Month: March 2024

“You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.”
Exodus 20:7

Zeal for Purposeful Worship

Daily Devotion – March 7, 2024

Devotion based on Exodus 20:7


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Being a parent is a joy and a challenge. Your child can make you proud and look good by the way they live their life. Your child can also disappoint you and disgrace your family name. Fair or not, your child is a reflection of you.

The Bible says that God is your heavenly Father. Those who trust in Jesus Christ as their Savior are called God’s child and bear God’s name—Christian. They are part of God’s family. They represent God as they live their lives. People see who God is and what God is like as they encounter God’s people.

Today’s Bible passage is a strong warning against misrepresenting God and his good name. Every time we speak or act in ways that go against who God is and what God is like, we break this commandment.

Thankfully, God has given us the sacrament of holy baptism. In this sacrament, water is poured over a person in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. In this act, God is giving the person his name and making the person a member of his family. Through faith in Jesus, God washes away their sin–even the sin of misusing his name.

If you’ve not been baptized, find a faithful church and find out more about it. You want and need the remarkable blessings it affords. And as a baptized child of God, you can spend the rest of your life properly protecting God’s good name.

Today’s reading is the second commandment. It sounds negative, but God is trying to help us understand the privilege and responsibility of being a part of his eternal family. It’s a special family. Embrace the privileges and responsibilities that go along with the name.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, help me to always properly represent your good name. Amen.

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
John 2:13-17

Zeal for Joyful Worship

Daily Devotion – March 6, 2024

Devotion based on John 2:13-17


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Passover worship was one of three special worship times of the year for God’s Old Testament people. The Passover corresponds with celebrating Easter today. The Passover celebrated how God saved the nation of Israel from death and freed them from slavery in Egypt. The greater significance of the Passover was that it foreshadowed how a Savior was coming who would save sinners from punishment for their sins and free sinners from slavery to sin so they could live a God-pleasing life on earth. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Passover.

Imagine how joyous this occasion was for Jesus as he came to celebrate the Passover in Jerusalem at the beginning of his ministry–a ministry that would end with him fulfilling the purpose of the Passover with his innocent suffering, death, and victorious resurrection from the dead. What should have been joyous, exciting, and uplifting was disappointment, as sinful corruption and distraction were everywhere.

How is your zeal and excitement for worship? Keep in mind that your attitude and behaviors regarding worship are a reflection of your relationship with God. Every time you gather for worship, you celebrate your Savior Jesus—the eternal salvation and spiritual freedom he provides.

Let Jesus’ zeal for you motivate you for zealous, joyful worship of him every week with other Christians.

Prayer:
Dearest Jesus, consume me with your zeal so that I zealously and joyfully worship you Amen.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”
“There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly. You are not to do any work; wherever you live, it is a sabbath to the LORD.”
Exodus 20:8; Leviticus 23:3

Zeal for Restful Worship

Daily Devotion – March 5, 2024

Devotion based on Exodus 20:8; Leviticus 23:3


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Today’s Bible passage is the third of the Ten Commandments. The word “sabbath” means “rest.” If given the chance to work seven days a week, many would do it, and physical rest would suffer. God loves us, so he commands us to take time for physical rest every week for our physical health.

More importantly, these words remind us that God wants us to get rest for our souls. Jesus says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest…for your souls” (Matthew 11:28,29). Whether we realize it or not, our souls are weary from daily battles against temptations to sin and the guilt of losing some of those battles.

We need rest for our souls. We need reminders that we are not alone; we are loved, forgiven, and victorious in Jesus to deal with anything in life. God gladly provides that rest in his Word. Daily time spent resting in that Word is vital to our spiritual health. So, too, is weekly time spent resting in God’s Word while gathered in “sacred assembly” with Christian brothers and sisters.

The German reformer Martin Luther summarized the Third Commandment in this way: “We should fear and love God that we do not despise preaching and his Word, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.” Guilt and weariness encircles us as we compare these words to our own mindset about worship. Lord have mercy! And he does! Jesus perfectly kept the Third Commandment, and through faith in Jesus, God considers us to have kept the Third Commandment perfectly as well. Since that is true, trust the Lord that gathering for worship while here on earth will provide you with the spiritual rest you need until you are safely worshiping God in heaven.

Prayer:
Triune God, give me zeal to gladly hear and learn your Word so that I am well rested for life and eternity. Amen.

Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
1 Corinthians 1:22-24

Zeal for Foolish Worship

Daily Devotion – March 4, 2024

Devotion based on 1 Corinthians 1:22-24


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“Christ crucified” is the Biblical message that 2,000 years ago, God sent into the world his only son, Jesus Christ, so that he could be executed on a cross where he suffered the punishment of hell and death as the substitute for every sinner, including you and me. “Christ crucified” makes it possible for sinners, who believe in and worship him as their Savior, to avoid the hell they earned for their sins and to spend eternity in heaven instead.

The Jews of Paul’s day represent those who reject Jesus as their eternal Savior because they were expecting something different. In the minds of many, eternal condemnation in hell is not the biggest problem facing them. Climate change, terrorism, politics, health issues, financial worries, and racism are bigger REAL issues, and “Christ crucified” doesn’t seem to solve those problems. If God would take care of real earthly issues, they would be more willing to listen to the Bible’s message.

