For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God ....[1 Peter 3:18a]
To the best of my knowledge there is only one pair of shoes in the world insured for $1 million.
Those shoes are the "ruby red slippers" worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. In the spirit of the movie's theme, "There's no place like home," Garland gave one of the movie's four pairs of shoes to the Judy Garland Museum in her home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Unfortunately, in August 2005 those shoes were stolen from the museum by someone who smashed the protective glass case with a baseball bat.
Recently, an anonymous fan of Judy Garland and the movie has come forward and is offering $1 million to anyone who comes out and gives the exact location of those hand-made slippers.
That's amazing!
It's amazing anyone would pay that kind of money for a few bits of leather, cloth, and hand-sewn sequins. Still, I guess that's what a person is willing to do to recover something that is very special to them.
I know that's what the Lord did.
You see, in His divine desire, the Lord once created a universe and made humanity to have dominion over the perfect home God had brought into being. Things should have stayed just the way the Lord had envisioned, but they didn't.
Using suggestions to sin rather than a baseball bat, Satan stole God's creation.
In the whole scheme of things humanity wasn't worth that much. They were made out of the dirt of the ground, and after they die they return to the same elements from which they had been constructed.
Still, these souls were precious to the Lord, and He decided to do that which was necessary to bring them back home. To that end He sent His Son into the world.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem to offer His life as the price which would buy back that which had been taken. To rescue and reclaim humanity, Jesus lived His life perfectly and fulfilled every law and prophecy. So that we might be reunited with our true Owner -- the Creator -- Jesus resisted every temptation and allowed Himself to be murdered on the cross of Calvary. His third-day resurrection from the dead says that His work is real and legitimate.
That true story is amazing!
It is amazing the Lord would have that kind of love, that kind of grace and care toward us, that He would do all of this. Still, that is what a Person does when He loves somebody very much.
Now I can't tell you if those ruby red slippers will end up at home. I do know that all who believe on Jesus as their Savior are rescued, forgiven, and will be going home with their Creator.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, for sending Your precious Son to rescue worthless us, we give thanks. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
To the best of my knowledge there is only one pair of shoes in the world insured for $1 million.
Those shoes are the "ruby red slippers" worn by Judy Garland in The Wizard of Oz. In the spirit of the movie's theme, "There's no place like home," Garland gave one of the movie's four pairs of shoes to the Judy Garland Museum in her home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Unfortunately, in August 2005 those shoes were stolen from the museum by someone who smashed the protective glass case with a baseball bat.
Recently, an anonymous fan of Judy Garland and the movie has come forward and is offering $1 million to anyone who comes out and gives the exact location of those hand-made slippers.
That's amazing!
It's amazing anyone would pay that kind of money for a few bits of leather, cloth, and hand-sewn sequins. Still, I guess that's what a person is willing to do to recover something that is very special to them.
I know that's what the Lord did.
You see, in His divine desire, the Lord once created a universe and made humanity to have dominion over the perfect home God had brought into being. Things should have stayed just the way the Lord had envisioned, but they didn't.
Using suggestions to sin rather than a baseball bat, Satan stole God's creation.
In the whole scheme of things humanity wasn't worth that much. They were made out of the dirt of the ground, and after they die they return to the same elements from which they had been constructed.
Still, these souls were precious to the Lord, and He decided to do that which was necessary to bring them back home. To that end He sent His Son into the world.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem to offer His life as the price which would buy back that which had been taken. To rescue and reclaim humanity, Jesus lived His life perfectly and fulfilled every law and prophecy. So that we might be reunited with our true Owner -- the Creator -- Jesus resisted every temptation and allowed Himself to be murdered on the cross of Calvary. His third-day resurrection from the dead says that His work is real and legitimate.
That true story is amazing!
It is amazing the Lord would have that kind of love, that kind of grace and care toward us, that He would do all of this. Still, that is what a Person does when He loves somebody very much.
Now I can't tell you if those ruby red slippers will end up at home. I do know that all who believe on Jesus as their Savior are rescued, forgiven, and will be going home with their Creator.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, for sending Your precious Son to rescue worthless us, we give thanks. 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 99:1 Adonai is king; let the peoples tremble.
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 99:1 Adonai is king; let the peoples tremble.
He sits enthroned on the k’ruvim; let the earth shake!
2 Adonai is great in Tziyon;
he is high above all the peoples.
3 Let them praise your great and fearsome name (he is holy):
4 “Mighty king who loves justice, you established
fairness, justice and righteousness in Ya‘akov.”
5 Exalt Adonai our God!
Prostrate yourselves at his footstool (he is holy).
6 Moshe and Aharon among his cohanim
and Sh’mu’el among those who call on his name
called on Adonai, and he answered them.
7 He spoke to them in the column of cloud;
they kept his instructions and the law that he gave them.
8 Adonai our God, you answered them.
To them you were a forgiving God,
although you took vengeance on their wrongdoings.
