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).] "Indescribable Grace" for Monday, September 3, 2016
But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. ...[1 Corinthians 15:10a]Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The salvation story of Jesus Christ reaches around the world. So that the readers of our Daily Devotion may see the power of the Savior on a global scale, we have asked the volunteers of our international ministry centers to write our Sunday devotions. We pray that the Spirit may touch your day through their words.
In Christ, I remain, His servant and yours,
Kenneth R. Klaus
Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour
Grace is a most difficult and alien concept for the human mind to grasp. Still, the most blessed person on the planet is one who gets a glimpse of God's grace.
Though divine grace is beyond any human parallel or comparison, the following story gives us an idea. It was an unusually hot day in the lowlands of Dawro, in southern Ethiopia. As we were traveling up the dusty road along the Omo River, many of the villagers were sweating and straining up the steep path to the market.
One small boy approached us holding up unripe, puny mangoes for sale. Displaying his fruit, he said we could buy them for two Ethiopian Birr (10 cents).
A staffer pointed out the fruit was raw and tiny.
The boy dropped his price: "Okay, take them for one birr."
The staffer said he didn't like the fruit.
The boy cut his price again and again and again.
When it was impossible to go any lower, our staffer took 10 birr and gave it to the boy, saying, "Take your fruit home and eat them when they are ripe."
The boy was shocked. Taking the gift given by grace, the boy ran home as fast as he could.
The Bible calls God "the God of all grace" (see 1 Peter 5:10).
That means grace is multifaceted. Grace is available for all, in every circumstance, at any time, and for every need. God's grace is born from His love and touches us through sins forgiven. Grace not only removes our sins, but because of the Savior's cross and His empty tomb, it credits Christ's righteousness to our account.
In the text above, Paul spoke about the amazing, radical transformation grace had brought to his life. A notorious persecutor, he had been dead in sin and trespasses. God's grace transformed him into a herald of the Gospel. It is this same grace which goes after the lost sheep and brings him home.
Remember, grace is not given to us because of our goodness, but in spite of our sin. Paul echoed the same when he wrote: "For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle since I have persecuted the church of God" (1 Corinthians 15:9). Then he added, "By the grace of God I am what I am and His grace to me was not without effect" (1 Corinthians 15:10a).
God's grace is for the undeserving! God's grace is not for the perfect but for the fallen. In short, God's grace is for us.
THE PRAYER: Dear great and gracious God, this day I ask You to keep me mindful of how much I need all Your gifts. Let my heart overflow with thanks for the grace which sent the Savior into the world to give Your grace to sinners such as myself. In His Name I ask it. Amen.
Biography of Author: Today's international devotion was written the Rev. Endale Awgichew, General Secretary of the Ethiopian Evangelical Lutheran Church and board member of LHM-Ethiopia. He lives in Addis Ababa with his wife, Kidest Bezuneh, and their children, Yohana and Yonathan.
In Ethiopia, Lutheran Hour Ministries is known as Berhan Media Ministry (BMM). The Lutheran Hour Ministries' ministry center in Ethiopia was opened in the capital city, Addis Ababa, in December 1996. Lutheran Hour Ministries-Ethiopia takes a creative approach to outreach and one of the most effective tools is mass evangelism rallies. Literally, thousands of people regularly attend these weekend events.
Lutheran Hour Ministries-Ethiopia shares the Gospel in this East African country of more than 94 million people through evangelism rallies, Bible Correspondence Courses (BCC) and theEquipping the Saints (ETS) program, working in partnership with church congregations to organize these workshops. The rallies have proven effective in reaching people, drawing thousands and including non-Christians and many Muslims. Here films, music and drama are offered -- each designed to share the Gospel message. Young people are reached too through sports events, dramatic performances, Bible competitions, and other activities designed to connect with people aged 12 through 35.
To learn more about LHM-Ethiopia, you can visit its blog by clicking here.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhm.org/international.
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 22; Joel 1; 2 Corinthians 9
2 Chronicles 22:1 The people living in Yerushalayim made Achazyah his youngest son king in place of him, since the raiding party that had invaded the camp with the Arabs had killed all the older ones. So Achazyah the son of Y’horam king of Y’hudah reigned. 2 Achazyah was forty-two years old when he began his reign, and he ruled for one year in Yerushalayim. His mother’s name was ‘Atalyahu the daughter of ‘Omri. 3 He too lived after the example of the house of Ach’av, because his mother was his counselor in acting wickedly. 4 So he did what was evil from Adonai’s perspective, as had the house of Ach’av; because, to his destruction, they were his counselors after his father died; 5 and he lived his life by their advice.
With Y’horam the son of Ach’av, king of Isra’el, he went to war against Haza’el king of Aram at Ramot-Gil‘ad, where the Aramim wounded Yoram. 6 He returned to Yizre‘el to be healed of the wounds which they had inflicted on him at Ramah while fighting Haza’el king of Aram. Achazyah the son of Y’horam, king of Y’hudah, went down to visit Y’horam the son of Ach’av in Yizre‘el, because he was not feeling well.
