The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "He Listens" for Thursday, April 14, 2016

The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour of Saint Louis, Missouri, United States "He Listens" for Thursday, April 14, 2016 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.[Philippians 4:6-7]
The Hartford, Connecticut, 911 dispatchers field some 160, 000 emergency calls each year.
No, that's not right. They receive 160,000 phone calls every year. Of those 160,000 calls only half are real bona fide emergencies. The rest fit into the "It's really not that big a deal" category. I probably don't have to tell you a recent call made to 911 by an unnamed woman fits into the second category.
The lady's problem was this: she had ordered a small half-bacon pizza, and the delivery boy showed up with a half-hamburger pizza. Even worse, the company had declined to give the woman a refund.
She took her problem to a higher court. She asked the police: "Can't you guys do something?"
Much to her credit the 911 dispatcher didn't get irate; she didn't chew out the caller for having wasted her time; she didn't give the woman the impression her call was unimportant and inconsequential. In the politest tones possible the dispatcher encouraged the woman to go to the pizza place and try to get satisfaction.
Fearing the complaint might become violent, the dispatcher sent a policeman to the pizza place.
Now if I were a guessing man, I'd be willing to go out on the limb and say most of our readers think the 911 call was absolutely absurd, and some of you may think the caller should be penalized for wasting the time of the dispatcher.
I would prefer you turn your eyes to the 911 operator. Look at her as she patiently, calmly listens to people's needs: the big needs, the little needs, the legitimate needs, and the totally bogus needs. The 911 operator fields them all.
We shouldn't be surprised our Lord does the same thing. That's why King David could write: "I love the LORD, because He has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because He inclined His ear to me, therefore I will call on Him as long as I live" (Psalm 116:1-2).
What a word picture David paints.
The all-powerful Creator of the universe is listening to our small, human voices. Even more, from His heavenly throne the Lord has inclined His ear. He is all attention to the pleas and praises of His people. Little wonder David, and we, should love the Lord and call on Him as long as we live.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, not only have You saved sinful humanity through Jesus' unique and wonderful sacrifice; You also are ready to hear our prayers, petitions and pleas. For all of this may we show our love and heartfelt appreciation. In Jesus' Name I ask it. 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:
Judges 1:1 After the death of Y’hoshua, the people of Isra’el asked Adonai, “Who will go up for us first to fight against the Kena‘ani?” 2 Adonai said: “Y’hudah will go up; here, I have handed the land over to him.” 3 Y’hudah said to his brother Shim‘on, “Come up with me into my assigned territory, so that we can fight against the Kena‘ani; and I likewise will go with you into your territory.” So Shim‘on went with him. 4 Y’hudah went up; and Adonai gave the Kena‘ani and the P’rizi into their hands; of those in Bezek they killed ten thousand men. 5 They found Adoni-Bezek in Bezek; and they fought against him. They killed the Kena‘ani and the P’rizi, 6 but Adoni-Bezek fled. They pursued him, caught him, and cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7 Adoni-Bezek said: “Seventy kings, with their thumbs and their big toes cut off, gathered food under my table; God has paid me back in accordance with what I did.” They brought him to Yerushalayim, and he died there.

8 Then the people of Y’hudah fought against Yerushalayim, captured it, overpowered it with the sword, and set the city on fire. 9 Afterwards, the people of Y’hudah went down to fight against the Kena‘ani who lived in the hill-country, in the Negev, and in the Sh’felah. 10 Y’hudah also attacked the Kena‘ani living in Hevron (formerly called Kiryat-Arba), and they overpowered Sheshai, Achiman and Talmai.

11 From there they attacked the inhabitants of D’vir (D’vir was formerly called Kiryat-Sefer). 12 Kalev said: “To whoever overpowers Kiryat-Sefer and captures it I will give my daughter ‘Akhsah as his wife.” 13 ‘Otni’el the son of K’naz, Kalev’s younger brother, captured it; so he gave him ‘Akhsah his daughter as his wife. 14 After becoming his wife, she persuaded him to ask her father to give them a field; when she got off her donkey, Kalev asked her, “What do you want?” 15 She said to him: “Give me a blessing: since you gave me land in the Negev, also give me sources of water.” So Kalev gave her the Upper Springs and the Lower Springs.

