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May 2017

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS may 2017

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS may 2017 

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

Date Verse Reading Comments

May 1 WS 727; 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12 You are already living to please God, but now I urge you to do it more and more,

LSB 697 for this is the will of God Who loves you.

May 2 TLH 603 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 The dead will surely rise, and here are some details as to how it will happen.
What encouragement for us!

May 3 TLH 201 Mark 16:1-8 The women weren’t expecting Jesus to rise, but He did just as He said. So also we will
rise just as He has said.

May 4 WS 759 Mark 16:9-20 Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances are additional proof for us that He lives again.Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS may 2017

Jesus, the Good Shepherd

Communication requires two things: a sender and a receiver. The most powerful transmitter in the world is worthless if no one turns on a radio, and all of the radios in the world are of little use if no one is broadcasting.

The same holds true with human interaction. Someone has to send, someone else has to receive. If either one is missing, communication fails. Wives tend to understand this, since husbands tend to have their “radios” turned off a lot. Kids too, for that matter. And yet wives and moms just keep transmitting . . . .

Why is this general topic so important? Because as Christians, you and I are in the communication business. That’s our job, that’s our calling, that’s our mission—and it ought to be our passion. When we listen to God’s Word, we are supposed to be the radios, receiving and actually hearing God’s message to us. But our life’s work is to be transmitters. In leaving us with His Great Commission, our Lord commanded us to center our lives upon the communication of the Gospel, which we all agree is the key to eternal life. The message we are to broadcast is very simple: Whoever believes that Jesus paid for the sins of the world through His sinless life and innocent death on the cross will be saved.

Understand that this is not part of our life’s work; this is our life. 

It is the sum and substance. Failure in every other secular pursuit is as nothing if we but succeed in our calling to “go and make disciples” for Jesus Christ. You and I are supposed to be the “senders” of the information—the transmitters. If Christians fail in this critical mission, Gospel communication fails. No one is saved by what they don’t hear. If Gospel communication fails, it must never be the transmitters who fail. Our communication can take many forms. Our actions often speak louder than our words. But while our actions might make those around us curious, it is always and only the Word of God that can convert and save, for through that Word alone the Holy Spirit works.Read More »Jesus, the Good Shepherd

Graduating to the Real World

DEVOTION – GRADUATION

“Do all things without complaining and disputing,  that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,  holding fast the word of life.” (Phil. 2:14-16)

Formal education is a time of preparation. That is the way it is seen in the world, and by Christians as well. We strive to prepare our young people for what is coming in life. Of course that includes preparing for a job, profession, or vocation. In the world it is seen as especially important that an education expose young people to new and different ways of thinking, challenge their values, and broaden their intellectual and cultural standards. The Christian educator would agree that it is important to open the eyes of the student to what is out there in the world; however, it may be with much more caution and far less blanket endorsement. Read More »Graduating to the Real World