You have been baptized to death...

 ...and into new life.

Verse for the week: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning?”  Psalm 22.1

Prayer for the week: Ride on, ride on, O Christ. Ride on the donkey, the cross, on the devil’s back. In low estate ride on to die… to triumph over captive death and conquered sin now and forever. Amen.

Bible reading for the day: Romans 5.1, 6.1-4 Writing in 56 AD, Paul declares that your baptism into Christ is a religious washing.

^5.1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…

^6.1What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? ² By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? ³ Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.

Prayer for the day: Gracious and almighty Father, thank you: in Christ you regard sinners like us and declare us forgiven… He is our peace. Thank you. Today and every day, accomplish the death of my pride and the birth of my new Adam that is my baptism into you; in Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

Hymn: follow this link to a hymn that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKQJJ6xz1K0&ab_channel=drolas94

“What does baptism mean for daily living?”

It means that my 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.

In Romans 6, St. Paul writes: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Romans 6.4  (from The Small Catechism, by Martin Luther)

Benediction: Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
    Praise the Lord!   Psalm 106.48

 

*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.