7 Through Achazyah’s visit to Yoram, God brought about his downfall. After he arrived, he accompanied Yoram against Yehu the son of Nimshi, whom Adonai had anointed to cut off the house of Ach’av. 8 But it happened that when Yehu was executing judgment on the house of Ach’av, he found the leading men of Y’hudah and Achazyah’s nephews in attendance on Achazyah and killed them. 9 Then he went searching for Achazyah; they caught him where he had been hiding in Shomron, brought him to Yehu and killed him. But [his subjects] buried him, because they said, “He was the [grand]son of Y’hoshafat, who sought Adonai with all his heart.”
At this point there was no one in the house of Achazyah strong enough to rule the kingdom. 10 When ‘Atalyah the mother of Achazyah saw that her son was dead, she set about destroying the entire royal family of the house of Y’hudah. 11 But Y’hoshav‘at the daughter of the king took Yo’ash the son of Achazyah, stole him away from among the princes who were being slaughtered, and sequestered him and his nurse in a bedroom. Thus Y’hoshav‘at the daughter of King Y’horam, wife of Y’hoyada the cohen and sister of Achazyah, hid him from ‘Atalyah, so that he was not killed. 12 He remained hidden with them in the house of God for six years; during this time ‘Atalyah ruled the land.
Joel 1:1 The word of Adonai that came to Yo’el the son of P’tu’el:
2 “Hear this, you leaders!
Listen, all who live in the land!
Has anything like this ever happened in your days,
or in your ancestors’ days?
3 Tell your children about it,
and have them tell it to theirs,
and have them tell the next generation.
4 What the cutter-worms left, the locusts ate;
what the locusts left, the grasshoppers ate;
what the grasshoppers left, the shearer-worms ate.
5 Wake up, drunkards, and weep!
wail, all you who drink wine,
because the juice of the grape
will be withheld from your mouth.
6 For a mighty and numberless nation
has invaded my land.
His teeth are lion’s teeth;
his fangs are those of a lioness.
7 He has reduced my vines to waste,
my fig trees to splinters —
he plucked them bare, stripped their bark
and left their branches white.”
8 Lament like a virgin wearing sackcloth
for the husband of her youth!
9 Grain offering and drink offering are cut off
from the house of Adonai.
The cohanim are mourning,
those who are serving Adonai.
10 The fields are ruined, the ground is grieving;
for the grain is ruined, the new wine dried up,
and the olive oil is wretched.
11 Despair, you farmers; lament, vinedressers,
over the wheat and the barley —
the harvest from the fields is lost.
12 The vines have withered, the fig trees wilted,
also the pomegranate, date-palm and apple tree —
all the trees in the fields have withered,
and the people’s joy has withered away.
13 Cohanim, put on sackcloth, and weep!
Wail, you who serve at the altar!
Come, lie in sackcloth all night long,
you who serve my God!
For the grain offering and drink offering are withheld
from the house of your God.
14 Proclaim a holy fast,
call for a solemn assembly,
gather the leaders
and all who live in the land
to the house of Adonai your God,
and cry out to Adonai,
15 “Oh no! The Day!
The Day of Adonai is upon us!
As destruction from Shaddai
it is coming!
16 The food is cut off before our very eyes,
also joy and gladness from the house of our God.
17 The seed-grain is rotting in its furrows;
the granaries are deserted, the barns in ruins;
because the grain has withered.
18 How the animals groan!
The herds of cattle are perplexed,
because they have no pasture.
The flocks of sheep bear the punishment, too.
19 Adonai, I cry out to you!
For the fire has consumed the pastures in the desert,
and the flame set ablaze all the trees in the fields.
20 Even the wild animals
come to you, panting,
because the streambeds have dried up,
and fire has consumed the pastures in the desert.”
2 Corinthians 9:1 There is really no need for me to write you about this offering for God’s people — 2 I know how eager you are, and I boast about you to the Macedonians. I tell them, “Achaia has been ready since last year,” and it was your zeal that stirred up most of them. 3 But now I am sending the brothers so that our boast about you in this regard will not prove hollow, so that you will be ready, as I said you would be. 4 For if some Macedonians were to come with me and find you unprepared, we would be humiliated at having been so confident — to say nothing of how you would feel. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge these brothers to go on to you ahead of me and prepare your promised gift in plenty of time; this way it will be ready when I come and will be a genuine gift, not something extracted by pressure.
6 Here’s the point: he who plants sparingly also harvests sparingly. 7 Each should give according to what he has decided in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.[2 Corinthians 9:7 Proverbs 22:8 (Septuagint)] 8 Moreover, God has the power to provide you with every gracious gift in abundance, so that always in every way you will have all you need yourselves and be able to provide abundantly for every good cause — 9 as the Tanakh says,
“He gave generously to the poor;
his tzedakah lasts forever.”[2 Corinthians 9:9 Psalm 112:9]
10 He who provides both seed for the planter and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed and increase the harvest of your tzedakah. 11 You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous in everything. And through us your generosity will cause people to thank God, 12 because rendering this holy service not only provides for the needs of God’s people, but it also overflows in the many thanks people will be giving to God. 13 In offering this service you prove to these people that you glorify God by actually doing what your acknowledgement of the Good News of the Messiah requires, namely, sharing generously with them and with everyone. 14 And in their prayers for you they will feel a strong affection for you because of how gracious God has been to you. 15 Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
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The Lutheran Hour Ministries
660 Mason Ridge Ctr Drive
Saint Louis, Missouri 63141 United States
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