Verse for the week: God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Acts 2.36
Prayer for the week: Almighty and everlasting God, you have redeemed us and sent us as your own witnesses to an alien generation that nonetheless belongs to you. Rescue us from despair, deliver your sons and daughters from fear, and make us preachers of Christ in broad daylight; through the same, Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.
Bible reading for the day: Romans 6.3,12-23
3 Do you not know that all of us who have
been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?...12Let
not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its
passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as
instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those
who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as
instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will
have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Are we
to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do
you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves you
are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of
obedience, which leads to righteousness? 17 But thanks
be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the
heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having
been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I
am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just
as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness
leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to
righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves
of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But
what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are
now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But
now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of
God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal
life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the
free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Prayer (based on T.R.I.P. method*): Gracious and almighty Father, thank you: sin would be my lord, but Christ is a stronger Lord. Thank you for bringing me from the death of sin to new life in Christ’s righteousness for me. Old Mr. Sin is a good swimmer: even though you drown him in my baptism, he still treads about, seeking to present himself to me and my mortal passions. I am your beloved slave Lord, your bondservant; so, expose sin’s false currency for the death trap that it is… and sustain me in the free gift, the true riches of eternal life in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Hymn: follow this link to a beloved, classic hymn that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wawqmN7m9fg
“I believe in Jesus Christ…”
What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ — true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary — is my Lord. He has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, and has freed me from sin, death, and the power of the devil, not with silver and gold, but with his holy and precious blood and his innocent suffering and death. He has done all this in order that I might be his own, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns for all eternity. This is most certainly true! (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther ©Reclaim Resources, Sola Publishing, 2011)
Benediction: The God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (Romans 15.13)
T: thanksgiving
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