Saint Louis, Missouri, United States - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Reborn" Monday, 23 June 2014 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.(1 Peter 1:3)
So, let's see the hands of those readers of the Daily Devotions
who are getting older. As far as I can tell from here, that includes just about everyone. Some of the folks who didn't hold up their hands say they didn't do so because they thought I would ask them to publicly reveal their age. Others didn't do so because they believe I can't see them from the keyboard of my computer.
The truth is we are all getting older, and not necessarily better. The things we used to do easily are now harder or impossible to accomplish. The illnesses we once shrugged off are now only conquered after a prolonged battle. Then, of course, there are the folks whose immune systems have been battered by chemotherapy.
Because all of this is true, many of us might easily find ourselves musing, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could restore those weakened immune systems?"
Well, it appears that scientists at the University of Southern California say they may have discovered a way to do just that. That way is: fasting. Yup. Fasting. When they put folks on a cycle of two-to-four-day fasts, which took place over a period of six months, the results were dramatic. As near as I can tell from their big words, the bodies of these folks ended up breaking down the old immune system and beginning with an almost new one.
Please remember the Daily Devotions are not designed to offer medical advice, and they certainly shouldn't be used to start some kind of procedure without a physician's blessing. All we are reporting is this: scientists think it is possible to jump start a new immune system.
Oh, there is one other thing this devotion is saying. We are also saying there is no way for anybody to regenerate a sinful soul. Scripture is plain: the soul that sins will die. (See Ezekiel 18:20.) Try as you will, you can't change that fact.
This is why we all need a Savior.
In 2 Corinthians 5:17, St. Paul tells us when we are in Christ, we have become a new creation, the old has passed away, and the new has come. Peter agrees with Paul and amplifies that concept when he says we have been born again to a living hope. (See 1Peter 1:3-9.)
Indeed, through the resurrection of the Savior, the eternal destiny is changed for all who are given faith in the Redeemer. Once they were destined to hell, but now they are headed toward heaven. Once there was no escape from damnation, but now salvation is their lot.
The rebirth the Savior brings about is a thing too wonderful for words. It may be too wonderful for words, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try to express an everlasting thankfulness for God's gracious, blood-bought gift.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, I give thanks that through Your life and resurrection I have been born again. May I live as a thankful person who is most grateful for this new lease on eternal life. In Your Name. Amen.
All too often the job of reaching others is left to others. That can be unfortunate. After all, there are times when YOU may be the best person to reach someone who is lost or wandering. If you have always wanted to know how to do such a sharing of the Savior, you may want to attend Lutheran Hour Ministries' SENT Outreach Conference, which is July 24-27 in Detroit. For more
information, visit www.lhm.org/conference. In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Song of Songs 4: Lover
1 Behold, you are beautiful, my love.
Behold, you are beautiful.
Your eyes are doves behind your veil.
Your hair is as a flock of goats,
that descend from Mount Gilead.
2 Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock,
which have come up from the washing,
where every one of them has twins.
None is bereaved among them.
3 Your lips are like scarlet thread.
Your mouth is lovely.
Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil.
4 Your neck is like David’s tower built for an armory,
whereon a thousand shields hang,
all the shields of the mighty men.
5 Your two breasts are like two fawns
that are twins of a roe,
which feed among the lilies.
6 Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away,
I will go to the mountain of myrrh,
to the hill of frankincense.
7 You are all beautiful, my love.
There is no spot in you.
8 Come with me from Lebanon, my bride,
with me from Lebanon.
Look from the top of Amana,
from the top of Senir and Hermon,
from the lions’ dens,
from the mountains of the leopards.
9 You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride.
You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes,
with one chain of your neck.
10 How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride!
How much better is your love than wine!
The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices!
11 Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb.
Honey and milk are under your tongue.
The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon.
12 A locked up garden is my sister, my bride;
a locked up spring,
a sealed fountain.
13 Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits:
henna with spikenard plants,
14 spikenard and saffron,
calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree;
myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices,
15 a fountain of gardens,
a well of living waters,
flowing streams from Lebanon.
Beloved
16 Awake, north wind; and come, you south!
Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden,
and taste his precious fruits.
5: Lover
1 I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Friends
Eat, friends!
Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
Beloved
2 I was asleep, but my heart was awake.
It is the voice of my beloved who knocks:
“Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled;
for my head is filled with dew,
and my hair with the dampness of the night.”
3 I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on?
I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them?
4 My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening.
My heart pounded for him.
5 I rose up to open for my beloved.
My hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh,
on the handles of the lock.
6 I opened to my beloved;
but my beloved left; and had gone away.
My heart went out when he spoke.
I looked for him, but I didn’t find him.
I called him, but he didn’t answer.
7 The watchmen who go about the city found me.
They beat me.
They bruised me.
The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me.
8 I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem,
If you find my beloved,
that you tell him that I am faint with love.
Friends
9 How is your beloved better than another beloved,
you fairest among women?
How is your beloved better than another beloved,
that you do so adjure us?
Beloved
10 My beloved is white and ruddy.
The best among ten thousand.
11 His head is like the purest gold.
His hair is bushy, black as a raven.
12 His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks,
washed with milk, mounted like jewels.
13 His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes.
His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh.
14 His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl.
His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires.
15 His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold.
His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars.
16 His mouth is sweetness;
yes, he is altogether lovely.
This is my beloved, and this is my friend,
daughters of Jerusalem.
Acts 7:1 The high priest said, “Are these things so?”
2 He said, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’[a] 4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land, where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on. He promised that he would give it to him for a possession, and to his offspring[b] after him, when he still had no child. 6 God spoke in this way: that his offspring[c] would live as aliens in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated for four hundred years. 7 ‘I will judge the nation to which they will be in bondage,’ said God, ‘and after that will they come out, and serve me in this place.’[d] 8 He gave him the covenant of circumcision. So Abraham became the father of Isaac, and circumcised him the eighth day. Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
9 “The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt. God was with him, 10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. He made him governor over Egypt and all his house. 11 Now a famine came over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction. Our fathers found no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers the first time. 13 On the second time Joseph was made known to his brothers, and Joseph’s race was revealed to Pharaoh. 14 Joseph sent, and summoned Jacob, his father, and all his relatives, seventy-five souls. 15 Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, himself and our fathers, 16 and they were brought back to Shechem, and laid in the tomb that Abraham bought for a price in silver from the children of Hamor of Shechem.
17 “But as the time of the promise came close which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt, 18 until there arose a different king, who didn’t know Joseph. 19 The same took advantage of our race, and mistreated our fathers, and forced them to throw out their babies, so that they wouldn’t stay alive. 20 At that time Moses was born, and was exceedingly handsome. He was nourished three months in his father’s house. 21 When he was thrown out, Pharaoh’s daughter took him up, and reared him as her own son.
Footnotes:
a. Acts 7:3 Genesis 12:1
b. Acts 7:5 or, seed
c. Acts 7:6 or, seed
d. Acts 7:7 Genesis 15:13-14
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