The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries with Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Holding On" for Saturday, October 22, 2016

The Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries with Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "Holding On" for Saturday, October 22, 2016

For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.[Hebrews 3:14]
On Thursday, September 3, 1987, Henry Dempsey was captain of the Eastern Express commuter flight from Lewiston, Maine, to Boston.
Flying at 4,000 feet, Captain Dempsey heard an unusual noise coming from the rear of the 15-passenger turboprop plane. Dempsey turned the controls over to his second-in-command and went back to check things out. Dempsey made it to the aircraft's tail section when the plane hit one of those air pockets, which makes your stomach think you're on a roller coaster.
The jolt of the plane threw Pilot Dempsey against the rear door of the aircraft.
That's when the aviator discovered the rear door hadn't been secured. Dempsey discovered this when he stumbled against the door and it opened. The stairs of the plane deployed and Dempsey was sucked out. On the instrument panel an emergency light, indicating an open door, started to flash.
The co-pilot radioed the nearest airport and received permission to make an emergency landing. He also asked helicopters be scrambled to make a search -- or a recovery -- of his friend.
The request was unnecessary.
You see, when the door opened, the ladder flipped down and Captain Dempsey caught that rail and held on. Dempsey held on as the plane flew at 200 miles an hour. Dempsey held on when the plane started its descent. Dempsey, with his face less than 12 inches away from the concrete, held on when the plane's wheels made contact with the runway.
Dempsey held on after the rescue workers told him he was safe and could let go. Dempsey found he couldn't. It took 15 minutes for rescuers to pry his hands from that rail.
I guess most of us, put in such a situation, would hold on just as tightly as Dempsey did. In such a situation holding on is the only reasonable, rational, thing to do. Not just when you're being sucked out of an airplane, but anytime your life is in danger, you should hold on.
Now I would imagine, since you are reading a Daily Devo, you know that the smartest thing anyone can do in this world is hold on to the Savior. Yes, you know that, but there are many around us who do not.
Some think they can hold on to their own smarts, their own skills, their own strength in times of trouble. There are others who think there is no point in trying to hold on to anyone or anything. For them, life is lived and then it's over.
How sad.
As for me and my house, we will hold on to the Lord. Scripture teaches, and we have seen, that the Lord who lived and died to save us, who rose to assure us of our own place in heaven, is the One Person who will not let us down.
We hold on to Him because it's the only thing to do.
THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, send Your Holy Spirit so the world may see the love and power of the Redeemer. Grant it may hold on to Him today and every day. 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 Readings: Jeremiah 9-10 Colossians 1
Jeremiah 9:1 (2) I wish I were out in the desert,

in some travelers’ lodge —

then I could get away from my people

and distance myself from them!

“Indeed they are all adulterers,

a band of traitors is what they are.

2 (3) They bend their tongues, their ‘bow’ of falsehood,

and hold sway in the land, but not for truth.

For they go from evil to evil,

and me they do not know,”

says Adonai.

3 (4) Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor,

don’t trust even a brother;

for every brother is out to trick you,

and every neighbor goes around gossiping.

4 (5) Everyone deceives his neighbor,

no one speaks the truth;

they have taught their tongues to lie,

they wear themselves out with sinning.

5 (6) “You inhabit a world of deceit;

deceitfully they refuse to know me,”

says Adonai.

6 (7) “Therefore,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,

“I will refine them and test them.

What else can I do with the daughter of my people?

7 (8) Their tongues are sharpened arrows;

with their mouths they speak deceit —

they say nice words to their neighbors,

while inwardly plotting against them.

8 (9) Should I not punish them for these things?” asks Adonai.

“Should I not take vengeance on such a nation?”

9 (10) I weep and wail for the mountains

and lament over the desert pastures,

because they have been burned up;

no one passes through;

they no longer hear the sound of cattle;

the birds and wild animals have fled, are gone.

10 (11) “I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins,

turn it into a lair for jackals,

and make the cities of Y’hudah desolate,

with no one living there.”

11 (12) Who is wise enough to understand this?

To whom has the mouth of Adonai spoken,

so that he can proclaim it?

