A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily
prayers this week. We continue our sermon series of the 500th
anniversary of the reformation. The scripture is from our Sunday Service
Bulletin.
Epistle Reading –
Romans 10:9-15
9 because, if you confess with
your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God
raised him from the dead, you will be saved.10 For with
the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and
is saved. 11 For the Scripture says, “Everyone
who believes in him will not be put to shame.” 12 For
there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord
of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. 13 For “everyone
who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
14 How then will they call on him in
whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom
they have never heard?[a] And how are they to hear without
someone preaching? 15 And how are they to preach
unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the good news!
Devotion: The Urgency
of Change
It is changing before our eyes. Things happen today, as
reported in real time media, that I could not have believed would happen 10
years [or even less] ago. These happenings occur in both a good and a bad
sense. Some of the emerging technology innovations I can see as good and
unbelievably smart. But when I see some
of the bad personal behavior occurring publicly, I sometimes ask myself “what
are these people thinking?”. The world is changing in some ways that we just do
not understand. Five hundred years ago, Dr Martin Luther was a change agent.
After much study of the scripture and with an insider’s knowledge of the
church, as only an ordained monk would have, Luther sought change to a church
he thought was broken. He used three main points, stuck with them, and
eventually transformed a massive religious organization, and made history. He said:
Scripture Alone! He believed that we should abide by the bible instead of the
instructions of fallible humans. He said: Grace Alone! He knew that, by the
scripture, we cannot work ourselves into salvation—it is through God’s grace,
freely given, that we are saved. He said: Faith Alone! We are all both saints
and sinners, but through faith in Christ, sinners are declared to be forgiven
and perfectly right with God. Maybe these three timeless and unchanging points
are something we can use to strengthen our resolve as we address the awesome changes
we face today.
We pray: “Lord
we pray for strength as we confront change.
Amen”
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