16 Next, the descendants of the Keini, Moshe’s father-in-law, went up out of the City of Date-Palms with the people of Y’hudah into the Y’hudah Desert south of ‘Arad; and they came and settled with the people.

17 Y’hudah went with Shim‘on his brother; they overpowered the Kena‘ani who inhabited Tz’fat, and completely destroyed it. The name of the city was called Hormah. 18 Y’hudah also took ‘Azah with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory and ‘Ekron with its territory. 19 Adonai was with Y’hudah, and they took possession of the hill-country, because they could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, since they had iron chariots.

20 They gave Hevron to Kalev, as Moshe had said to do; and he drove out from there the three sons of ‘Anak.

21 The people of Binyamin did not drive out the Y’vusi who inhabited Yerushalayim; rather, the Y’vusi continued living with the people of Binyamin in Yerushalayim, as they do to this day.

22 The house of Yosef likewise attacked Beit-El; and Adonai was with them. 23 The house of Yosef sent spies to Beit-El (the city was formerly called Luz). 24 The spies saw a man coming out of the city and said to him: “Please show us the way to enter the city, and we will treat you kindly.” 25 So he showed them the way into the city, and they overpowered the city with the sword, but they let the man and all his family go free. 26 He went into the land of the Hittim, built a city and called it Luz, which is its name to this day.

27 M’nasheh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit-Sh’an and its villages, Ta‘anakh and its villages, Dor and its villages, Yivle‘am and its villages or Megiddo and its villages; so that the Kena‘ani managed to keep on living in that land. 28 In time, when Isra’el had grown strong, they did put the Kena‘ani to forced labor but failed to drive them out completely.

29 Efrayim did not drive out the Kena‘ani living in Gezer; so the Kena‘ani continued living in Gezer along with them.

30 Z’vulun did not drive out the inhabitants of Kitron or Nahalol; so the Kena‘ani continued to live among them but became subject to forced labor.

31 Asher did not drive out the inhabitants of ‘Akko, Tzidon, Achlav, Akhziv, Helbah, Afik or Rechov; 32 so the Asheri lived among the Kena‘ani who were living in the land, because they didn’t drive them out.

33 Naftali did not drive out the inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh or Beit-‘Anat but lived among the Kena‘ani living in the land; however, the inhabitants of Beit-Shemesh and Beit-‘Anat became forced labor for them.

34 The Emori forced the people of Dan into the hills; for they would not let them come down to the valley. 35 The Emori had resolved to live in the Heres Hills, in Ayalon and in Sha‘alvim; but when the power of the house of Yosef grew greater, they became subject to forced labor. 36 So the territory of the Emori was from the Scorpion Ascent and the Rock upward.

2:1 Now the angel of Adonai came up from Gilgal to Bokhim and said, “I brought you up out of Egypt, led you to the land I swore to your fathers and said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you; 2 you, for your part, are not to make any covenant with the inhabitants of this land but must tear down their altars.’ However, you have paid no attention to what I said. What is this you have done? 3 This is why I also said, ‘I will not drive them out before you; but they will be on your flanks, and their gods will become a snare for you.’” 4 When the angel of Adonai spoke these words to all the people of Isra’el, they began crying and wailing at the top of their voices. 5 So they called the name of that place Bokhim [crying] and sacrificed there to Adonai.

6 When Y’hoshua had sent the people away, the people of Isra’el had gone each one to his assigned property in order to take possession of the land. 7 The people served Adonai throughout Y’hoshua’s life and throughout the lives of all the older men who outlived Y’hoshua and who had seen all the great work of Adonai which he had done for Isra’el. 8 When Y’hoshua the son of Nun, the servant of Adonai, died, he was 110 years old; 9 and they buried him near the boundary of his property in Timnat-Heres, in the hills of Efrayim, north of Mount Ga‘ash.

10 When that entire generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation arose that knew neither Adonai nor the work he had done for Isra’el. 11 Then the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective and served the ba‘alim. 12 They abandoned Adonai, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, selected from the gods of the peoples around them, and worshipped them; this made Adonai angry. 13 They abandoned Adonai and served Ba‘al and the ‘ashtarot. 14 The anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; and he handed them over to pillagers, who plundered them, and to their enemies around them; so that they could no longer resist their enemies. 15 Whenever they launched an attack, the power of Adonai was against them, so that things turned out badly — just as Adonai had said would happen and had sworn to them. They were in dire distress.

