Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "All to God's Glory" for Sunday, 7 June 2015
So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.[1 Corinthians 10:31]
I was in my early teens when a small Minneapolis-based company called Burma Shave closed up shop.
If you're my age or older, you remember the company. In all probability those memories are not so much of the product, a shaving cream, as they are of the company's advertisements. For those who are younger than me, let me explain: back in the olden days, before Interstates made traveling a blur, the Burma Shave company would put up little red signs, about 100 feet apart. There were almost always five of these signs. The first four carried a poem; the last had the name of the company. As you drove along the road, you couldn't resist reading those ads.
Let me give you a few examples:
* "Within this vale, of toil and sin, your head grows bald, but not your chin - use Burma-Shave."
* The advertisements were filled with practical advice like "Don't lose your head, to gain a minute, you need your head, your brains are in it."
* Sometimes, they had a warning, like "Brother speeders, let's rehearse, all together, 'Good morning, nurse.'"
* Sometimes the ads were almost theological: "Passing cars, when you can't see, may get you, a glimpse of eternity."
Now Daily Devotioners may wonder why I mention those advertisements. It's not to do a devotion on the good old days, nor is it to get me a kickback from Burma Shave. It went out of business in the early '60s.
I'm sharing because I want you to realize those ads from a defunct company and an extinct product have stayed with me for over 50 years. Those advertisements were a powerful thing. Good ads usually are. That statement is as true in the church as it is in the marketplace.
Look through Scripture and you will find numerous examples of those who were living, breathing advertisements for the Savior. Moses, the deliverer of God's people from slavery, served as a reminder of the work Jesus would do in rescuing us. John the Baptizer spent his ministry -- and himself -- preparing the world for the Savior and men's hearts for the salvation Jesus would win on the cross and at the empty tomb.
Now Jesus has, in His Great Commission, asked us to be His advertisers. In a world where Christians are being persecuted and martyred, where voices of criticism and complaint are constantly being leveled at the Savior's followers, sharing the Savior's story is a formidable task.
Even so, it must be done. In our actions, with our words, by our example we need to point people to Jesus who gave His life so all who believe on Him will have their sins forgiven and become members of the family of faith. This you probably already know.
But what you may need to think about is those small Burma Shave signs.
Even as those signs were extremely tiny, they still left a lasting impact. So, too, the small things we say and do have an eternal consequence for those who see them.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let the big and small things I do glorify the Savior whose life was a sacrifice for my salvation. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
I was in my early teens when a small Minneapolis-based company called Burma Shave closed up shop.
If you're my age or older, you remember the company. In all probability those memories are not so much of the product, a shaving cream, as they are of the company's advertisements. For those who are younger than me, let me explain: back in the olden days, before Interstates made traveling a blur, the Burma Shave company would put up little red signs, about 100 feet apart. There were almost always five of these signs. The first four carried a poem; the last had the name of the company. As you drove along the road, you couldn't resist reading those ads.
Let me give you a few examples:
* "Within this vale, of toil and sin, your head grows bald, but not your chin - use Burma-Shave."
* The advertisements were filled with practical advice like "Don't lose your head, to gain a minute, you need your head, your brains are in it."
* Sometimes, they had a warning, like "Brother speeders, let's rehearse, all together, 'Good morning, nurse.'"
* Sometimes the ads were almost theological: "Passing cars, when you can't see, may get you, a glimpse of eternity."
Now Daily Devotioners may wonder why I mention those advertisements. It's not to do a devotion on the good old days, nor is it to get me a kickback from Burma Shave. It went out of business in the early '60s.
I'm sharing because I want you to realize those ads from a defunct company and an extinct product have stayed with me for over 50 years. Those advertisements were a powerful thing. Good ads usually are. That statement is as true in the church as it is in the marketplace.
Look through Scripture and you will find numerous examples of those who were living, breathing advertisements for the Savior. Moses, the deliverer of God's people from slavery, served as a reminder of the work Jesus would do in rescuing us. John the Baptizer spent his ministry -- and himself -- preparing the world for the Savior and men's hearts for the salvation Jesus would win on the cross and at the empty tomb.
Now Jesus has, in His Great Commission, asked us to be His advertisers. In a world where Christians are being persecuted and martyred, where voices of criticism and complaint are constantly being leveled at the Savior's followers, sharing the Savior's story is a formidable task.
Even so, it must be done. In our actions, with our words, by our example we need to point people to Jesus who gave His life so all who believe on Him will have their sins forgiven and become members of the family of faith. This you probably already know.
But what you may need to think about is those small Burma Shave signs.
Even as those signs were extremely tiny, they still left a lasting impact. So, too, the small things we say and do have an eternal consequence for those who see them.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, let the big and small things I do glorify the Savior whose life was a sacrifice for my salvation. In Jesus' Name. 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:(0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
____________________________
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Psalms 139:(0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, you have probed me, and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I stand up,
you discern my inclinations from afar,
3 you scrutinize my daily activities.
You are so familiar with all my ways
4 that before I speak even a word, Adonai,
you know all about it already.
5 You have hemmed me in both behind and in front
and laid your hand on me.
6 Such wonderful knowledge is beyond me,
far too high for me to reach.
7 Where can I go to escape your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I lie down in Sh’ol, you are there.
9 If I fly away with the wings of the dawn
and land beyond the sea,
10 even there your hand would lead me,
your right hand would hold me fast.