Why has the land perished

and been laid waste like a desert,

so that no one passes through?

12 (13) Adonai answers:

“Because they abandoned my Torah,

which I set before them,

and neither listened to what I said

nor lived accordingly,

13 (14) but have lived by their own hearts’ stubbornness

and by the ba‘alim, as their ancestors taught them —

14 (15) therefore,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot,

the God of Isra’el:

“I will feed this people bitter wormwood

and give them poisonous water to drink.

15 (16) I will scatter them among nations

that neither they nor their ancestors have known.

I will send the sword after them

until I have wiped them out.”

16 (17) Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:

“Mark this, then summon the mourning women,

so that they will come;

send for those who are best [at mourning],

so that they will come:

17 (18) ‘Have them hurry and wail for us,

so our eyes will be wet from crying,

and our eyelids gush with tears.’

18 (19) For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon:

‘We are utterly ruined,

we are completely ashamed,

because we have left the land,

and our homes have been torn down!’”

19 (20) You women, hear the word of Adonai!

Let your ears receive the words from his mouth.

Teach your daughters how to wail,

have each teach her friend how to lament:

20 (21) “Death has come up through our windows,

it has entered our palaces,

it has cut down children in the streets

and young people in the public places.”

21 (22) Say: “Here is what Adonai says:

‘The corpses of people are scattered

like dung in an open field,

like sheaves left behind by the reaper

with no one to gather them.’”

22 (23) Here is what Adonai says:

“The wise man should not boast of his wisdom,

the powerful should not boast of his power,

the wealthy should not boast of his wealth;

23 (24) instead, let the boaster boast about this:

that he understands and knows me —

that I am Adonai, practicing grace,

justice and righteousness in the land;

for in these things I take pleasure,” says Adonai.

24 (25) “The days are coming,” says Adonai, “when I will punish all those who have been circumcised in their uncircumcision — 25 (26) Egypt, Y’hudah, Edom, the people of ‘Amon and Mo’av, and all those living in the desert who cut the edges [of their beard]:

“For although all the Goyim are uncircumcised,

all the house of Isra’el have uncircumcised hearts.”

10:1 Hear the word Adonai speaks to you,

house of Isra’el!

2 Here is what Adonai says:

“Don’t learn the way of the Goyim,

don’t be frightened by astrological signs,

even if the Goyim are afraid of them;

3 for the customs of the peoples are nothing.

They cut down a tree in the forest;

a craftsman works it with his axe;

4 they deck it with silver and gold.

They fix it with hammer and nails,

so that it won’t move.

5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch,

it cannot speak.

It has to be carried,

because it cannot walk.

Do not be afraid of it —

it can do nothing bad;

likewise it is unable

to do anything good!”

6 There is no one like you, Adonai!

You are great, and your name is great and mighty.

7 Who would not fear you, king of the nations?

For it is your due! —

since among all the wise of the nations

and among all their royalty,

there is no one like you.

8 One and all they are boorish and stupid;

the teaching of their nothings is a piece of wood!

9 Silver is beaten into plates,

then imported from Tarshish.

Gold from Ufaz is worked by a craftsman

and shaped by the hands of a goldsmith.

They are clothed in blue and purple,

all the work of skillful men.

10 But Adonai, God, is the true God,

the living God, the everlasting king.

At his anger, the earth trembles;

the nations cannot endure his fury.

11 “This is what you must say to them:

‘The gods that did not make heaven and earth

will perish from earth and from under heaven.’”

12 God made the earth by his power,

established the world by his wisdom

spread out the sky by his understanding.

13 When he thunders, the waters in heaven roar,

he raises clouds from the ends of the earth,

he makes the lightning flash in the rain

and brings the wind out from his storehouses.

14 At this, everyone is proved stupid, ignorant,

every goldsmith put to shame by his idol!

The figures he casts are a fraud;

there is no breath in them;

15 they are nothings, ridiculous objects;

when the day for their punishment comes, they will perish.

16 Ya‘akov’s portion is not like these,

for he is the one who formed all things.