16 But then Adonai raised up judges, who rescued them from the power of those who were plundering them. 17 Yet they did not pay attention to their judges, but made whores of themselves to other gods and worshipped them; they quickly turned away from the path on which their ancestors had walked, the way of obeying Adonai’s mitzvot — they failed to do this. 18 When Adonai raised up judges for them, Adonai was with the judge and delivered them from the hands of their enemies throughout the lifetime of the judge; for Adonai was moved to pity by their groaning under those oppressing and crushing them. 19 But after the judge died, they would relapse into worse behavior than that of their ancestors, following other gods to serve and worship them; they abandoned none of their practices or stubborn ways. 20 So the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el; he said, “Because this nation violates my covenant, which I ordered their fathers to obey; and they don’t pay attention to what I say; 21 in the future, I will not expel ahead of them any of the nations that Y’hoshua left when he died. 22 This is how I will test Isra’el, to see whether or not they will keep the way of Adonai, living according to it, as their ancestors did.” 23 So Adonai allowed those nations to remain where they were, without quickly driving them out; he did not hand them over to Y’hoshua.

3:1 These are the nations which Adonai allowed to remain, in order to put to the test all the people of Isra’el who had not known any of the wars with Kena‘an. 2 This was only so that the generations of Isra’el who had previously known nothing of war might learn about it. 3 These nations consisted of the five chiefs of the P’lishtim, all the Kena‘ani, the Tzidoni, and the Hivi who lived in the hills of the L’vanon between Mount Ba‘al-Hermon and the entrance to Hamat. 4 They stayed there to test whether Isra’el would pay attention to the mitzvot of Adonai, which, through Moshe, he had ordered their ancestors to obey. 5 So the people of Isra’el lived among the Kena‘ani, Hitti, Emori, P’rizi, Hivi and Y’vusi; 6 taking their daughters as their wives, giving their own daughters to their sons and serving their gods.

7 Thus the people of Isra’el did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, forgot Adonai their God, and served the ba‘alim and asherim. 8 Therefore the anger of Adonai blazed against Isra’el, and he gave them over into the hands of Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Aram-Naharayim; and the people of Isra’el served Kushan-Rish‘atayim eight years. 9 But when the people of Isra’el cried out to Adonai, Adonai raised up a savior for the people of Isra’el; and he rescued them; this was ‘Otni’el, the son of Kalev’s younger brother K’naz. 10 The spirit of Adonai came upon him, and he judged Isra’el. Then he went out to war, and Adonai gave Kushan-Rish‘atayim king of Aram into his hands; his power prevailed against Kushan-Rish‘atayim. 11 So the land had rest for forty years, until ‘Otni’el the son of K’naz died.

12 But the people of Isra’el again did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, so Adonai strengthened ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av against Isra’el, because they had done what was evil from Adonai’s perspective. 13 In confederation with the people of ‘Amon and ‘Amalek, ‘Eglon went out and defeated Isra’el, capturing the City of Date-Palms; 14 and the people of Isra’el served ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av eighteen years.

15 But when the people of Isra’el cried out to Adonai, Adonai raised up for them a savior, Ehud the son of Gera, from the tribe of Binyamin, a left-handed man. The people of Isra’el appointed him to take their tribute to ‘Eglon the king of Mo’av. 16 Ehud made himself a double-edged sword eighteen inches long and strapped it to his right thigh under his clothes. 17 Then he presented the tribute to ‘Eglon king of Mo’av. Now ‘Eglon was a very fat man. 18 When he had finished presenting the tribute, he dismissed the people who had brought it. 19 But he himself, after reaching the quarries at Gilgal, went back and said, “King, I have a secret message for you.” The king commanded silence, and all his attendants withdrew. 20 Ehud came to him; he was sitting alone by himself in his upstairs room, where it was cool. Ehud said: “I have a message from God for you.” As the king arose from his seat, 21 Ehud reached out with his left hand, took the sword from his right thigh, and thrust it into the king’s belly. 22 The hilt too went in after the blade, and the fat closed around the blade, for he did not draw the sword out of his belly, so that it came out behind. 23 Then Ehud went out onto the porch, shut the doors of the upstairs room behind him and locked them. 24 After Ehud had left, the king’s servants came. Seeing that the doors of the upper room were locked, they said, “He must be relieving himself in the inner part of the cool room.” 25 They waited until they became embarrassed, but he still didn’t open the doors of the upstairs room. So they took the key and opened them; and there before them lay their master, dead on the ground.

