What in common have your soul and an ingrown toenail?

Verse for the week: “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory,
    for the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness!”  Psalm 115.1

Prayer for the week: Almighty God, draw our hearts to you, guide our minds, fill our imaginations, control our wills, so that we may be wholly yours. Use us as you will, always to your glory and the welfare of our neighbor; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord. Amen.

Bible reading for the day: Habakkuk 2.1-5 (Habakkuk prophesied to Judah just after Nahum, during the reign of Jehoiakim (609-598BC); his name means “embracer,” one who embraces another and takes him in his arms. In order to rescue them from themselves, the Lord humbles and embraces his self-absorbed people.)

 I will take my stand at my watchpost
    and station myself on the tower,
and look out to see what he will say to me,
    and what I will answer concerning my complaint.

² And the Lord answered me:

“Write the vision;
    make it plain on tablets,
    so he may run who reads it.
³ For still the vision awaits its appointed time;
    it hastens to the end—it will not lie.
If it seems slow, wait for it;
    it will surely come; it will not delay.

⁴ “Behold, his soul is puffed up; it is not upright within him,
    but the righteous shall live by his faith.

⁵ “Moreover, the proud one is a traitor,
    an arrogant man who is never at rest.
His greed is as wide as Sheol;
    like death he has never enough.
He gathers for himself all nations
    and collects as his own all peoples.”

Prayer of the Day: Gracious and almighty Father, thank you: your vision for us is that one day – and now in the meantime – we shall live not by our will but by the faith of the righteous one, Christ Jesus our Lord. So, in this meantime, daily rescue me and my congregation from our own puffed up, ingrown souls and make plain and large to us the only trustworthy one: Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name I ask this, amen.

Hymn: follow this link to a beloved classic that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMf69QqS5r0&ab_channel=MartijndeGroot

I believe in God the Father, creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell. On the third day he rose again. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen.

Benediction: For the Lord takes pleasure in his people;
    he adorns the humble with salvation.   Psalm 149.4

 

*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.