The Lutheran Hour Ministries in Saint Louis, Missouri, United States Daily Devotion by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour - Sunday, August 6, 2017 "A Sign for You"
Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries by Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour "A Sign for You" for Sunday, August 6, 2017
Luke 2:12 - And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.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
The verse for this devotion is one that we usually hear only at Christmas.
The shepherds were told by the angels that Christ the Savior had been born in nearby Bethlehem. We can assume there was any number of babies in Bethlehem at that time so, in order to avoid the possibility of error, they were given a sign: this baby would be found in a manger.
If God sent you a sign, would you recognize it?
Or perhaps a better question is this: does God still communicate to us with signs? Angela would say that He does. Angela is a retired art teacher who lives with her husband in an apartment in Santiago, not far from the Lutheran Hour Ministries' office. In spite of the signs on the building, it never occurred to her to go in.
Angela has not had an easy life.
Married at a young age then abandoned by her first husband with two small children, she was left to scratch and claw and make a life for her family on her own. In later years, it was her great joy to see her younger daughter get married and have a child. Tragically, her son-in-law and grandchild both died in an accident. Years later, that same daughter was diagnosed with cancer who died after fighting the disease for three years.
Angela was inconsolable.
In her time of grief, some Jehovah's Witnesses came to her door and offered to help her understand the Bible. As she studied with them each week, Angela began to have doubts about whether or not their explanation of the Bible was true. She decided to buy a Bible of her own and start researching it for herself.
That's when she saw the sign: a regular, 8 ½ by 11-inch paper sign taped to the outside of the Lutheran Hour office.
The sign read: "Large-Print Bibles Available, Hardcover, 5,000 Pesos." Without hesitation, Angela entered the office and purchased her Bible. As we conversed with her, we learned about her desire to better understand God's Word, and invited her to attend a Bible course called "Hacia Una Nueva Vida" ("Towards a New Life").
I taught that class and had the great joy of watching Angela be brought to a living faith in Christ through the power of the Word and Spirit. Today, both Angela and her husband Jorge are active members of the Lutheran church in Santiago.
Does God still work through signs? He has in the past, and we ask your prayers that He do so again and again in the future.
THE PRAYER: Lord, Your Word brings life! It is a treasure to all beyond comparing. Help us to put that treasure out in the open for all to see, so that many more people would come to know Your saving grace, which is ours through the sacrifice of our Savior in whose Name we pray. Amen.
Biography of Author: Today's international devotion was written by the Rev. Dr. James Tino. Dr. Tino is the director of Global Lutheran Outreach and serves as a missionary with the Confessional Lutheran Church of Chile. He lives in Santiago and volunteers as an evangelist and Bible teacher with Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Our center is known in Chile as Cristo Para Todas Las Naciones-Chile. The Lutheran Hour Ministries has a ministry office in Santiago, from which it conducts evangelistic and outreach activities throughout the country. One fruitful strategy has been to sponsor workshops or talleres, which are led by volunteers: music workshops, conferences, lectures, English classes, and even a class to learn German! This ministry center also uses the Equipping the Saints (ETS), and brochures about social topics.
In this South American country of nearly 18 million people, Lutheran Hour Ministries-Chile serves as the primary evangelism partner of the new Evangelical Lutheran Church of Chile (IELCHI). Conducting ETS workshops and distributing outreach literature and topical booklets in places like public health clinics, this ministry center works in conjunction with affiliated IELCHI congregations and mission starts. Additional LHM-Chile activities include youth music programs, elder care programs, holistic women's workshops, and drug abuse prevention programs.
Be sure to check out LHM's International Ministries' blog page. You can find it by clicking here.
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: Psalms 130-132; 1 Corinthians 1
Psalms 130:1 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, I call to you from the depths;
2 hear my cry, Adonai!
Let your ears pay attention
to the sound of my pleading.
3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins,
who, Adonai, could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness,
so that you will be feared.
5 I wait longingly for Adonai;
I put my hope in his word.
6 Everything in me waits for Adonai
more than guards on watch wait for morning,
more than guards on watch wait for morning.
7 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai!
For grace is found with Adonai,
and with him is unlimited redemption.
8 He will redeem Isra’el
from all their wrongdoings.
131:1 (0) A song of ascents. By David:
(1) Adonai, my heart isn’t proud;
I don’t set my sight too high,
I don’t take part in great affairs
or in wonders far beyond me.
2 No, I keep myself calm and quiet,
like a little child on its mother’s lap —
I keep myself like a little child.
3 Isra’el, put your hope in Adonai
from now on and forever!
132:1 (0) A song of ascents:
(1) Adonai, remember in David’s favor
all the hardships he endured,
2 how he swore to Adonai,
vowed to the Mighty One of Ya‘akov,
3 “I will not enter the house where I live
or get into my bed,
4 I will not allow myself to sleep
or even close my eyes,
5 until I find a place for Adonai,
a dwelling for the Mighty One of Ya‘akov.”