26 But while they were delaying, Ehud escaped — he passed beyond the quarries and arrived safely in Se‘irah. 27 Upon arrival in the hills of Efrayim, he began sounding the call on the shofar; and the people of Isra’el went down with him from the hill-country; he himself took the lead. 28 He said to them: “Follow me, because Adonai has given your enemy Mo’av into your hands. They went down after him, seized the fords of the Yarden opposite Mo’av and permitted no one to cross. 29 On that occasion they defeated Mo’av, some ten thousand men, all tough, experienced soldiers; not one of them escaped. 30 Thus was Mo’av subdued that day under the power of Isra’el. Then the land had rest for eighty years.

31 After Ehud came Shamgar the son of ‘Anat, who killed 600 P’lishtim with an oxgoad; and he too rescued Isra’el.

Luke 12:32 Have no fear, little flock, for your Father has resolved to give you the Kingdom! 33 Sell what you own and do tzedakah — make for yourselves purses that don’t wear out, riches in heaven that never fail, where no burglar comes near, where no moth destroys. 34 For where your wealth is, there your heart will be also.

35 “Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit, 36 like people waiting for their master’s return after a wedding feast; so that when he comes and knocks, they will open the door for him without delay. 37 Happy the slaves whom the master finds alert when he comes! Yes! I tell you he will put on his work clothes, seat them at the table, and come serve them himself! 38 Whether it is late at night or early in the morning, if this is how he finds them, those slaves are happy.

39 “But notice this: no house-owner would let his house be broken into if he knew when the thief was coming. 40 You too, be ready! For the Son of Man will come when you are not expecting him.”

41 Kefa said, “Sir, are you telling this parable for our benefit only or for everyone’s?” 42 The Lord replied, “Nu, who is the faithful and sensible manager whose master puts him in charge of the household staff to give them their share of food at the proper time? 43 It will go well with that servant if he is found doing his job when his master comes. 44 Yes, I tell you he will put him in charge of all he owns. 45 But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking his time coming,’ and starts bullying the men- and women-servants, and eating and drinking, getting drunk, 46 then his master will come on a day when the servant isn’t expecting him, at a time he doesn’t know in advance; his master will cut him in two and put him with the disloyal. 47 Now the servant who knew what his master wanted but didn’t prepare or act according to his will, will be whipped with many lashes; 48 however, the one who did what deserves a beating, but didn’t know, will receive few lashes. From him who has been given much, much will be demanded — from someone to whom people entrust much, they ask still more.

49 “I have come to set fire to the earth! And how I wish it were already kindled! 50 I have an immersion to undergo — how pressured I feel till it’s over! 51 Do you think that I have come to bring peace in the Land? Not peace, I tell you, but division! 52 For from now on, a household of five will be divided, three against two, two against three.

53 Father will be divided against son

and son against father,

mother against daughter

and daughter against mother,

mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law

and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”[Luke 12:53 Micah 7:6]

54 Then to the crowds Yeshua said, “When you see a cloud-bank rising in the west, at once you say that a rainstorm is coming; 55 and when the wind is from the south, you say there will be a heat wave, and there is. 56 Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky — how is it that you don’t know how to interpret this present time? 57 Why don’t you decide for yourselves what is the right course to follow? 58 If someone brings a lawsuit against you, take pains to settle with him first; otherwise he will take the matter to court, and the judge will turn you over to the bailiff, and the bailiff will throw you in jail. 59 I tell you, you won’t get out of there till you have paid the last penny!”

The Lutheran Hour

660 Mason Ridge Center Drive
St. Louis, Missouri 63141, United States
1-800-876-9880
www.lhm.org
---------------------