The Lord is Keeping His Promise to You

Verse for the week: “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.” Psalm 127.1

Prayer for the week:  Blessed Lord, you speak to us through the Holy Scriptures. Keep your promise and pour out your Holy Spirit that as we hear, read, respect, learn and suffer your Word, His enduring benefits of faith and comfort may grasp and hold us in true life now and in eternity with you; through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Bible reading for the day: Genesis 17.1-11  (This episode in the generations long narrative of God’s chosen relationship with Abraham and his family takes place 25 years after God’s call of Abram. Abram means exalted father, Abraham means father of a multitude.  In Hebrew, to make a covenant is to “cut a covenant”.)

When Abram was ninety-nine years old the Lord appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless, ² that I may make my covenant between me and you, and may multiply you greatly.” ³ Then Abram fell on his face. And God said to him, ⁴ “Behold, my covenant is with you, and you shall be the father of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”

⁹ And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. ¹⁰ This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. ¹¹ You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you.

Prayer (based on the T.R.I.P. method): Gracious and almighty Father, thank you that by your gracious and good will I am one among the multitude of your kept promise to Abraham. And thank you that your covenant with me is not just of the flesh but of water and the Holy Spirit. Keep me in the covenant of my baptism today and each day, that I may live with you in righteousness and purity forever. In Jesus’ name I pray, 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=MimsQtU-ccQ&ab_channel=AndrewRemillard

What benefits does God give in baptism?

In baptism God forgives sin, delivers from death and the devil, and gives everlasting salvation to all whole believe what he has promised.

What does baptism mean for daily life?

It means that our 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. (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther)

Benediction: “I am the Lord your God and you shall be my people.” Amen.

 

*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.