You feed them Him

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:  Matthew 14.13-21 (Jesus has just been informed that King Herod beheaded John the Baptist.)

¹³  Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns.¹⁴ When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. ¹⁵ Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” ¹⁶ But Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” ¹⁷ They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” ¹⁸ And he said, “Bring them here to me.” ¹⁹ Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. ²⁰ And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. ²¹ And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Prayer (based on the TRIP* method): Gracious and almighty Father, thank you for the one who is true bread, true food: your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. In our families, in our congregation, and the whole neighborhood, people will starve unless they get a steady diet of him. Repent us of hesitating and waiting for someone else to feed them.  Send me and my brothers & sisters to feed them Jesus Christ. I ask this in his name, amen.

“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son our Lord…”

What does this mean for us?  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 Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
                        The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in
                        From this time on and forevermore.  Ps 121.7-8

 

 

*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: regret (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.