Saint Louis, Missouri, United States - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries
By Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "A Forgiven Conscience" Monday, 31 March 2014
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.--Romans 5:1
NOTE: Daily Devotioners, please note today's devotion is based on a tragic story. Please review its content before you share it with youngsters and others who may be sensitive to the material. Thank you. Pastor Klaus
While most college kids were on spring break, an 18-year-old freshman from Penn State, Altoona, Pennsylvania, took his own life by jumping from the roof of a hotel.
The police have spent some considerable time trying to reconstruct what went wrong in the life of Marquise Braham. As near as they can tell, Braham was distraught by some of the things which had happened during the hazing of pledges by the members of his school's Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity. Readers know that every year news reports come forward which talk of the dangerous situations that can result when hazing gets out of control.
But Braham's situation is a bit different than most.
His story is different because most suicides are the result of someone who was hazed by others. In this situation it appears that Braham, the fraternity secretary, was the hazer, and he was upset by some of the things he had done.
In short, Braham's tragic, and unnecessary, death is the result of a guilty conscience.
Now I'm not saying he shouldn't have felt guilty. Some of the things which were done to the Phi Sigma Kappa pledges were plain and simple wrong. It is a good sign that Braham felt badly about his hand in those actions. An active conscience which points out our sins is a good thing and a wonderful gift from God.
But a conscience that continues to nag without ever pointing to a solution which can remove that guilt is a dangerous thing. God's will is that the despair of the sinner ought to lead to the hope that is found through the all-atoning blood of the Savior. Yes, Braham did some wrong things, but Scripture plainly says Jesus died to remove the guilt of those sins. Can the Bible be any more plain when it says,
* "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
* "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1).
* "Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).
Now this devotion cannot help Braham. But it can be of assistance to those of you who are burdened by the ongoing guilt of a past or present sin. Be assured: for your repentant heart there is forgiveness of every sin and the gentle instruction of a Savior who says, "Go and sin no more" (see John 8:11).
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, have mercy upon me, a poor, miserable sinner. Grant me the gift of forgiveness and a conscience which is at peace because my scarlet sins have been made white as snow. In the Savior's Name I ask it. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
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Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Deuteronomy 20: When you go out to battle against your enemies, and see horses, chariots, and a people more than you, you shall not be afraid of them; for Yahweh your God is with you, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. 2 It shall be, when you draw near to the battle, that the priest shall approach and speak to the people, 3 and shall tell them, “Hear, Israel, you draw near today to battle against your enemies. Don’t let your heart faint! Don’t be afraid, nor tremble, neither be scared of them; 4 for Yahweh your God is he who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
5 The officers shall speak to the people, saying, “What man is there who has built a new house, and has not dedicated it? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man dedicate it. 6 What man is there who has planted a vineyard, and has not used its fruit? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man use its fruit. 7 What man is there who has pledged to be married a wife, and has not taken her? Let him go and return to his house, lest he die in the battle, and another man take her.” 8 The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.” 9 It shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall appoint captains of armies at the head of the people.
10 When you draw near to a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace to it. 11 It shall be, if it makes you answer of peace, and opens to you, then it shall be, that all the people who are found therein shall become forced laborers to you, and shall serve you. 12 If it will make no peace with you, but will make war against you, then you shall besiege it. 13 When Yahweh your God delivers it into your hand, you shall strike every male of it with the edge of the sword; 14 but the women, the little ones, the livestock, and all that is in the city, even all its plunder, you shall take for plunder for yourself. You may use the plunder of your enemies, which Yahweh your God has given you. 15 Thus you shall do to all the cities which are very far off from you, which are not of the cities of these nations. 16 But of the cities of these peoples, that Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance, you shall save alive nothing that breathes; 17 but you shall utterly destroy them: the Hittite, the Amorite, the Canaanite, the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite; as Yahweh your God has commanded you; 18 that they not teach you to follow all their abominations, which they have done to their gods; so would you sin against Yahweh your God. 19 When you shall besiege a city a long time, in making war against it to take it, you shall not destroy its trees by wielding an ax against them; for you may eat of them. You shall not cut them down; for is the tree of the field man, that it should be besieged by you? 20 Only the trees that you know are not trees for food, you shall destroy and cut them down. You shall build bulwarks against the city that makes war with you, until it falls.
