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The Wisdom of the Wise Men

DEVOTION – EPIPHANY

The account of the coming of the Wise Men stands out as one of the highlights of the Christmas and Epiphany seasons. That account should be especially important to us, the believers of the Gentile nations. We look to the Wise Men as the first of the Gentiles to know and worship Jesus as their Savior and Lord. When they arrived in Jerusalem following a long and arduous journey, they immediately began asking about the newborn King. It seems they expected the entire nation to be caught up in the excitement of this momentous event, the coming of the long-promised Messiah. Yes, the question they posed was regarding the birth of the King of the Jews, but they made it evident that they had come to worship Him. This was something more than the usual honor paid when a new crown prince was born. They were searching for their king, a spiritual king.The Wisdom of the Wise Men

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS December 2016

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

Date Verse Reading Comments [Festivals of the Church Year]

Dec 1 WS 796 Jeremiah 31:3-9 God never forsakes His believing children, but nourishes and cherishes His remnant.

Dec 2 TLH 493 Ezekiel 2:1-3:4 Although Ezekiel was being sent to a rebellious people, the power of God’s Word would be working through Him.

Dec 3 TLH 424 Jeremiah 32:1-25 Jeremiah wasn’t buying a field to farm it. The acreage was a reminder of God’s promise to restore His people.

Dec 5 TLH 207 John 20:1-18 “I have seen the Lord!” – Mary Magdalene could say it, and you and I will say it.“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS December 2016

“He is Elijah, Who is to Come”

There are few Old Testament Bible accounts that captivate one’s imagination more than the story of the prophet Elijah.

Elijah served as the Lord’s mouthpiece in the northern Kingdom of Israel during the reign of wicked King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. The nation was rife with idolatry. The Lord used Elijah to show the folly of worshiping Baal (the rain-god) and Asherah (the moon-goddess and consort of Baal), and hoped thereby to call the people to repentance. At Elijah’s word, there was no rain in Israel for three and a half years, and at his word, rain returned to the land. At Elijah’s word, the Lord sent fire from heaven to consume the waterlogged sacrifice and stones on Mount Carmel. When the Lord’s work for Elijah was complete, the Lord took His faithful servant, body and soul, to heaven.“He is Elijah, Who is to Come”

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS NOvember 2016

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

Date Verse Reading Comments [Festivals of the Church Year]

Nov 1 TLH 190 Isaiah 35:1-10 Jesus brings redemption, peace, and joy to His people. Sorrow and sighing flee away!

Nov 2 TLH 503 Isaiah 37:14-20 Hezekiah prays that the name of the Lord would be held high and known among the nations.

Nov 3 WS 749 Micah 4:1-5 Christ’s kingdom would be established in the hearts of many, and they would walk in His ways and approach Him in worship.

Nov 4 WS 750 John 3:1-21 Jesus taught Nicodemus that His kingdom is a matter of the Spirit’s work in the heart, of faith in God’s Son.“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS NOvember 2016

Heaven is Our Home!

Elvis Presley sang “Home is where the heart is.” Computer techies would suggest “home is where your Wi-Fi connects automatically.” Poet Robert Frost said, “Home is where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.”

How about you? Where is your “home?”

After being gone from “home” with my wife to the Canadian Rockies recently, I know how great it is to be back “home” in the USA.

“Home” is where we live. It is where we have been, where we can get comfortable, where we are.Heaven is Our Home!

“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS October 2016

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

Date Verse Reading Comments [Festivals of the Church Year]

Oct 1 TLH 267 Psalm 46 With God as our fortress, we find safety amid any turmoil.

Oct 3 TLH 340 Psalm 92 We “bookend” our days with the Lord’s love and faithfulness (v. 2).

Oct 4 TLH 570 Psalm 136 A refrain for the ages.

Oct 5 TLH 339 2 Chronicles 9:13-23 Solomon’s riches and wisdom were as great as we can imagine.  But think now—one even greater than Solomon is here (Luke 11:31).

Oct 6 TLH 658 1 Timothy 6:3-16 Even as Christ fought the good fight of faith before Pontius Pilate, we as Jesus’ children flee the world’s evil and pursue  eternal life.“BREAD OF LIFE” READINGS October 2016

Our “New Wine” Reformation Heritage

“No one puts a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for
the patch tears away from the garment, and a worse tear is made. 

Neither is new wine put into old wineskins. If it is, the
skins burst and the wine is spilled and the skins are destroyed. 

But new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved”

(Matthew 9:16-17 ESV).

This parable is a practical example of taking good care of household items.

Patching an old garment with unshrunk cloth would make no sense—as soon as you would wash it, the patch would shrink and you would be worse off than you were before. Putting new wine (which is still expanding) into stiff old wineskins would only result in a wasteful mess.

What was Jesus’ point with this parable?

The religion practiced by the self-righteous Pharisees was an old wineskin. “Follow our rules, be as holy as we claim to be, and God will reward you” was their message. This old wineskin was all works and pride, but the new wine that Jesus brought was the opposite. It was confession of sin, and trust in Christ for forgiveness of that sin. Jesus’ point was that works and grace are incompatible. You can’t “patch up” a religion of works. You can’t pour  the Gospel of grace into a heart that claims its own righteousness. It’s one or the other, as St. Paul makes plain: “And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work” (Romans 11:6).Our “New Wine” Reformation Heritage

The Old Evil Foe STILL Means Deadly Woe

As evidenced in the famous Reformation hymn he wrote, Martin Luther was one person who did not have to be convinced of the existence of the devil, nor of the great danger that Satan poses to the souls of men. The monstrous nature of our old evil foe is aptly depicted in Revelation 20, where he appears as a dragon: “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, having the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. He laid hold of the dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and he cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished” (1-3).The Old Evil Foe STILL Means Deadly Woe