kneeling fisherman

kneeling fisherman

Wednesday, January 15, 2025

The Sovereign call of God

 ...is laid upon you.

Verse for the week: “The law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” John 1.17

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 12.1-9  (The same Lord God who creates the universe out of nothing just by saying so, chooses a 75-year-old man and his barren wife as his instruments to bless all the families of the earth with his Word.)

 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

So Abram went, as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb.

Prayer (based on the T.R.I.P. method): Gracious and almighty Father, your sovereign call is our beginning and our end. Thank you for laying your call upon Abram and me and rescuing us from ourselves. You will now to use me and your whole church to bless all the families of the earth with your speech. Do it Lord. Bring us to your altar, not the altar of ourselves. Instill in us the calling upon your name and remove from us all our babble. I ask this in Christ’s 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=LVK47RThdcg&ab_channel=PianoSeries

“I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord…”

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!

Benediction: The Lord God remembers you according to his favor. Amen.

 

*This is now our congregation’s 99th year in the Word. In 2025, we are reading from Genesis to Revelation, with a few interludes along the way.


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