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February 2017

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS February 2017

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS February 2017 

TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; LSB = Lutheran Service Book, 2006

Date Verse Reading Comments

Feb 1 TLH 295 Romans 7:13-20 The Law is good, but it only leads us to recognize sin. It has no power to create spiritual life.

Feb 2TLH 297Romans 7:21-25Jesus Christ alone can set us free from sin and death.

Feb 3 TLH 446/LSB 418 Matthew 4:1-11 Although He was true God, Jesus went before the tempter as one of us. His defense is ours too: The Word of God.

Feb 4WS 771Matthew 4:12-22Jesus preaches and then shows His first disciples the joy of spreading the Gospel.

Feb 6TLH 557Matthew 4:23-25Along with sin came disease, sickness, and death into the world; but the Lord demonstrates His power over all these ills.Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS February 2017

Unto Us a Child Is Born

A birth announcement can be one of the more joyful tasks a married couple may complete. Whether the news is published online, with an old-fashioned picture, or with a card in the mail, everyone wants to hear the details—boy or girl? How much did he weigh? How long was he?  What’s the name? Who does the baby look like?

When Jesus was presented at the Temple forty days after His birth, it was no mere birth announcement for the delight of relatives and the curiosity of strangers. Rather, it was a fulfillment of God’s Law and a pronouncement of Who Jesus truly is.

The period of Jesus’ life that we refer to as the “state of humiliation”

was continuing. He had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. He spent nine months growing inside of His mother until the proper time had come for His arrival. At eight days old, Jesus had already begun to shed His innocent blood, in the rite of circumcision. Now His mother and step-father brought Him to the Temple for His mother’s purification and His own ritual redemption.Read More »Unto Us a Child Is Born

Hymn 129 Once Far Off But Now Invited

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING (FIFTEENTH IN A SERIES)

Sometimes it helps to see a sequence of letters in print to understand what is being said. Consider a-p-a-r-t. When those letters are placed next to each other it means, ironically, that items are separated. They are “apart.” When the first two letters are separated, however, it conveys that items are connected. They are “a part.”

Which of those options applies to our relationship with the people of God?

As a group, we Gentiles—those who cannot trace blood lines back to Abraham—were separate from the covenant people of Old Testament times. Gentiles were apart from God’s chosen people of Israel, apart from those to whom the prophets were sent and the promises given.Read More »Hymn 129 Once Far Off But Now Invited

Completed Actions, Abiding Results

“Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25Read More »Completed Actions, Abiding Results