The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour from Saint Louis, Missouri, United States [Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).] "Reclaiming What's Been Lost" for Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."[John 4:13-14]
The Daily Devotion idea for today was suggested by the Rev. Paul Krause. The good Reverend is undershepherd at two Church of the Lutheran Confession congregations in eastern South Dakota.
A Mighty Powerful Thirst.
That might have been what motivated the thieves who ripped off Atlanta's SweetWater Brewing Company last month.
The amount of suds the thieves managed to take was prodigious. Let's see, there were two trailers that were carrying 40 pallets of SweetWater's Summer Variety Pack. For those of you who don't buy your beer by the pallet, that translates into 3,272 cases or, if you prefer, 80,000 bottles of beer.
The good news is that police have recovered almost all of those bottles and, yes, those bottles were still full. The bad news is that SweetWater says it is going to have to get rid of all that beer. That's $90,000 of beer SweetWater is sending to the recycler.
You can understand why SweetWater would proceed this way. With its reputation on the line SweetWater couldn't afford to put on the shelf any beer which might have been tampered with or that might have been exposed to conditions which might have ruined the contents.
Reading that story, I was reminded of another theft which was far bigger and more tragic than the one that hit SweetWater.
Naturally, I am thinking of the day when Satan managed to successfully tempt God's children: Adam and Eve. With that single, bold move the devil managed to steal billions of human souls.
When the Lord surveyed His staggering loss, He was faced with a choice. He could, like the brewers at SweetWater, look at us and say, "Well, I guess I'm just going to write this off and try again," or He could figure out a way that would enable Him to reclaim the stolen souls.
You already know He opted to go the second route.
What you may not always remember was the cost He paid to have us recycled into people who were useful, forgiven and saved.
The sacrifice our Heavenly Father made was the life of His Son. So we might not end up on the trash heap, Jesus came into this world where He lived for us, suffered for us, died for us, and then rose from the grave. His life and love were wonderfully unbelievable. Still, believing in God's grace, we are saved.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, how can we offer proper thanks for all You have done for the fallen children of man? May we never forget the Savior who gave His life for sinners who deserved only to be discarded. In Jesus' Name I pray it. Amen.
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: 2 Kings 24-25; Acts 16:1-21
2 Kings 24:1 It was in Y’hoyakim’s time that N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel invaded. Y’hoyakim became his vassal for three years, but then he turned against him and rebelled. 2 Adonai sent against him raiding parties from the Kasdim, Aram, Mo’av and the people of ‘Amon; he sent them against Y’hudah to destroy it, in keeping with the word of Adonai which he had spoken through his servants the prophets. 3 Yes, it was at Adonai’s order that this happened to Y’hudah, in order to remove them from his sight because of the sins of M’nasheh and all he had done, 4 and also because of the innocent blood he had shed — for he had flooded Yerushalayim with innocent blood, and Adonai was unwilling to forgive.
5 Other activities of Y’hoyakim and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah. 6 Then Y’hoyakim slept with his ancestors, and Y’hoyakhin his son took his place as king.
7 The king of Egypt did not leave his own land any more, because the king of Bavel had captured all the territory of the king of Egypt between the Vadi of Egypt and the Euphrates River.
8 Y’hoyakhin was eighteen years old when he began his reign, and he ruled in Yerushalayim for three months. His mother’s name was N’chushta the daughter of Elnatan, from Yerushalayim. 9 He did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, following the example of everything his father had done.
10 It was then that the officers of N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel marched on Yerushalayim and laid siege to the city. 11 N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel himself went to the city while it was under siege; 12 and Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah went out to meet the king of Bavel — he, his mother, and his servants, princes and officers; and the king of Bavel took him captive in the eighth year of his reign. 13 He also carried away from there all the treasures in the house of Adonai and the treasures in the royal palace. He cut in pieces all the articles of gold which Shlomo king of Isra’el had made in the temple of Adonai, as Adonai had said would happen. 14 He carried all Yerushalayim away captive — all the princes, all the bravest soldiers — 10,000 captives; also all the craftsmen and metalworkers. No one was left but the poorest people of the land.
15 Y’hoyakhin he carried off to Bavel; likewise he carried off the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officers and the main leaders of the land from Yerushalayim into captivity in Bavel. 16 All the strong men — 7,000 of them, as well as 1,000 craftsmen and metalsmiths, all of them strong and trained for war — the king of Bavel brought captive to Bavel.
17 The king of Bavel made Matanyah, Y’hoyakhin’s father’s brother, king in place of Y’hoyakhin and changed his name to Tzidkiyahu. 18 Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah. 19 He did what was evil from the perspective of Adonai, following the example of everything Y’hoyakim had done. 20 And it was because of Adonai’s anger that all these things happened to Yerushalayim and Y’hudah, until he had thrown them out of his presence.
Tzidkiyahu rebelled against the king of Bavel;
25:1 so in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, N’vukhadnetzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army. He set up camp against it and built siege towers against it on every side. 2 The city remained under siege into the eleventh year of King Tzidkiyahu.
3 On the ninth day of the [fourth] month, when the famine in the city was so severe that there was no food for the people of the land, 4 they broke through into the city. All the soldiers [fled] by night through the gate between the two walls, near the king’s garden. Because the Kasdim were surrounding the city, the king took the route through the ‘Aravah. 5 But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of the king and overtook him on the plains near Yericho; all his troops deserted him. 6 Then they took the king and brought him up to the king of Bavel in Rivlah, where they passed judgment on him. 7 They slaughtered his sons before his eyes. Then they put out Tzidkiyahu’s eyes, bound him in chains and carried him off to Bavel.