9 Exalt Adonai our God,
bow down toward his holy mountain,
for Adonai our God is holy!
100:(0) A psalm of thanksgiving:
(1) Shout for joy to Adonai, all the earth!
2 Serve Adonai with gladness.
Enter his presence with joyful songs.
3 Be aware that Adonai is God;
it is he who made us; and we are his,
his people, the flock in his pasture.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
enter his courtyards with praise;
give thanks to him, and bless his name.
5 For Adonai is good, his grace continues forever,
and his faithfulness lasts through all generations.
102:(0) Prayer of a sufferer overcome by weakness and pouring out his complaint before Adonai:
2 (1) Adonai, hear my prayer!
Let my cry for help reach you!
3 (2) Don’t hide your face from me
when I am in such distress!
Turn your ear toward me;
when I call, be quick to reply!
4 (3) For my days are vanishing like smoke,
my bones are burning like a furnace.
5 (4) I am stricken and withered like grass;
I forget to eat my food.
6 (5) Because of my loud groaning,
I am just skin and bones.
7 (6) I am like a great owl in the desert,
I’ve become like an owl in the ruins.
8 (7) I lie awake and become
like a bird alone on the roof.
9 (8) My enemies taunt me all day long;
mad with rage, they make my name a curse.
10 (9) For I have been eating ashes like bread
and mingling tears with my drink
11 (10) because of your furious anger,
since you picked me up just to toss me aside.
12 (11) My days decline like an evening shadow;
I am drying up like grass.
13 (12) But you, Adonai, are enthroned forever;
your renown will endure through all generations.
14 (13) You will arise and take pity on Tziyon,
for the time has come to have mercy on her;
the time determined has come.
15 (14) For your servants love her very stones;
they take pity even on her dust.
16 (15) The nations will fear the name of Adonai
and all the kings on earth your glory,
17 (16) when Adonai has rebuilt Tziyon,
and shows himself in his glory,
18 (17) when he has heeded the plea of the poor
and not despised their prayer.
19 (18) May this be put on record for a future generation;
may a people yet to be created praise Adonai.
20 (19) For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary;
from heaven Adonai surveys the earth
21 (20) to listen to the sighing of the prisoner,
to set free those who are sentenced to death,
22 (21) to proclaim the name of Adonai in Tziyon
and his praise in Yerushalayim
23 (22) when peoples and kingdoms have been gathered together
to serve Adonai.
24 (23) He has broken my strength in midcourse,
he has cut short my days.
25 (24) I plead, “God, your years last through all generations;
so don’t take me away when my life is half over!
26 (25) In the beginning, you laid the foundations of the earth;
heaven is the work of your hands.
27 (26) They will vanish, but you will remain;
like clothing, they will all grow old;
yes, you will change them like clothing,
and they will pass away.
28 (27) But you remain the same,
and your years will never end.
29 (28) The children of your servants will live securely
and their descendants be established in your presence.”
Acts 17:16 While Sha’ul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit within him was disturbed at the sight of the city full of idols. 17 So he began holding discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and the “God-fearers,” and in the market square every day with the people who happened to be there.
18 Also a group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers started meeting with him. Some asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others, because he proclaimed the Good News about Yeshua and the resurrection, said, “He sounds like a propagandist for foreign gods.” 19 They took and brought him before the High Council, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 Some of the things we are hearing from you strike us as strange, and we would like to know what they mean.” 21 (All the Athenians and the foreigners living there used to spend their spare time talking or hearing about the latest intellectual fads.)
22 Sha’ul stood up in the Council meeting and said, “Men of Athens: I see how very religious you are in every way! 23 For as I was walking around, looking at your shrines, I even found an altar which had been inscribed, ‘To An Unknown God.’ So, the one whom you are already worshipping in ignorance — this is the one I proclaim to you.
24 “The God who made the universe and everything in it, and who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in man-made temples; 25 nor is he served by human hands, as if he lacked something; since it is he himself who gives life and breath and everything to everyone.
26 “From one man he made every nation living on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the limits of their territories and the periods when they would flourish. 27 God did this so that people would look for him and perhaps reach out and find him although in fact, he is not far from each one of us, 28 ‘for in him we live and move and exist.’ Indeed, as some of the poets among you have said, ‘We are actually his children.’ 29 So, since we are children of God, we shouldn’t suppose that God’s essence resembles gold, silver or stone shaped by human technique and imagination.
30 “In the past, God overlooked such ignorance; but now he is commanding all people everywhere to turn to him from their sins. 31 For he has set a Day when he will judge the inhabited world, and do it justly, by means of a man whom he has designated. And he has given public proof of it by resurrecting this man from the dead.”
32 At the mention of a resurrection of dead people, some began to scoff; while others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” 33 So Sha’ul left the meeting. 34 But some men stayed with him and came to trust, including the High Council member Dionysius; there was also a woman named Damaris; and others came to trust along 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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