21:1 If someone is found slain in the land which Yahweh your God gives you to possess, lying in the field, and it isn’t known who has struck him; 2 then your elders and your judges shall come out, and they shall measure to the cities which are around him who is slain. 3 It shall be that the elders of the city which is nearest to the slain man shall take a heifer of the herd, which hasn’t been worked with, and which has not drawn in the yoke. 4 The elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which is neither plowed nor sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. 5 The priests the sons of Levi shall come near; for them Yahweh your God has chosen to minister to him, and to bless in Yahweh’s name; and according to their word shall every controversy and every assault be decided. 6 All the elders of that city, who are nearest to the slain man, shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley. 7 They shall answer and say, “Our hands have not shed this blood, neither have our eyes seen it. 8 Forgive, Yahweh, your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and don’t allow innocent blood among your people Israel.” The blood shall be forgiven them. 9 So you shall put away the innocent blood from among you, when you shall do that which is right in Yahweh’s eyes.
10 When you go out to battle against your enemies, and Yahweh your God delivers them into your hands, and you carry them away captive, 11 and see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you have a desire to her, and desire to take her as your wife; 12 then you shall bring her home to your house. She shall shave her head and trim her nails. 13 She shall take the clothing of her captivity off of herself, and shall remain in your house, and bewail her father and her mother a full month. After that you shall go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. 14 It shall be, if you have no delight in her, then you shall let her go where she desires; but you shall not sell her at all for money. You shall not deal with her as a slave, because you have humbled her. 15 If a man has two wives, the one beloved, and the other hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated; and if the firstborn son is hers who was hated; 16 then it shall be, in the day that he causes his sons to inherit that which he has, that he may not give the son of the beloved the rights of the firstborn before the son of the hated, who is the firstborn; 17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the hated, by giving him a double portion of all that he has; for he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his. 18 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son, who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and though they chasten him, will not listen to them; 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place. 20 They shall tell the elders of his city, “This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 All the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones. So you shall remove the evil from among you. All Israel shall hear, and fear.
22 If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree; 23 his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall surely bury him the same day; for he who is hanged is accursed of God; that you don’t defile your land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance.
22:1 You shall not see your brother’s ox or his sheep go astray, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely bring them again to your brother. 2 If your brother isn’t near to you, or if you don’t know him, then you shall bring it home to your house, and it shall be with you until your brother comes looking for it, and you shall restore it to him. 3 So you shall do with his donkey. So you shall do with his garment. So you shall do with every lost thing of your brother’s, which he has lost, and you have found. You may not hide yourself. 4 You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down by the way, and hide yourself from them. You shall surely help him to lift them up again. 5 A woman shall not wear men’s clothing, neither shall a man put on women’s clothing; for whoever does these things is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 6 If you come across a bird’s nest on the way, in any tree or on the ground, with young ones or eggs, and the hen sitting on the young, or on the eggs, you shall not take the hen with the young. 7 You shall surely let the hen go, but the young you may take for yourself; that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days. 8 When you build a new house, then you shall make a railing around your roof, so that you don’t bring blood on your house if anyone falls from there. 9 You shall not sow your vineyard with two kinds of seed, lest all the fruit be defiled, the seed which you have sown, and the increase of the vineyard. 10 You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together. 11 You shall not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. 12 You shall make yourselves fringes[a] on the four corners of your cloak with which you cover yourself.
13 If any man takes a wife, and goes in to her, hates her, 14 accuses her of shameful things, and gives her a bad name, and says, “I took this woman, and when I came near to her, I didn’t find in her the tokens of virginity”; 15 then the young lady’s father and mother shall take and bring the tokens of the young lady’s virginity to the elders of the city in the gate. 16 The young lady’s father shall tell the elders, “I gave my daughter to this man as his wife, and he hates her. 17 Behold, he has accused her of shameful things, saying, ‘I didn’t find in your daughter the tokens of virginity;’ and yet these are the tokens of my daughter’s virginity.” They shall spread the cloth before the elders of the city. 18 The elders of that city shall take the man and chastise him. 19 They shall fine him one hundred shekels of silver,[b] and give them to the father of the young lady, because he has given a bad name to a virgin of Israel. She shall be his wife. He may not put her away all his days.