8 In the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which was also the nineteenth year of King N’vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel, N’vuzar’adan, the commander of the guard and an officer of the king of Bavel, entered Yerushalayim. 9 He burned down the house of Adonai, the royal palace and all the houses in Yerushalayim — every notable person’s house he burned to the ground. 10 The whole army of the Kasdim, who were with the commander of the guard, broke down the walls of Yerushalayim on every side. 11 N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard then deported the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Bavel and the rest of the common people. 12 But the commander of the guard left behind some of the poor people of the land to be vineyard-workers and farmers.
13 The Kasdim smashed the bronze columns in the house of Adonai, also the trolleys and bronze Sea that were in the house of Adonai, and carried their bronze to Bavel. 14 They also took away the pots, shovels, snuffers, pans, and all the bronze articles that had been used for worship. 15 The commander of the guard took the censers, the sprinkling bowls, everything made of gold and everything made of silver. 16 The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea and the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of Adonai, was more than could be weighed. 17 The height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; on it was a capital of bronze five-and-a-quarter feet high, with netting and pomegranates all around the capital, all of bronze; the second column was similar, also with netting.
18 The commander of the guard took [prisoner] S’rayah the chief cohen, Z’kharyah the second-ranking cohen and three doorkeepers. 19 From the city he took an official in charge of the soldiers, five close associates of the king who had been found in the city, the army commander’s secretary in charge of military conscription, and sixty of the common people found in the city. 20 N’vuzar’adan the commander of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Bavel in Rivlah. 21 There in Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, the king of Bavel had them put to death. Thus Y’hudah was carried away captive out of his land.
22 N’vukhadnetzar king of Babylon appointed G’dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, governor over the people remaining behind in the land of Y’hudah after he left. 23 When all the army officers and their men heard that the king of Bavel had made G’dalyahu governor, they came to G’dalyahu in Mitzpah — Yishma‘el the son of N’tanyah, Yochanan the son of Kareach, S’rayah the son of Tanchumet the N’tofati and Ya’azanyahu the son of the Ma‘akhati — they and their men. 24 Taking an oath, G’dalyahu said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the servants of the Kasdim. Just live in the land and serve the king of Bavel, and things will go well for you.” 25 But in the seventh month Yishma‘el the son of N’tanyah, the son of Elishama, of royal blood, came with ten men and assassinated G’dalyah and the Judeans and Kasdim who were with him in Mitzpah. 26 In the wake of this, all kinds of people, great and small, as well as the army officers, set out and went to Egypt; because they were afraid of the Kasdim.
27 In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, Eveel-M’rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year he commuted the sentence of Y’hoyakhin king of Y’hudah and released him from prison. 28 He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel. 29 So Y’hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived; 30 and he was granted a daily allowance by the king to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived.
Acts 16:1 Sha’ul came down to Derbe and went on to Lystra, where there lived a talmid named Timothy. He was the son of a Jewish woman who had come to trust, and a Greek father. 2 All the brothers in Lystra and Iconium spoke well of Timothy. 3 Sha’ul wanted Timothy to accompany him; so he took him and did a b’rit-milah, because of the Jews living in those areas; for they all knew that his father had been a Greek.
4 As they went on through the towns, they delivered to the people the decisions reached by the emissaries and the elders in Yerushalayim for them to observe. 5 Accordingly, the congregations were strengthened in the faith and increased in number day by day.
6 They traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, because they had been prevented by the Ruach HaKodesh from speaking the message in the province of Asia. 7 When they came to the frontier of Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit of Yeshua would not let them. 8 So, after passing by Mysia, they came down to Troas.
9 There a vision appeared to Sha’ul at night. A man from Macedonia was standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us!” 10 As soon as he had seen the vision, we lost no time getting ready to leave for Macedonia; for we concluded that God had called us to proclaim the Good News to them.
11 Sailing from Troas, we made a straight run to Samothrace; the next day we went to Neapolis; 12 and from there, we went on to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that part of Macedonia. We spent a few days in this city; 13 then on Shabbat, we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we understood a minyan met. We sat down and began speaking to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in fine purple cloth. She was already a “God-fearer,” and the Lord opened up her heart to respond to what Sha’ul was saying. 15 After she and the members of her household had been immersed, she gave us this invitation: “If you consider me to be faithful to the Lord, come and stay in my house.” And she insisted till we went.
16 Once, when we were going to the place where the minyan gathered, we were met by a slave girl who had in her a snake-spirit that enabled her to predict the future. She earned a lot of money for her owners by telling fortunes. 17 This girl followed behind Sha’ul and the rest of us and kept screaming, “These men are servants of God Ha‘Elyon! They’re telling you how to be saved!” 18 She kept this up day after day, until Sha’ul, greatly disturbed, turned and said to the spirit, “In the name of Yeshua the Messiah, I order you to come out of her!” And the spirit did come out, at that very moment.
19 But when her owners saw that what had come out was any further prospect of profit for them, they seized Sha’ul and Sila and dragged them to the market square to face the authorities. 20 Bringing them to the judges, they said, “These men are causing a lot of trouble in our city, since they are Jews. 21 What they are doing is advocating customs that are against the law for us to accept or practice, since we are Romans.”
-------CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
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