Instead of your captivity...

Verse for the week: Whoever hears you hears me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.”  Luke 10.16

Prayer for the week: “Lord God, heavenly Father, you have bound us together in one body through your Holy Spirit.  Help us to serve one another willingly and forgive one another from our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.” (K.B. Ritter, Gebete fur das jahr der Kirched, 1^st ed. Kassel: Barenreiter Verlag, 1933, p. 74). 

Bible reading for the day: Colossians 2.6-15

⁶ Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him,⁷ rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. ⁹ For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, ¹⁰ and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. ¹¹ In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. ¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Prayer (based on the TRIP* method): Gracious and almighty Father, thank you for cancelling the law’s record against us and revealing yourself fully in Christ Jesus, crucified and raised for the forgiveness of our trespasses. Thank you! Guard me and my congregation from being taken captive by philosophy, deceit, human b.s. …the devil, the world, and our sinful selves. In baptism you’ve buried my old self and raised the new one… so keep building me and my congregation up in the new life every day that the principalities and powers may continually be put to shame and we may abound in thanksgiving. In Jesus’ name I ask this, amen.

“What does baptism mean for daily life?”   It means that the old Adam in us, together with all sins and evil desires, should be drowned by daily sorrow for sin and repentance and be put to death, and that day after day, the new person should arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.

Where is this written?  Saint Paul says in Romans, “We were buried therefore with him by Baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4 ESV).  (from “The Small Catechism” by Martin Luther)

benediction: Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph 3:20-21) 

 

*The T.R.I.P. approach to prayer is based on the way Martin Luther prayed and taught others to pray.  It was later developed by Walter and Ingrid Trobisch and then adapted by Mount Carmel Ministries (Alexandria, MN).  The method is founded on scripture and easy to remember:
T: thanksgiving
R: repentance
I: intercession (asking God to take a specific action)
P: plan or purpose
Reading a biblical text and then applying this method gives one a sound, simple way to form one’s prayers...not to mention that it helps one learn how to faithfully reflect on God’s Word and talk to God.