20 But if this thing is true, that the tokens of virginity were not found in the young lady; 21 then they shall bring out the young lady to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her to death with stones, because she has done folly in Israel, to play the prostitute in her father’s house. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 22 If a man is found lying with a woman married to a husband, then they shall both die, the man who lay with the woman and the woman. So you shall remove the evil from Israel. 23 If there is a young lady who is a virgin pledged to be married to a husband, and a man finds her in the city, and lies with her; 24 then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones; the lady, because she didn’t cry, being in the city; and the man, because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife. So you shall remove the evil from among you. 25 But if the man finds the lady who is pledged to be married in the field, and the man forces her, and lies with her; then only the man who lay with her shall die; 26 but to the lady you shall do nothing. There is in the lady no sin worthy of death; for as when a man rises against his neighbor, and kills him, even so is this matter; 27 for he found her in the field, the pledged to be married lady cried, and there was no one to save her. 28 If a man finds a lady who is a virgin, who is not pledged to be married, grabs her, and lies with her, and they are found; 29 then the man who lay with her shall give to the lady’s father fifty shekels[c] of silver. She shall be his wife, because he has humbled her. He may not put her away all his days. 30 A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.
Footnotes:
a. Deuteronomy 22:12 or, tassels
b. Deuteronomy 22:19 a shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces, so 100 shekels is about a kilogram or 2.2 pounds.
c. Deuteronomy 22:29 a shekel is about 10 grams or about 0.35 ounces
Luke 6:1 Now on the second Sabbath after the first, he was going through the grain fields. His disciples plucked the heads of grain and ate, rubbing them in their hands. 2 But some of the Pharisees said to them, “Why do you do that which is not lawful to do on the Sabbath day?”
3 Jesus, answering them, said, “Haven’t you read what David did when he was hungry, he, and those who were with him; 4 how he entered into God’s house, and took and ate the show bread, and gave also to those who were with him, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests alone?” 5 He said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
6 It also happened on another Sabbath that he entered into the synagogue and taught. There was a man there, and his right hand was withered. 7 The scribes and the Pharisees watched him, to see whether he would heal on the Sabbath, that they might find an accusation against him. 8 But he knew their thoughts; and he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Rise up, and stand in the middle.” He arose and stood. 9 Then Jesus said to them, “I will ask you something: Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good, or to do harm? To save a life, or to kill?” 10 He looked around at them all, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He did, and his hand was restored as sound as the other. 11 But they were filled with rage, and talked with one another about what they might do to Jesus.
12 In these days, he went out to the mountain to pray, and he continued all night in prayer to God. 13 When it was day, he called his disciples, and from them he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles: 14 Simon, whom he also named Peter; Andrew, his brother; James; John; Philip; Bartholomew; 15 Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alphaeus; Simon, who was called the Zealot; 16 Judas the son of James; and Judas Iscariot, who also became a traitor. 17 He came down with them, and stood on a level place, with a crowd of his disciples, and a great number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; 18 as well as those who were troubled by unclean spirits, and they were being healed. 19 All the multitude sought to touch him, for power came out of him and healed them all.
20 He lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and said,
“Blessed are you who are poor,
God’s Kingdom is yours.
21 Blessed are you who hunger now,
for you will be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now,
for you will laugh.
22 Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall exclude and mock you, and throw out your name as evil, for the Son of Man’s sake.
23 Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven, for their fathers did the same thing to the prophets.
24 “But woe to you who are rich!
For you have received your consolation.
25 Woe to you, you who are full now,
for you will be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will mourn and weep.
26 Woe,[a] when[b] men speak well of you,
for their fathers did the same thing to the false prophets.
Footnotes:
a. Luke 6:26 TR adds “to you”
b. Luke 6:26 TR adds “all”
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