11 If I say, “Let darkness surround me,
let the light around me be night,”
12 even darkness like this
is not too dark for you;
rather, night is as clear as day,
darkness and light are the same.
13 For you fashioned my inmost being,
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
14 I thank you because I am awesomely made,
wonderfully; your works are wonders —
I know this very well.
15 My bones were not hidden from you
when I was being made in secret,
intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
16 Your eyes could see me as an embryo,
but in your book all my days were already written;
my days had been shaped
before any of them existed.
17 God, how I prize your thoughts!
How many of them there are!
18 If I count them, there are more than grains of sand;
if I finish the count, I am still with you.
19 God, if only you would kill off the wicked!
Men of blood, get away from me!
20 They invoke your name for their crafty schemes;
yes, your enemies misuse it.
21 Adonai, how I hate those who hate you!
I feel such disgust with those who defy you!
22 I hate them with unlimited hatred!
They have become my enemies too.
23 Examine me, God, and know my heart;
test me, and know my thoughts.
24 See if there is in me any hurtful way,
and lead me along the eternal way.
140:(0) For the leader. A psalm of David:
2 (1) Rescue me, Adonai, from evil people,
protect me from violent people.
3 (2) They plan evil things in their hearts —
they continually stir up bitter strife.
4 (3) They have made their tongues as sharp as a snake’s;
viper’s venom is under their lips. (Selah)
5 (4) Keep me, Adonai, from the hands of the wicked,
protect me from violent people
who are trying to trip me up.
6 (5) The arrogant hide snares for me;
they spread nets by the side of the road,
hoping to trap me there. (Selah)
7 (6) I said to Adonai, “You are my God;
listen, Adonai, to my plea for mercy.”
8 (7) Adonai, Adonai, my saving strength,
my helmet shielding my head in battle,
9 (8) Adonai, don’t grant the wicked their wishes;
make their plot fail, so they won’t grow proud. (Selah)
10 (9) May the heads of those who surround me
be engulfed in the evil they spoke of, themselves.
11 (10) May burning coals rain down on them,
may they be flung into the fire,
flung into deep pits,
never to rise again.
12 (11) Let slanderers find no place in the land;
let the violent and evil be hunted relentlessly.
13 (12) I know that Adonai gives justice to the poor
and maintains the rights of the needy.
14 (13) The righteous will surely give thanks to your name;
the upright will live in your presence.
141:(0) A psalm of David:
(1) Adonai, I have called you; come to me quickly!
Listen to my plea when I call to you.
2 Let my prayer be like incense set before you,
my uplifted hands like an evening sacrifice.
3 Set a guard, Adonai, over my mouth;
keep watch at the door of my lips.
4 Don’t let my heart turn to anything evil
or allow me to act wickedly
with men who are evildoers;
keep me from eating their delicacies.
5 Let the righteous strike me, let him correct me;
it will be an act of love.
Let my head not refuse such choice oil,
for I will keep on praying about their wickedness.
6 When their rulers are thrown down from the cliff,
[the wicked] will hear that my words were fitting.
7 As when one plows and breaks the ground into clods,
our bones are strewn at the mouth of Sh’ol.
8 For my eyes, Adonai, Adonai, are on you;
in you I take refuge; don’t pour out my life.
9 Keep me from the trap they have set for me,
from the snares of evildoers.
10 Let the wicked fall into their own nets,
while I pass by in safety.
John 17:1 After Yeshua had said these things, he looked up toward heaven and said, “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that the Son may glorify you — 2 just as you gave him authority over all mankind, so that he might give eternal life to all those whom you have given him. 3 And eternal life is this: to know you, the one true God, and him whom you sent, Yeshua the Messiah.
4 “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 Now, Father, glorify me alongside yourself. Give me the same glory I had with you before the world existed.
6 “I made your name known to the people you gave me out of the world. They were yours, you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you, 8 because the words you gave me I have given to them, and they have received them. They have really come to know that I came from you, and they have come to trust that you sent me.
9 “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given to me, because they are yours. 10 Indeed, all I have is yours, and all you have is mine, and in them I have been glorified. 11 Now I am no longer in the world. They are in the world, but I am coming to you. Holy Father, guard them by the power of your name, which you have given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are. 12 When I was with them, I guarded them by the power of your name, which you have given to me; yes, I kept watch over them; and not one of them was destroyed (except the one meant for destruction, so that the Tanakh might be fulfilled). 13 But now, I am coming to you; and I say these things while I am still in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.
14 “I have given them your word, and the world hated them, because they do not belong to the world — just as I myself do not belong to the world. 15 I don’t ask you to take them out of the world, but to protect them from the Evil One. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Set them apart for holiness by means of the truth — your word is truth. 18 Just as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 On their behalf I am setting myself apart for holiness, so that they too may be set apart for holiness by means of the truth.
20 “I pray not only for these, but also for those who will trust in me because of their word, 21 that they may all be one. Just as you, Father, are united with me and I with you, I pray that they may be united with us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. 22 The glory which you have given to me, I have given to them; so that they may be one, just as we are one — 23 I united with them and you with me, so that they may be completely one, and the world thus realize that you sent me, and that you have loved them just as you have loved me.
24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am; so that they may see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you, and these people have known that you sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will continue to make it known; so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I myself may be united with them.”
The Lutheran Hour660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
____________________________
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