The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour in 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).] "Porcupines" for Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts ...."[Colossians 3:12-15a]The woodland creature known as the porcupine weighs 15-20 pounds.
This primarily nocturnal animal gets its name from the Latin word for "pig" and the French word for "thorn." These "prickly pigs" have 30,000 quills, each with a mass of tiny overlapping barbs.
When threatened, these rodents first try to escape and if that doesn't work, they tuck their vulnerable little heads, turn their backs and whamo! When touched, the quills dislodge into an attacker's warm flesh, and the barbs on the quills flare out and work their way deeper into the flesh of the attacker.
Though not poisonous, the quills may kill. Animals with quills in their mouths can die of starvation or from an infection.
Porcupines are not known to be lovable or amiable.
* They don't hang out in colonies like other rodents do.
* They detach from their mother and are self-sufficient just a few months after birth.
It's a small wonder their peculiarities don't render them extinct.
Have you ever thought that most of us have some porcupine tendencies? All of us have personality traits that are a bit prickly toward others, qualities that keep people away.
If that's so (and it is), then maybe we might do well to look at the porcupine and see how they manage to survive and get along. There are some things they do to minimize their prickliness.
1. When they want to get close, they flatten their quills. If both do this at the same time, the chances of injury are greatly diminished.
2. In wintertime, a small group may do the same, so the individuals may cluster together for warmth in what is called a "prickle."
Maybe there are a few porcupines in your life that have stuck their prickles on you. Probably you've jabbed your spikes into someone too. We all have quills, but like the porcupine we can learn to get along.
We, who have been washed of our sins by the Savior's blood and are recipients of His grace, can learn to flatten our quills and make harmony a reality.
This week let us take a lesson from the prickly pigs: flatten our quills and make things work.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, in spite of the world's hatred toward Him, Jesus came into this world to win our forgiveness. In doing so, He suffered often from the quills of angry and jealous individuals. Grant that Jesus be glorified as we put down our barbs and do our best to get along. This we ask in Jesus' Name. Amen.
In Christ I remain His servant and yours,
Pastor Ken Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour
Lutheran Hour Ministries
Today's Bible in a Year Reading: 2 Chronicles 15-16; 2 Corinthians 5
2 Chronicles 15:1 The Spirit of God came on ‘Azaryah the son of ‘Oded; 2 he went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa, and all Y’hudah and Binyamin! Adonai is with you, as long as you are with him; if you seek him, you will find him; but if you abandon him, he will abandon you! 3 For a long time Isra’el was without the true God, without a cohen who could teach, and without Torah. 4 But when, in their distress, they turned to Adonai the God of Isra’el and sought him, they found him. 5 In those times people going about their business were insecure, and great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands; 6 so that they were shattered to pieces, nation against nation and city against city, as God troubled them with every kind of distress. 7 But you, be strong, and don’t slack off; for your work will be rewarded.”
8 When Asa heard these words prophesied by ‘Oded the prophet, it gave him courage to throw the disgusting things out of the whole land of Y’hudah and Binyamin and out of the cities he had captured in the hills of Efrayim; he also renewed the altar of Adonai which was in front of the vestibule of Adonai. 9 Then he gathered all Y’hudah and Binyamin, along with those from Efrayim, M’nasheh and Shim‘on who were staying with him (for they had defected to him in large numbers upon seeing that Adonai his God was with him). 10 They assembled together at Yerushalayim in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 11 That day they sacrificed to Adonai 700 oxen and 7,000 sheep from the spoil they had brought; 12 and they entered into a covenant to seek Adonai, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and with all their being; 13 [they also agreed] that whoever refused to seek Adonai the God of Isra’el should be put to death, whether small or great, man or woman. 14 They swore this to Adonai in a loud voice, with shouting and blowing of trumpets and shofars. 15 All Y’hudah was full of joy at this oath; for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought him with all their will; and they found him, and Adonai gave them rest all around.
16 Asa the king also deposed Ma‘akhah his [grand]mother from her position as queen mother, because she had made a disgusting image for an asherah. Asa cut down this image of hers, chopped it into tiny pieces and burned it in Vadi Kidron. 17 But the high places were not removed from Isra’el. Nevertheless, Asa was wholehearted throughout his life. 18 He brought into the house of God all the articles his father had consecrated, also the things he himself had consecrated — silver, gold and utensils.
