The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life.[1 Timothy 1:15-16]
All of us have done something wrong.
In a sinful world, filled with sinful people, that's not entirely surprising. Some people do a lot of somethings wrong and others not so much so. But we all have done something wrong. A few months ago, while I was standing in line at the grocery store, I observed two little boys around the ages of three and four doing what three- and four-year-old boys do best.
They were fighting with each other.
The battle escalated with the older doing the taunting, and the younger fighting for position. Eventually, because he couldn't come up with anything better, the younger said, "I hate you!"
The older replied in kind: "Not as much as I hate you."
Realizing she had lost control, mother resorted to a bit of bribery: "Boys, you know we don't talk that way to each other. I'm not going to take my two young men to McDonald's as long as they hate each other."
Recognizing a superior offer when he heard it, the four-year-old capitulated. Without a great deal of sincerity he apologized: "I don't really hate you."
But the younger was a man of some backbone. He stood fast and boasted: "I'm not hungry. I still hate you." Those boys are just a small proof: we all have done something wrong ...
except for Jesus.
* Jesus did everything right. Everything.
* He loved you with a love that cannot be measured.
* He gave to the world when there was no thanks.
* He healed when there was no hope and He died without complaint.
Jesus did nothing wrong and everything right -- all this for you. He lived for you and died for you. And today He sends His Spirit to call all of us to repentance, to summon all of us to forgiveness, to bring all of us who are given faith into His family.
Understand, God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, but He also wants you to know that Jesus' love is a very personal thing. Jesus came, lived, died and rose for you. Wherever you are reading or listening to this devotion, you should know, Jesus came for you.
For you Jesus did everything right, so you might be made right. This is what Jesus has done. It is enough. It is everything.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks the Savior came for me. For my sins, Jesus was born, lived, suffered, died and rose. For my salvation He has sent the Holy Spirit. Now may I -- a new child in Your family of faith -- give thanks in all I do. This thanks I offer in Jesus' Name. Amen.
All of us have done something wrong.
In a sinful world, filled with sinful people, that's not entirely surprising. Some people do a lot of somethings wrong and others not so much so. But we all have done something wrong. A few months ago, while I was standing in line at the grocery store, I observed two little boys around the ages of three and four doing what three- and four-year-old boys do best.
They were fighting with each other.
The battle escalated with the older doing the taunting, and the younger fighting for position. Eventually, because he couldn't come up with anything better, the younger said, "I hate you!"
The older replied in kind: "Not as much as I hate you."
Realizing she had lost control, mother resorted to a bit of bribery: "Boys, you know we don't talk that way to each other. I'm not going to take my two young men to McDonald's as long as they hate each other."
Recognizing a superior offer when he heard it, the four-year-old capitulated. Without a great deal of sincerity he apologized: "I don't really hate you."
But the younger was a man of some backbone. He stood fast and boasted: "I'm not hungry. I still hate you." Those boys are just a small proof: we all have done something wrong ...
except for Jesus.
* Jesus did everything right. Everything.
* He loved you with a love that cannot be measured.
* He gave to the world when there was no thanks.
* He healed when there was no hope and He died without complaint.
Jesus did nothing wrong and everything right -- all this for you. He lived for you and died for you. And today He sends His Spirit to call all of us to repentance, to summon all of us to forgiveness, to bring all of us who are given faith into His family.
Understand, God so loved the world, He gave His only Son, but He also wants you to know that Jesus' love is a very personal thing. Jesus came, lived, died and rose for you. Wherever you are reading or listening to this devotion, you should know, Jesus came for you.
For you Jesus did everything right, so you might be made right. This is what Jesus has done. It is enough. It is everything.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, I give thanks the Savior came for me. For my sins, Jesus was born, lived, suffered, died and rose. For my salvation He has sent the Holy Spirit. Now may I -- a new child in Your family of faith -- give thanks in all I do. This thanks I offer 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:
Jeremiah 18:1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai: 2 “Get up, and go down to the potter’s house; there I will tell you more.” 3 So I went down to the house of the potter; and there he was, working at the wheels. 4 Whenever a pot he made came out imperfect, the potter took the clay and made another pot with it, in whatever shape suited him.
The Lutheran Hour
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour®
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Through the Bible in a Year
Today Read:
Jeremiah 18:1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from Adonai: 2 “Get up, and go down to the potter’s house; there I will tell you more.” 3 So I went down to the house of the potter; and there he was, working at the wheels. 4 Whenever a pot he made came out imperfect, the potter took the clay and made another pot with it, in whatever shape suited him.
5 Then the word of Adonai came to me: 6 “House of Isra’el, can’t I deal with you as the potter deals with his clay? — says Adonai. Look! You, house of Isra’el, are the same in my hand as the clay in the potter’s hand. 7 At one time, I may speak about uprooting, breaking down and destroying a nation or kingdom; 8 but if that nation turns from their evil, which prompted me to speak against it, then I relent concerning the disaster I had planned to inflict on it. 9 Similarly, at another time, I may speak about building and planting a nation or kingdom; 10 but if it behaves wickedly from my perspective and doesn’t listen to what I say, then I change my mind and don’t do the good I said I would do that would have helped it.
11 “So now, tell the people of Y’hudah and those living in Yerushalayim that this is what Adonai says:
‘I am designing disaster for you,
working out my plan against you.
Turn, each of you, from his evil ways;
improve your conduct and actions.’
12 “But they will answer, ‘It’s hopeless!
We will stick to our own plans;
each of us will stubbornly follow
his own evil desires!’
13 “Therefore, Adonai says this:
‘Ask among the nations
who has heard anything like this.
The virgin Isra’el has done
a most horrible thing.
