Advent Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries

Hey everyone!

I pray that your Thanksgiving was joyful, spent with family and friends and filled with reminders of our gracious Creator and Savior God. As of Sunday, we have now entered into the Advent season, in which the larger church prepares for its coming King - to celebrate His past coming as the baby of Bethlehem, to remember and celebrate His coming to us even now in His Word and Sacraments, and to repent, prepare, and rejoice in light of His promised coming again on the last day.

In order to aid you in your Advent meditation, Lutheran Hour Ministries has produced a couple of devotionals for the season. One follows a more traditional format, and the other is geared to a potentially younger, seeking audience. You can find both devotionals at http://www.adventdevotions.net/. God's blessings to you this Advent season!

Daily Bible Reading Plans added

Hey everyone, I've added links to a couple more daily Bible reading plans. Check them out by clicking on the tab "Daily Bible Reading Plans." Blessings on the coming weekend!

No "I hope so..." but rather, complete confidence

Dr. Dale Meyer, former Lutheran Hour speaker and current president of Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, produces a daily devotional entitled "The Meyer Minute." You can read and/or subscribe to the Meyer Minute at his website, www.daleameyer.com. Today's devotion captures the spirit of All Saints Day, which the Church celebrated yesterday. Our hope is not wishy-washy, but it is sure, because it rests in our risen Savior and not in us! A worthy reminder...

I've heard this said, and from my own experience I believe it happens.  The preacher asks the dying person, "Are you ready for eternity?". "I hope so," comes the answer.  "I've tried to lead a good life."

Excuse me?  I hope so?  I've tried to lead a good life???  Dear God, don't let  me, don't let any reader of this Minute go into that final journey with such waffling, such an uncertain "I hope so."  Yesterday many churches celebrated All Saints Sunday, remembering those who have gone into eternity with what?  Not with flimsy hope but with confidence in the only One who went into the valley of the shadow of death and came though alive.  "Thy works, not mine, O Christ, speak gladness to the heart.  They tell me all is done.  They bid my fear depart.  To whom save Thee, who canst alone for sin atone, Lord shall I flee?"  No flimsy "I hope so" from St. Paul.  "I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that He is able to guard until that Day what has been entrusted to me" (2 Timothy 1:12)

Jesus says, "My sheep hear My voice; I know them; and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life." (John 10:14) Do you know whom you believe?

Matthew 18 - The Right Way

Since September, a group of the saints of St. Peter and I have been walking through the Gospel according to Matthew on Wednesday nights at 7 PM (consider this your invitation if you haven't come before!). Last Wednesday, we walked through Matthew 18, where Jesus is teaching his disciples about God's care for his people, especially in the midst of their fallen condition. As sons and daughters of God who have received the abundant and free forgiveness of God, we in turn extend forgiveness to those who sin against us. But restoring a brother or sister in Christ who stumbles is not always easy - it requires wisdom and love.

Rev. Dr. Scott Murray of Memorial Lutheran Church in Houston, TX provided a wonderful devotion on this very topic the day after our class. Many thanks to John Brandt for forwarding this to me. You can access the devotion here. I pray that we would bring glory to our Father in heaven by doing the right thing "the right way."

Devotional Ideas

This site will be devoted largely to discussion of God's Word as we walk through it and encounter it on a daily basis. My question for you is this: What devotional resources do you use? What have you found helpful as you walk in God's Word? For me, it is a daily reading guide which assigns a reading from the Old Testament, a reading from the Psalms, and a reading from the New Testament every day. You can check it out here. By the end of the calendar year you end up reading through the entire Bible once and the Psalms twice. As I said, this is helpful for me. How about you? I would love to hear your ideas!

"Follow me!"

Follow me!" This is the call that Jesus issued to 12 ordinary men in the region of Galilee some 2000 years ago. In baptism, this is the same exciting call that he gives you and me - a call to come alongside him, learn from him, experience his compassion and grace, feel his indignation over the brokenness of our world, and see what he planned to do all along to make us and the creation right again. In this journey with Jesus, we struggle and have difficulty understanding at times. The Word does not always come to us easily - this is a good thing! I hope that this can be a place where we journey and struggle in the Scriptures together, and in the end celebrate our God's abundant grace in Christ. May God the Holy Spirit bless your journey in the Word!