spot would no longer be a secret. If he
left things as they were, he would be without a secret spot to keep secret.
Then came a revelation: a wondrous
solution.
That night the lad snuck out, visited the
neighbors' yards, and filled up a bushel basket of apples. These he patiently
tied on the limbs of the farm's unproducing fruit tree. The next day, dad went
out to do his chores. Upon his return, he commented to his wife and son,
"Family, you may find this hard to believe, but our farm has become the
site of a miracle. The tree is full of apples."
The boy's mother smiled and said,
"That's nice dear ... and you find that remarkable?"
"I do," said dad.
"Remarkable because those apples weren't there yesterday. Doubly
remarkable, because that's not an apple tree. It's a pear tree."
Now I'm not going to comment how the boy
got out of that one; nor am I going to say whether the tree was cut down or
remained standing. The end of the story I leave to your own imaginings.
What I will do is point out that every
time one of us humans, like the boy in the story, tries to substitute our ideas
for God's wisdom we fail. Every time humankind tries to correct what it wrongly
feels are the errors in God's Word, we end up substituting a weak -- and wrong
-- story of our own.
In the Garden of Eden, Satan convinced
Adam and Eve that God had told them a cleverly invented story when He had said
they should not eat from the forbidden tree. They believed Satan's cleverly
invented story. That mistake brought sin, along with death and damnation, into
this world.
When Moses was up on Sinai receiving
God's Commandments, deceivers told the children of Israel a cleverly invented
story and God's people fell into idolatry. Many died because of that deception.
My friends, read the Old Testament. It is filled with one account after another
where people rejected God's truth and believed some preposterous and cleverly
invented story.
It is no different today.
This is why God's people need to rely on
God's inspired Word. There we hear of our sin and His forgiveness; we read of
our transgression and His redemption. There we see how God gave His Son as a
sacrifice to rescue us from sin, death, devil and our own foolish pride.
Trusting God is not just the wise thing
to do, it is the right thing to do too.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, the world keeps
telling us that faith in You is foolish. Help us see the things in which they
trust are always second rate, often silly, and inevitably wrong. Grant us the
faith to cling to Your Word which is saving truth. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
660 Mason Ridge Center Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63141
1-800-876-9880
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Lutheran Hour Ministries Advent Devotions
2013 “Word Became Flesh and Dwelt Among Us” Sunday, 1 December 2013
Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour
Ministries by Reverend Wayne Palmer "Hit the Ground Running"
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us
(see John 1:14)
As this Thanksgiving weekend draws to a
close you might want to start thinking about Christmas, especially if you
haven't given it a thought before! This year Thanksgiving is as late as it
gets. That leaves us only three and a half weeks to buy those presents, put up
the decorations, send out the invitations, mail out the greeting cards, bake
all the cookies, and do all the other Christmas preparations you have to this
year. Where should you start?
I would suggest we take a moment to
remember what all the fuss is about. Before we jump into all the holiday
preparations, let's stop, turn around, and take a look behind us-way back to
the very first Christmas. Three books of the Bible do that for us: Matthew,
Luke and John. Each describes Jesus' birth from a slightly different
perspective.
Matthew shows us Christmas from the
viewpoint of Joseph the carpenter-Mary's husband and Jesus' foster father. He
discovers his betrothed wife is pregnant, considers divorcing her, then takes
her as his wife after receiving an angelic message in his dreams. Luke shows us
Christmas from Mary's point of view. She is visited by the angel Gabriel who
announces God has chosen her to be the mother of His Son. Then she travels with
her husband to Bethlehem where she gives birth to her firstborn Son.
This Christmas season we will study
John's account of the first Christmas. John will not look at Christmas through
the eyes of Joseph or Mary. Instead, he will have us look directly into the
eyes of the Baby Jesus, so we can clearly see the reason for this season-and
all the preparations we make.
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660 Mason Ridge Center Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63141
1-800-876-9880
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