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Lutheran Spokesman

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS June 2016

Date / Verse / Reading / Comments

Jun 1TLH 128 Acts 10:30-48 Jesus Christ, His death, and His resurrection are for the benefit of all people.

Jun 2 WS 743 Psalm 8 Man is given authority over creation (Gen 1:26), and Christ is given authority over all (Mt 28:18). Lord, how great Thou art!

Jun 3 WS 783 Psalm 23 When the Lord leads, goodness and love shall follow.

Jun 4 TLH 428 1 Samuel 17:1-50 There was no sword in the hand of David, but he trusted God’s “sword” and God delivered.

Jun 6 TLH 418 James 2:1-13 Sinning against any part of God’s Law is a sin against all of it. Pointed out  here are sins of partiality and of evil judgments.Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS June 2016

Letting the Lord Have the Limelight

“I, the servant, am inadequate and unworthy. We, the Lord’s people united by His Word, are inadequate  and unworthy. But that’s OK; that is exactly the way Jesus wants it to be.”

At Immanuel Lutheran Seminary, students will often sense inadequacy toward their role as future ministers of Christ. Their inadequacy is more than just a perception. It’s the only right response when looking at oneself with honesty and in view of what the ministry requires and deserves from those who serve. All things considered, the proper realization is this: “I, the servant, am inadequate and unworthy. We, the Lord’s people united by His Word, are inadequate and unworthy. But that’s OK; that is exactly the way Jesus wants it to be.”

As forerunner to the Messiah, John the Baptist understood this truth and how it pertained to his role in serving Jesus. He said in John 3:28-30: “You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent before Him.’ He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. Therefore this joy of mine is fulfilled. He must increase, but I must decrease.”

John knew the key to success in the work of proclaiming the Gospel. It’s not about the preacher or the missionary; it’s not about the members or the prospects either. It’s about Jesus. He, the Savior and Lord of the Church, must increase; but we—pastors and teachers, students and members—must decrease. Easier said than done, one might say. We all know how to make the work of God’s kingdom be about us in some way: our increasing workload, our lack of time and resources, our inability to do this or that. Our flesh makes self-awareness become self-absorption. As we increase in our own eyes, that too is a part of our inadequacy.Read More »Letting the Lord Have the Limelight

Hymn 464 “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”

It was just a small Baptist church, located in a poor rural area of the country and made up of parishioners who themselves possessed very little in terms of material wealth.  The salary they were able to pay their pastor was barely adequate, often consisting partly of produce grown by the parishioners—which they gave him in lieu of cash.

The pastor had been newly married when he accepted the call to serve them seven years earlier. Then came children. Now that the pastor and his wife were the parents of a growing family, their financial difficulty was becoming more serious, and it may have seemed providential to him that he had recently received a call to be the pastor of a large and prosperous Baptist church in the city. Read More »Hymn 464 “Blest Be the Tie That Binds”

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS May 2016

TLH = The Lutheran Hymnal, 1941; WS = Worship Supplement 2000; [ ] = Biblical Events Noted

Date / Biblical Events Noted / Verse / Reading Comments

May 2 TLH 33 Joshua 4:1-9 It is important to remember from generation to generation what the Lord
has done.

May 3 TLH 167 Luke 23:1-46 Pilate could not find any reason Jesus should die, but in the end the
Heavenly Father did.

May 4 TLH 447 Joshua 6:1-27 Six days of marching while nothing happened. They had to trust that on the
seventh day God would make good, as He said.

May 5 [The Ascension of our Lord] WS 757Luke 24:1-53He is risen and shall reign forever and ever!Read More »“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS May 2016

Hymn 216 “On Christ’s Ascension I Now Build”

A HYMN OF GLORY LET US SING 

(Fifth in a Series on The Lutheran Hymnal)

Why do we celebrate Ascension Day?

Although most Reformed churches today largely ignore the event as a calendar item, we Lutherans do not. Theologians actually have much to say about the doctrine of Christ’s bodily ascension. They use fancy Latin terms like terminus ad quem (“the end to which”), coelum beatorum (“the paradise of the redeemed”) and coelum Dei maiestaticum (“the majestic heaven of God”). The Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord addresses Christ’s ascension at length in Sections VII and VIII.Read More »Hymn 216 “On Christ’s Ascension I Now Build”