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Verse for the week:
For God alone my soul waits in silence;
    from him comes my salvation.” Psalm 62.1

Prayer for the week: Lord God, you have surrounded us with so great a cloud of witnesses. Grant that we may persevere in the course you have set before us, to be living signs of the Gospel and at last, with all the saints, to share in your eternal joy; through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Bible reading for the day: Colossians 1.15-20  (Paul wrote this letter while he was imprisoned for his confession of Christ as Lord, sometime between 54-58 AD. He wrote to a congregation that was threatened by false teachers who sought to soften and replace the offense of the cross with  plausible philosophical arguments and empty deceit.)

¹⁵ He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. ¹⁶ For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. ¹⁷ And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. ¹⁹ For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, ²⁰ and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

Prayer of the Day: Gracious and almighty Father, your will for all creation since the beginning is made visible for us not in our towers of babble or monuments of our culture… but in Christ on the cross, the lowest, most despised thing on earth… this is where you reveal yourself for us. Thank you! Without Christ, life itself falls apart… in him, I am daily his new creation and all things hold together… even in this dying world. Bring me and your whole church back always to the firstborn of all creation, the one who makes peace with us and for us by the blood of his cross, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. In his name I pray, amen.

Hymn: follow this link to a beloved classic that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW_F1MMH2r4

“What does baptism mean for daily life?”

It means that my sinful self, with all its evil deeds and desires, should be drowned through daily repentance; and that day after day a new self should arise to live with God in righteousness and purity forever.  

St. Paul writes in Romans 6:   “We were buried therefore with Christ by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther)

Benediction: For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.   Psalm 149.4

*This is now our congregation’s 99^th year in the Word. In 2025, we are reading from Genesis to Revelation, with a few interludes along the way.