19 There was no more war through the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.
16:1 In the thirty-sixth year of Asa’s reign, Ba‘asha king of Isra’el attacked Y’hudah, and he fortified Ramah to prevent anyone’s leaving or entering the territory of Asa king of Y’hudah. 2 Then Asa removed silver and gold from the treasures of the house of Adonai and the royal palace; and sent this message to Ben-Hadad king of Aram, who lived in Dammesek: 3 “There is a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Here, I am sending you silver and gold; go, and break your covenant with Ba‘asha king of Isra’el, so that he will leave me alone.” 4 Ben-Hadad did as King Asa had asked — he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Isra’el, attacking ‘Iyon, Dan, Avel-Mayim and all the storage-cities of Naftali. 5 As soon as Ba‘asha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah and abandoned his work. 6 Asa the king took all Y’hudah and carried off the stones and timber which Ba‘asha had used to fortify Ramah. With them he fortified Geva and Mitzpah.
7 It was around then that Hanani the seer came to Asa king of Y’hudah and said to him, “Because you relied on the king of Aram and didn’t rely on Adonai your God, the king of Aram’s army has escaped from your power. 8 The army of the Ethiopians and Luvim was huge, wasn’t it? How many chariots and horsemen did they have? Yet because you relied on Adonai, he handed them over to you. 9 For the eyes of Adonai move here and there throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those who are wholehearted toward him. You acted foolishly in this regard; for from now on, you will have war.” 10 But Asa became angry at the seer; in fact, because of his rage at him over this matter he threw him in prison. Moreover, at the same time, he mistreated some of the people.
11 The activities of Asa from beginning to end are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y’hudah and Isra’el.
12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa suffered from a disease in his legs. It was a very serious disease, yet even with this disease he did not seek out Adonai but turned to the physicians. 13 Asa slept with his ancestors, dying in the forty-first year of his reign. 14 They buried him in his own burial cave, which he had ordered cut for himself in the City of David. They laid him in a bed filled with sweet spices of various kinds, expertly compounded; and a very great fire was kindled in his honor.
2 Corinthians 5:1 We know that when the tent which houses us here on earth is torn down, we have a permanent building from God, a building not made by human hands, to house us in heaven. 2 For in this tent, our earthly body, we groan with desire to have around us the home from heaven that will be ours. 3 With this around us we will not be found naked. 4 Yes, while we are in this body, we groan with the sense of being oppressed: it is not so much that we want to take something off, but rather to put something on over it; so that what must die may be swallowed up by the Life. 5 Moreover, it is God who has prepared us for this very thing, and as a pledge he has given us his Spirit.
6 So we are always confident — we know that so long as we are at home in the body, we are away from our home with the Lord; 7 for we live by trust, not by what we see. 8 We are confident, then, and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and come to our home with the Lord.
9 Therefore, whether at home or away from home, we try our utmost to please him; 10 for we must all appear before the Messiah’s court of judgment, where everyone will receive the good or bad consequences of what he did while he was in the body.
11 So it is with the fear of the Lord before us that we try to persuade people. Moreover, God knows us as we really are; and I hope that in your consciences you too know us as we really are. 12 We are not recommending ourselves to you again but giving you a reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about a person’s appearance rather than his inner qualities. 13 If we are insane, it is for God’s sake; and if we are sane, it is for your sake. 14 For the Messiah’s love has hold of us, because we are convinced that one man died on behalf of all mankind (which implies that all mankind was already dead), 15 and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer for themselves but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised. 16 So from now on, we do not look at anyone from a worldly viewpoint. Even if we once regarded the Messiah from a worldly viewpoint, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is united with the Messiah, he is a new creation — the old has passed; look, what has come is fresh and new! 18 And it is all from God, who through the Messiah has reconciled us to himself and has given us the work of that reconciliation, 19 which is that God in the Messiah was reconciling mankind to himself, not counting their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore we are ambassadors of the Messiah; in effect, God is making his appeal through us. What we do is appeal on behalf of the Messiah, “Be reconciled to God! 21 God made this sinless man be a sin offering on our behalf, so that in union with him we might fully share in God’s righteousness.”
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