and all that is within me,
bless his holy name!” Psalm 103.1
Prayer for the week: Dear Father, by your gracious choosing I am indeed your child and you
are truly my Father, so I call on you now with complete confidence, through
your Son, Jesus Christ, the Lord. Amen.
Bible reading for the day: I John 4.7-21
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from
God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone
who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In
this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only
Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In
this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved,
if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No
one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his
love is perfected in us.
13 By this we know that we
abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we
have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior
of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus
is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we
have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is
love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in
him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so
that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is
so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear
in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with
punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We
love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says,
“I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not
love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not
seen. 21 And this commandment we have from
him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
Prayer of the Day:
Gracious and almighty Father, thank
you for calling me and your church your beloved ones. We fail and fall short at
loving others. You alone define and embody love in this: Christ crucified for
the forgiveness of our sins. We love because he first loved us… so kill off my
pride and hatred each day and birth me anew of your seed; that the perfect love
that points others to Christ be plainly evident in my words and deeds. In
Jesus’ name I ask this, amen.
Hymn: follow this link to a straightforward
children’s song that gives further voice to today’s conversation with the Lord:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9C1tAYgWBw&ab_channel=FormerAtheist58
“I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son…”
What does this mean? I believe that Jesus Christ –
true God, Son of the Father from eternity, and true man, born of the virgin
Mary – is my Lord.
At great cost he has saved and redeemed me, a lost and
condemned person. He 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.
All this he has done that I may be his own, live under him
in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and
blessedness, just as he is risen from the dead and lives and rules eternally.
This is most certainly true. (from The Small Catechism, by
Martin Luther)
Benediction: For the Lord takes pleasure
in his people;
he adorns the humble with salvation. Psalm 149.4
*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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