Isra’el is the tribe he claims as his heritage;

Adonai-Tzva’ot is his name.

17 You who are living under the siege,

gather your belongings off the ground,

18 for here is what Adonai says:

“At this time I am slinging away

the inhabitants of the land;

I will distress them,

so that they will feel it.”

19 Woe to me because of my wound!

My injury is incurable!

I used to say, “It’s only an illness,

and I can bear it.”

20 But now my tent is ruined,

all its cords are severed;

my children have left me and are no more;

there is no one to set up my tent again,

no one to raise its curtains.

21 The shepherds have become stupid,

they have not consulted Adonai.

This is why they have not prospered,

and all their flocks are scattered.

22 Listen! A noise! It’s coming closer!

A great uproar from the land to the north,

to make the cities of Y’hudah desolate,

a place for jackals to live.

23 Adonai, I know that the way of humans

is not in their control,

humans are not able

to direct their steps as they walk.

24 Adonai, correct me, but in moderation,

not in your anger, or you’ll reduce me to nothing.

25 Pour out your anger on the nations

that do not acknowledge you,

also on the families

that do not call on your name.

For they have consumed Ya‘akov —

consumed him and finished him off,

and laid waste to his home.

Colossians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, by God’s will an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy

2 To: God’s people in Colosse, faithful brothers in the Messiah:

Grace to you and shalom from God our Father.

3 Whenever we pray, we always give thanks for you to God, the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 4 For we have heard of your trust in the Messiah Yeshua and of the love you have for all God’s people. 5 Both spring from the confident hope that you will receive what is stored up for you in heaven. You heard of this earlier in the message about the truth. This Good News 6 has made its presence felt among you, just as it is also being fruitful and multiplying[Colossians 1:6 Genesis 1:28] throughout the world in the same way as it has among you since the day you heard and understood the grace of God as it really is. 7 You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow-slave and a faithful worker for the Messiah on your behalf; 8 and he has told us about the love which the Spirit has given you.

9 Therefore, from the day we heard of it, we have not stopped praying for you, asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will in all the wisdom and understanding which the Spirit gives; 10 so that you may live lives worthy of the Lord and entirely pleasing to him, being fruitful in every good work and multiplying in the full knowledge of God. 11 We pray that you will be continually strengthened with all the power that comes from his glorious might; so that you will be able to persevere and be patient in any situation, joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father for having made you fit to share in the inheritance of his people in the light. 13 He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son.

14 It is through his Son that we have redemption — that is, our sins have been forgiven. 15 He is the visible image of the invisible God. He is supreme over all creation, 16 because in connection with him were created all things — in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, lordships, rulers or authorities — they have all been created through him and for him. 17 He existed before all things, and he holds everything together.

18 Also he is head of the Body, the Messianic Community — he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might hold first place in everything. 19 For it pleased God to have his full being live in his Son 20 and through his Son to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace through him, through having his Son shed his blood by being executed on a stake.

21 In other words, you, who at one time were separated from God and had a hostile attitude towards him because of your wicked deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in the Son’s physical body through his death; in order to present you holy and without defect or reproach before himself — 23 provided, of course, that you continue in your trusting, grounded and steady, and don’t let yourselves be moved away from the hope offered in the Good News you heard.

This is the Good News that has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven; and I, Sha’ul, have become a servant of it. 24 I rejoice in my present sufferings on your behalf! Yes, I am completing in my own flesh what has been lacking of the Messiah’s afflictions, on behalf of his Body, the Messianic Community. 25 I became a servant of the Good News because God gave me this work to do for your benefit. The work is to make fully known the message from God, 26 the secret hidden for generations, for ages, but now made clear to the people he has set apart for himself. 27 To them God wanted to make known how great among the Gentiles is the glorious richness of this secret. And the secret is this: the Messiah is united with you people! In that rests your hope of glory! 28 We, for our part, proclaim him; we warn, confront and teach everyone in all wisdom; so that we may present everyone as having reached the goal, united with the Messiah. 29 It is for this that I toil, striving with all the energy that he stirs up in me so mightily.

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