Devotions from Pastor Strucely
Jesus Ascends to Permanent Glory
That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
Ephesians 1:19-21
There will be a new Stanley Cup champion in the National Hockey League this year. My Dallas Stars defeated last year’s champion the Vegas Golden Knights in seven games. The Golden Knights reached the height of glory in 2023, but their glory only lasted one year. Even the Stars’ Sunday glory has faded a little with them blowing a 3-0 lead to lose game 1 against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.
That’s how earthly glory goes. You reach a peak of glory in your life, perhaps not as glorious as other peaks but glorious all the same. And yet, it lasts only a little while. Who besides your teammates still remembers your state championship from 50 years ago? Who still remembers that you as a fresh-faced grad ready to take the working world by storm? Who still remembers how you singlehandedly won trivia night? The trophies are in boxes. The money’s been spent. Glory fades.
Today, Ascension Thursday, Jesus ascended into permanent glory. It’s a coronation, a crowning ceremony. Ephesians 1:19-21 tells us that Jesus’ glory is both better than earthly glory—“far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked”—and longer lasting—“not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
We spend much of our lives seeking a fleeting glory. Many of us suffer because we don’t have the glory we desire. But like all things of this world, the light of this glory grows dim, its shine tarnishes, its promise fades. Should we only have this glory, only seek this glory, our lives would end in shame.
But we can have lasting glory, too. It’s not glory we attain for ourselves through our accomplishments, our successes, or our monuments to ourselves. Instead, Christ promises to share his glory with us. He is the eternal champion, and our championship run will never end because his reign will never end. “Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:57).
Forget the world’s glory. Hold onto Christ’s glory. And when your eyes see the glory of the coming of the Lord, sing, “Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!” because you know your glory is near.
Are You a Son or Daughter of Encouragement?
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.
Acts 4:36,37
Barnabas is one of my favorite Bible people. His real name was Joseph, but something about him caused Jesus’ very own apostles to call him “son of encouragement.” Later on, he was chosen directly by the Holy Spirit, along with the Apostle Paul, to carry the good news about Jesus to new cities and countries.
What does “son of encouragement” mean? Obviously, his dad was not named Encouragement. Instead, it was a name given to him because he was so full of encouragement, that’s what everyone knew him for.
Are you a son or daughter of encouragement? It might be helpful to know what encouragement means. In the Greek the Bible was written in, it’s a compound word meaning to “speak alongside.” So, it is not a speaking down to someone from a position of authority. Sometimes, yes, that is necessary. The encourager, rather, is on the same level as the person receiving encouragement.
what is the difference between
speaking to or at someone
and speaking alongside someone?
That does not mean simply saying what the person alongside you wants to hear. They may need correction, advice, or guidance. They also need affirmation, respect, and a listening ear.
Nor does it mean that a person in authority can’t be an encourager. But encouragement does require the person in authority to find a way not to speak down to but to speak alongside the person they want to encourage.
The picture of speaking alongside someone shows that you’re both pointed in the same direction, both looking at the same goal. In the case of Christians, we share the common goal of following Christ as he leads us to heaven.
But, why encourage? It is because our Lord Jesus encourages us to encourage others in his Word (2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 5:11, 14; Hebrews 3:13). He truly has encouraged us by giving us the good news that our Father in heaven does not hold our sins against us, but rather forgives us for the sake of his Son, our Lord Jesus.
And if you have the special gift of encouragement, that is, you are a son or daughter of encouragement, you are encouraged to use your gift. Paul writes in Romans 12:
For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. … If [your gift] is to encourage, then give encouragement.
Are you a son or daughter of encouragement? We may not all have been equipped with the same gifts for encouragement. But we have all been given a gift with which we can encourage. We have the good news of Jesus which enables us to point our brothers and sisters to his cross where they can find their hope, their peace, and their encouragement.
Searching for Purpose
Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.
Colossians 3:23,24
Are you searching for purpose? Life seems directionless. You feel as though you aren’t making a difference. You wonder what the meaning of life is.
