Saint Louis, Missouri, United States - Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour"Hold Everything!" Saturday, 7 June 2014 That the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, He would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles.(Acts 26:23)
Not so long ago a brother pastor shared a story with me.
His story spoke of three melancholy friends who had just attended the funeral of an old buddy who had passed on quite unexpectedly. As they were walking away from the gravesite, one of the mourners morosely asked, "Boys, when your time comes, what would you like the preacher to say about you?"One of the men replied, "Well, I don't know. I guess I'd like him to tell the mourners something like, 'Before us today lies a great humanitarian, an exceptional man who cared about his community.'"
The man who had originally asked the question countered, "Not bad. But I think I'd prefer the minister to say something like, 'We are mourning a man who was a great husband and father, a man who always managed to set an example for all of us to follow. He's going to be missed.'"
Both were still congratulating each other on the wisdom and rightness of those eulogies when they realized their companion hadn't said a word.
Treading carefully, lest they upset him in his reflections, they gently asked, "And, old friend, what do you think the pastor ought to say when you leave this veil of tears?"
The third fellow broke the somber mood when he replied, "That's easy. I'd like the preacher to say, 'Hold everything! Look, he's moving. Let's celebrate! He's alive!'"
I wonder how many of you are shaking your heads and saying, "That's a silly story."
Well, maybe so, but it's a story that has happened. It happened when Jesus stopped the funeral procession coming out of the city of Nain. It happened with Jairus' daughter, and it happened at the home of Mary, Martha and Lazarus.
Most importantly, it happened three days after Jesus had been crucified -- three days after Jesus had fulfilled the Law and resisted every temptation, three days after He had announced, "It is finished!" Jesus Christ rose from the dead. The stone was rolled away from the tomb, so the world could look in and say, "Hold everything! Let's celebrate! He's alive!"
For almost 2,000 years, Christians have been saying those words and celebrating their Savior's defeat of death. That's God's promise St. Paul shared centuries ago when he said, "I stand here testifying both to small and great, the Christ must suffer and that, by being the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light ... " (see Acts 26:12-23).
That's just God's way of letting us know, with faith in the risen Redeemer, we can live our lives without fear. Because Jesus lives, we know the day will come when the Savior will raise our perfected bodies, and the angels in heaven and all the universe will say, "Look, they're moving! They're alive!"
And on that day there will begin a celebration that will never end.
THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, it is impossible for us to calculate all we owe You. Even so, we can give thanks. Today we rejoice that Your Son has carried our sins to the cross and defeated death. Now, because Jesus lives, we know we will also live forever. In the Savior's Name I give thanks. Amen.
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:
Psalms 139: For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
1 Yahweh, you have searched me,
and you know me.
2 You know my sitting down and my rising up.
You perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You search out my path and my lying down,
and are acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word on my tongue,
but, behold, Yahweh, you know it altogether.
5 You hem me in behind and before.
You laid your hand on me.
6 This knowledge is beyond me.
It’s lofty.
I can’t attain it.
7 Where could I go from your Spirit?
Or where could I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend up into heaven, you are there.
If I make my bed in Sheol,[a] behold, you are there!
9 If I take the wings of the dawn,
and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;
10 Even there your hand will lead me,
and your right hand will hold me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me;
the light around me will be night”;
12 even the darkness doesn’t hide from you,
but the night shines as the day.
The darkness is like light to you.
13 For you formed my inmost being.
You knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to you,
for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Your works are wonderful.
My soul knows that very well.
15 My frame wasn’t hidden from you,
when I was made in secret,
woven together in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes saw my body.
In your book they were all written,
the days that were ordained for me,
when as yet there were none of them.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, God!
How vast is their sum!
18 If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand.
When I wake up, I am still with you.
19 If only you, God, would kill the wicked.
Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 For they speak against you wickedly.
Your enemies take your name in vain.
21 Yahweh, don’t I hate those who hate you?
Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?
22 I hate them with perfect hatred.
They have become my enemies.
23 Search me, God, and know my heart.
Try me, and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the everlasting way.
140: For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
1 Deliver me, Yahweh, from the evil man.
Preserve me from the violent man;
2 those who devise mischief in their hearts.
They continually gather themselves together for war.
3 They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent.
Viper’s poison is under their lips.
Selah.
4 Yahweh, keep me from the hands of the wicked.
Preserve me from the violent men who have determined to trip my feet.
5 The proud have hidden a snare for me,
they have spread the cords of a net by the path.
They have set traps for me.
Selah.
6 I said to Yahweh, “You are my God.”
Listen to the cry of my petitions, Yahweh.
7 Yahweh, the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8 Yahweh, don’t grant the desires of the wicked.
Don’t let their evil plans succeed, or they will become proud.
Selah.
9 As for the head of those who surround me,
let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
10 Let burning coals fall on them.
Let them be thrown into the fire,
into miry pits, from where they never rise.
11 An evil speaker won’t be established in the earth.
Evil will hunt the violent man to overthrow him.
12 I know that Yahweh will maintain the cause of the afflicted,
and justice for the needy.
13 Surely the righteous will give thanks to your name.
The upright will dwell in your presence.
141: A Psalm by David.
1 Yahweh, I have called on you.
Come to me quickly!
Listen to my voice when I call to you.
2 Let my prayer be set before you like incense;
the lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice.
3 Set a watch, Yahweh, before my mouth.
Keep the door of my lips.
4 Don’t incline my heart to any evil thing,
to practice deeds of wickedness with men who work iniquity.
Don’t let me eat of their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me, it is kindness;
let him reprove me, it is like oil on the head;
don’t let my head refuse it;
Yet my prayer is always against evil deeds.
6 Their judges are thrown down by the sides of the rock.
They will hear my words, for they are well spoken.
7 “As when one plows and breaks up the earth,
our bones are scattered at the mouth of Sheol.”[b]
8 For my eyes are on you, Yahweh, the Lord.
In you, I take refuge.
Don’t leave my soul destitute.
9 Keep me from the snare which they have laid for me,
from the traps of the workers of iniquity.
10 Let the wicked fall together into their own nets,
while I pass by.
Footnotes:
a. Psalm 139:8 Sheol is the place of the dead.
b. Psalm 141:7 Sheol is the place of the dead.
John 17:1 Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may also glorify you; 2 even as you gave him authority over all flesh, he will give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ. 4 I glorified you on the earth. I have accomplished the work which you have given me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world existed. 6 I revealed your name to the people whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me. They have kept your word. 7 Now they have known that all things whatever you have given me are from you, 8 for the words which you have given me I have given to them, and they received them, and knew for sure that I came from you, and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I don’t pray for the world, but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All things that are mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. 11 I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them through your name which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are. 12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in your name. Those whom you have given me I have kept. None of them is lost, except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I come to you, and I say these things in the world, that they may have my joy made full in themselves. 14 I have given them your word. The world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 15 I pray not that you would take them from the world, but that you would keep them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them in your truth. Your word is truth.[a] 18 As you sent me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. 19 For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth. 20 Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given me, I have given to them; that they may be one, even as we are one; 23 I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that you sent me, and loved them, even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me be with me where I am, that they may see my glory, which you have given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world hasn’t known you, but I knew you; and these knew that you sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and will make it known; that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Footnotes:
a. John 17:17 Psalm 119:142
-------
The Lutheran Hour
660 Mason Ridge Center Dr.
St. Louis, MO 63141
1(800)876-9880
-------
No comments:
Post a Comment