14 Does the snow of the L’vanon
disappear from the mountain crags?
Do the cold waters of foreign lands
ever run dry?
15 No, but my people have forgotten me
and offer incense to nothings.
This causes them to stumble
as they walk the ancient paths;
they leave the highway
to walk on side-trails.
16 Thus they make their land an object of horror
and ongoing ridicule.
Passers-by shake their heads,
appalled, every one.
17 Like a strong east wind, I will scatter them
before the enemy.
I will see their back, not their face,
on their day of disaster.’”
18 Then they said, “Let’s develop a plan for dealing with Yirmeyahu. Torah won’t be lost from the cohanim, or counsel from the wise, or words from the prophets. So come, let’s destroy him with slander; and meanwhile, we won’t pay attention to anything he says.”
19 Pay attention to me, Adonai!
Listen to what my opponents are saying!
20 Is good to be repaid with evil?
For they have dug a pit [to trap] me.
Remember how I stood before you
and spoke well of them,
in order to turn your anger
away from them?
21 Therefore, hand their sons over to famine,
hurl them into the power of the sword,
let their wives be made childless and widows,
let their husbands be slain by disease,
let their young men be slain by the sword in battle,
22 let screams be heard from their houses
when you bring raiders on them without warning.
For they have dug a pit to catch me
and have laid snares for my feet.
23 Nevertheless, Adonai, you know
all their plans against me to stop me.
Do not forgive their crime,
do not blot out their sin from your sight;
but let them be made to stumble before you;
deal with them when you are angry.
19:1 Adonai then said, “Go; buy a clay jar from the potter; take some of the people’s leaders and some of the leading cohanim; 2 and go out into the Ben-Hinnom Valley, by the entry to the Potsherd Gate. There you are to proclaim the words I am about to tell you. 3 Say: ‘Hear the word of Adonai, kings of Y’hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim! This is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: “I am about to bring disaster on this place that will make the ears of whoever hears about it ring. 4 This is because they have abandoned me and alienated this place. In it they have offered to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors have known, nor the kings of Y’hudah. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people. 5 They have built the high places of Ba‘al, in order to burn up their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Ba‘al — something I never ordered or said; it never even entered my mind.
6 “‘“Therefore the time is coming,” says Adonai, “when this place will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 I will nullify the plans of Y’hudah and Yerushalayim in this place. I will have them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hand of those seeking their lives, and I will give their corpses as food for the birds in the air and the wild animals. 8 I will make this city an object of horror and ridicule; everyone passing by will be horrified and will ridicule it because of all its wounds. 9 I will cause them to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters; everyone will be eating the flesh of his friends during the siege, because of the shortage imposed on them by their enemies and those set on killing them.”’
10 “Then you are to smash the jar in front of the people who went with you, 11 and say to them, ‘Adonai-Tzva’ot says that this is how I will break this people and this city, just as one smashes a potter’s vessel beyond the possibility of repair. The dead will be buried in Tofet, because there will be no space left for burial [anywhere else]. 12 That is what I will do to this place,’ says Adonai ‘and to its inhabitants; I will make it like Tofet. 13 The houses of Yerushalayim and those of the kings of Y’hudah will be defiled like this place Tofet — yes, all the houses on whose roofs they have offered to all the stars in heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’”
14 Then Yirmeyahu returned from Tofet, where Adonai had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of Adonai’s house and said to all the people, 15 “This is what Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says: ‘I am bringing on this city and all its surrounding villages all the disaster I have pronounced against it; because they have stiffened their necks and refused to pay attention to my words.’”
Colossians 3:1 So if you were raised along with the Messiah, then seek the things above, where the Messiah is sitting at the right hand of God.[Colossians 3:1 Psalm 110:1] 2 Focus your minds on the things above, not on things here on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. 4 When the Messiah, who is our life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory!
5 Therefore, put to death the earthly parts of your nature — sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed (which is a form of idolatry); 6 for it is because of these things that God’s anger is coming on those who disobey him. 7 True enough, you used to practice these things in the life you once lived; 8 but now, put them all away — anger, exasperation, meanness, slander and obscene talk. 9 Never lie to one another; because you have stripped away the old self, with its ways, 10 and have put on the new self, which is continually being renewed in fuller and fuller knowledge, closer and closer to the image of its Creator. 11 The new self allows no room for discriminating between Gentile and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, foreigner, savage, slave, free man; on the contrary, in all, the Messiah is everything.
12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with feelings of compassion and with kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with one another; if anyone has a complaint against someone else, forgive him. Indeed, just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you must forgive.
14 Above all these, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together perfectly; 15 and let the shalom which comes from the Messiah be your heart’s decision-maker, for this is why you were called to be part of a single Body.
And be thankful — 16 let the Word of the Messiah, in all its richness, live in you, as you teach and counsel each other in all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude to God in your hearts. 17 That is, everything you do or say, do in the name of the Lord Yeshua, giving thanks through him to God the Father.
18 Wives, subject yourselves to your husbands, as is appropriate in the Lord.
19 Husbands, love your wives and don’t treat them harshly.
20 Children, obey your parents in everything; for this pleases the Lord.
21 Fathers, don’t irritate your children and make them resentful, or they will become discouraged.
22 Slaves, obey your human masters in everything, not serving only when they are watching you, to win their favor, but single-heartedly, fearing the Lord. 23 Whatever work you do, put yourself into it, as those who are serving not merely other people, but the Lord. 24 Remember that as your reward, you will receive the inheritance from the Lord. You are slaving for the Lord, for the Messiah. 25 Don’t worry — whoever is doing wrong will be paid in kind for his wrong, and there is no favoritism shown.
____________________________The Lutheran Hour
660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
____________________________
St. Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
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