6 We heard about it in Efrat,
we found it in the Fields of Ya‘ar.
7 Let’s go into his dwelling
and prostrate ourselves at his footstool.
8 Go up, Adonai, to your resting-place,
you and the ark through which you give strength.
9 May your cohanim be clothed with righteousness;
may those loyal to you shout for joy.
10 For the sake of your servant David,
don’t turn away the face of your anointed one.
11 Adonai swore an oath to David,
an oath he will not break:
“One of the sons from your own body
I will set on your throne.
12 If your sons keep my covenant
and my instruction, which I will teach them,
then their descendants too, forever,
will sit on your throne.”
13 For Adonai has chosen Tziyon,
he has wanted it as his home.
14 “This is my resting-place forever,
I will live here because I so much want to.
15 I will bless it with plenty of meat,
I will give its poor their fill of food.
16 Its cohanim I will clothe with salvation,
and its faithful will shout for joy.
17 I will make a king sprout there from David’s line
and prepare a lamp for my anointed one.
18 His enemies I will clothe with shame,
but on him there will be a shining crown.”
1 Corinthians 1:1 From: Sha’ul, called by God’s will to be an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua; and from brother Sosthenes
2 To: God’s Messianic community in Corinth, consisting of those who have been set apart by Yeshua the Messiah and called to be God’s holy people — along with everyone everywhere who calls on the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, their Lord as well as ours:
3 Grace to you and shalom from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.
4 I thank my God always for you because of God’s love and kindness given to you through the Messiah Yeshua, 5 in that you have been enriched by him in so many ways, particularly in power of speech and depth of knowledge. 6 Indeed, the testimony about the Messiah has become firmly established in you; 7 so that you are not lacking any spiritual gift and are eagerly awaiting the revealing of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. 8 He will enable you to hold out until the end and thus be blameless on the Day of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah — 9 God is trustworthy: it was he who called you into fellowship with his Son, Yeshua the Messiah, our Lord.
10 Nevertheless, brothers, I call on you in the name of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah to agree, all of you, in what you say, and not to let yourselves remain split into factions but be restored to having a common mind and a common purpose. 11 For some of Chloe’s people have made it known to me, my brothers, that there are quarrels among you. 12 I say this because one of you says, “I follow Sha’ul”; another says, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Kefa”; while still another says, “I follow the Messiah!” 13 Has the Messiah been split in pieces? Was it Sha’ul who was put to death on a stake for you? Were you immersed into the name of Sha’ul? 14 I thank God that I didn’t immerse any of you except Crispus and Gaius — 15 otherwise someone might say that you were indeed immersed into my name. 16 (Oh yes, I did also immerse Stephanas and his household; beyond that, I can’t remember whether I immersed anyone else.)
17 For the Messiah did not send me to immerse but to proclaim the Good News — and to do it without relying on “wisdom” that consists of mere rhetoric, so as not to rob the Messiah’s execution-stake of its power. 18 For the message about the execution-stake is nonsense to those in the process of being destroyed, but to us in the process of being saved it is the power of God. 19 Indeed, the Tanakh says,
“I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and frustrate the intelligence of the intelligent.”[1 Corinthians 1:19 Isaiah 29:14]
20 Where does that leave the philosopher, the Torah-teacher, or any of today’s thinkers? Hasn’t God made this world’s wisdom look pretty foolish? 21 For God’s wisdom ordained that the world, using its own wisdom, would not come to know him. Therefore God decided to use the “nonsense” of what we proclaim as his means of saving those who come to trust in it. 22 Precisely because Jews ask for signs and Greeks try to find wisdom, 23 we go on proclaiming a Messiah executed on a stake as a criminal! To Jews this is an obstacle, and to Greeks it is nonsense; 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, this same Messiah is God’s power and God’s wisdom! 25 For God’s “nonsense” is wiser than humanity’s “wisdom.”
And God’s “weakness” is stronger than humanity’s “strength.” 26 Just look at yourselves, brothers — look at those whom God has called! Not many of you are wise by the world’s standards, not many wield power or boast noble birth. 27 But God chose what the world considers nonsense in order to shame the wise; God chose what the world considers weak in order to shame the strong; 28 and God chose what the world looks down on as common or regards as nothing in order to bring to nothing what the world considers important; 29 so that no one should boast before God. 30 It is his doing that you are united with the Messiah Yeshua. He has become wisdom for us from God, and righteousness and holiness and redemption as well! 31 Therefore — as the Tanakh says — “Let anyone who wants to boast, boast about Adonai.”[1 Corinthians 1:31 Jeremiah 9:23(24)]
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Use these devotions in your newsletter and bulletin! Used by permission; all rights reserved by the Int'l LLL (LHM).
CHANGE THEIR WORLD. CHANGE YOURS.
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING.
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