The Gentiles of Paul’s Day represents all those who reject Jesus as their eternal Savior because their human reason gets in the way of faith. Christ crucified is too exclusive because it excludes the possibility that non-Christians go to heaven. Christ crucified is too restricting because it keeps me from living my life on my terms as it tells me that there are certain attitudes, words, and behaviors that are sinful. Christ crucified goes against my human pride that wants to play a role in solving my problems in my own way.

Both the attitude of the Jews and the Gentiles lead people away from Jesus and the salvation he promises to all who follow him. Do not adopt either attitude. Instead, trust the truth that Christ was crucified for you to save you from your sins and assure you of eternal life with the God who created you. It may seem foolish to many people in this world, but it is the most precious message there is.

Prayer:
Holy Spirit, give me the zeal to embrace foolish worship of Christ crucified, now and forever. Amen.

The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.
1 Corinthians 1:25

Beyond Cynicism

Daily Devotion – March 3, 2024

Devotion based on 1 Corinthians 1:25


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If you were to ask people to say one word to describe our society’s attitude for the last twenty years or so, many might say the word “cynical.” A pure cynic is distrustful of everything. A pure cynic takes pleasure in mocking someone instead of listening and learning. A pure cynic always looks for the next punch line at someone else’s expense.

Recently, however, some observers of our culture have suggested that we have begun to enter what they call “post cynicism.” This is simply their way of saying that maybe, just maybe, our society is getting tired of assuming that everything is a big joke. After all, if you spend your life only making fun of other people and their ideas, when the day is done, you still have no answers.

How about you? Over the years, how much time and energy have you spent in figuring out ways to dismiss Jesus, to dismiss his promises, to dismiss the specific things he did to rescue your soul?

One thing is certain. As long as you keep embracing cynicism as if it were some great philosophy of the age and keep dismissing the promises that Jesus has made to you, nothing will change. You’ll remain in the same old mess, the same old bitterness, the same old despair.

Cynicism is not the answer. Jesus is. He will displace your buried guilt with full forgiveness. He will fill your darkness with light. He will fill your emptiness with himself. That’s why he came to live a holy life on your behalf. That’s why he died in your place. And that’s why he lives.

Come and see.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, speak to me in your gospel. Fill me with your Spirit. Wash me in your blood. Renew my mind and heart. Amen.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

Peace That Matters

Daily Devotion – March 2, 2024

Devotion based on Romans 5:1


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A wealthy man wanted a painting that captured the ultimate picture of peace. Many artists entered their paintings and made noble attempts at putting down on canvas what peace really was. Some featured a mirror-smooth lake. Others featured quiet trees under a soft, evening sky. Still others featured a grassy meadow where a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed.

The winning picture, however, had none of that. On the contrary, it contained elements that were not peaceful at all. An angry waterfall hurled itself down a rocky cliff. Overhead, dark clouds were beginning to explode with lightning, wind, and rain. Everywhere in this picture, there were signs of danger, menace, and trouble.

But there was something else. Near the middle of the picture, a small, frail tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls. One of its branches reached out in front of the falls itself. And there, in the elbow of that single branch, a bird had built a nest. Her little ones were asleep, content, and undisturbed under the shelter of her wings.

In this life, peace is not the absence of trouble or turmoil. After all, we live in a fallen, broken world and by nature, you and I are fallen, broken people. Unexpected storms, sudden grief, and jarring disappointment will be with us until the day we die.

But there is something else—there is Jesus. There is God’s forgiveness of our sins for the sake of his Son. And along with that forgiveness comes the Lord’s promise to shelter us in every storm, every trouble, every moment of turmoil.

That’s real peace. That’s the only peace that matters. That is the peace under which you and I can rest, content and undisturbed.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, through faith in your Son, you have given me full forgiveness. You have also sheltered me in every storm. Remind me that, in you, I have nothing to fear. Amen.

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job 1:22

God is Watching Over Us

Daily Devotion – March 1, 2024

Devotion based on Job 1:22


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What a terrible day Job had! In a matter of moments, he lost everything: his livelihood, his wealth, and his family. Every earthly thing that he held dear was gone in an instant. We struggle to imagine what it would have been like to experience such a horrible day. How would you expect Job to feel?

Once the shock wore off, we would likely feel angry. In this anger, we may lash out at others or do something rash. We might shout at God and tell him that if he really loved us, he would not have allowed these terrible tragedies into our lives. And it may not be the first time we have had those sentiments.

How did Job keep himself in check? He was human like we are. He no doubt loved his family as we love ours. How could he not blame God or be angry with him? Job amazes us by not accusing God of doing anything wrong.

Yes, Job would struggle to understand why these things happened. He trusted that God was there for him and loved him. He trusted that God had a plan for his life. A plan that was centered around a promise. Later in this book, Job would confess his faith in the promise God had made to send a Savior. A Savior who would come to take away all sin and suffering and pain. A Savior who would come to give us victory over death. This Savior is Jesus, and he has come. He came to live and die for us all and to remove the curse of sin so that we could live forever in heaven.

This same God is the one who is watching over us. He has a loving purpose for us and is always focused on getting us home to him. So whenever you are tempted to be angry at God, realize this only pulls you away from the One who loves you and can help you. Instead of anger, turn to God in faith and let him lovingly lead you through each trial.

Prayer:
Dear Jesus, forgive me for the times I have directed my anger at you. Help me to trust you and to rely on your love for me. Amen.