...that's us.
Verse for the week:
The Pharisees sought an observable kingdom… but Jesus answered them, “The
kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed… Behold, the kingdom
of God is inside you.” Luke 17.20-21
Prayer for the week: “Lord, you have promised to
grant what we pray in the name of your Son. Teach us to pray aright and to laud
and praise you with all your saints in the fullness of life everlasting;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”
(K.B. Ritter, Gebete fur das jahr der Kirched, 2nd ed. Kassel: Barenreiter Verlag, 1948, p.
152).
Bible reading for the day: Exodus 16.2-8 (within several weeks of their deliverance
from 400 years of slavery in Egypt, our forebears are complaining and wanting
to go back to their old bondage.)
2 And the whole congregation of the people of
Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the
people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord
in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full,
for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly
with hunger.”
4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am
about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather
a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my
law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring
in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” 6 So Moses and
Aaron said to all the people of Israel, “At evening you shall know that it was
the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, 7 and in the
morning you shall see the glory of the Lord, because he has heard your
grumbling against the Lord. For what are we, that you grumble against us?” 8
And Moses said, “When the Lord gives you in the evening meat to eat and
in the morning bread to the full, because the Lord has heard your grumbling
that you grumble against him— what are we? Your grumbling is not against us but
against the Lord.”
Prayer (based on T.R.I.P. method*): Gracious
and almighty Father, thank you for being our Lord and for liberating us from
slavery to sin, death, and the power of the Devil. Repent me and your whole church of grumbling
against you and preferring the destructive, predictable safety of our old
slavery. Each day, call us into the wilderness adventure that is discipleship
and give us the faith to follow Jesus on the frontier…and to receive our daily
bread with thanks to you. I ask this in
Jesus’ name, 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=V-BS4IUoghk
“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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