Part of our search for purpose is a search for something beyond the ordinary. We want a purpose that sets us apart from others. Sometimes, this is tinged with sinful pride that wants others to notice us and give us glory.
The passage from Colossians 3 comes at the end of a short list of encouragements Paul wrote to members of Christian households. Wives, husbands, children, parents. Slaves, too, since they were a part of households at the time.
Is there anything more ordinary than being someone’s child? Or being married? Or being a parent? If indeed we are searching for a purpose just to bring ourselves honor and glory, we’re not going to find it in these roles. Often, we won’t receive honor or glory even from the people we’re serving, as wife to husband or husband to wife, as children to parents or parents to children. Every parent knows what it’s like to put a meal they worked hard on on the table only for their child to push it away.
But Paul says that when you fulfill your role—your purpose—as a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a husband, a wife, it’s not just your family that you’re serving. The same could be said in your role as an employer or employee. You’re not just serving your boss, your colleagues, or your customers. “It is the Lord Jesus you are serving.”
Doesn’t that change things? You may not always want to serve the people in your house or at work. But because Jesus has redeemed you, has made you God’s child, has promised you the reward of heaven he won, you do want to serve Jesus. And Jesus tells you, “This is how you serve me.”
What an encouragement to serve! See your service to your husband or wife as service to Jesus. Your service to your son or daughter as service to Jesus. Your service to your mom or dad. Your service to your boss or employees. This is service to Jesus, and it is service that he loves, honors, and appreciates.
Do these purposes seem unique? Maybe not. Many are parents, children, and spouses. It is not the role itself that’s unique. Instead, it’s the people you serve that makes your purpose unique. You are the parent for your children. You are the child of your parents. You are the husband to your wife or the wife to your husband. I didn’t even mention the roles of brother, sister, aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa, and citizen. And even if you share the role with someone else, as in cases outside of husband and wife, father and mother, God has given you unique gifts to carry out your service to Jesus alongside those who fill the same role.
Give thanks to God for giving life purpose. He has called us to be his own and to live under him in his kingdom both now and forever. He has forgiven us for our failures to carry out our God-given roles and even for despising them. He equips us now for service out of love for him by showing love to them whom he has given us.
What Happened to Me?
Start children off on the way they should go,
and even when they are old they will not turn from it.Proverbs 22:6
We often hear this passage used to encourage parents to bring their children up in the faith. To bring them to church and Sunday school. To have family devotions. To set an example of Christian living for their kids.
It’s also an encouragement for Christian parents whose children are wandering from the faith. A good foundation has been laid, and we pray that one day the Good Shepherd will bring his sheep home by leading them back to that firm foundation.
But what if we looked at this passage from a different perspective? What if we put ourselves in the teenager or young adult’s shoes? Maybe, reader, they are your shoes.
Growing up in the church, you loved God. You took him at his Word. You had the faith of a child that Jesus talks about (Mark 10:14). You learned the Ten Commandments and wanted to love God because of all his love for you. You learned how Jesus died for your sins and opened heaven to you.
But then you got older. And faith got harder.
And now you find yourself facing temptations you only heard about in confirmation class, temptations you always thought you’d be able to deny with Jesus’ help, but you find yourself failing and falling again and again.
Now you find yourself facing bigger questions and bigger challenges to your faith than you ever have. Curious questions from non-Christians. Sharp challenges from skeptics. Maybe you find yourself doubting that the true God is the God of the Bible. Maybe you find yourself doubting that he loves you. Maybe you find yourself doubting that there exists a God to love you at all.
You find yourself asking, “What happened to me?”
Though your temptations are tougher now and your sins seem more alarming than before, Jesus’ forgiveness is still greater. His power to protect you from temptation is still greater than the devil and the world’s power to tempt. By learning the true power of temptation and sin, you are learning more and more how great Jesus’ power to save is, how deep Jesus’ love for you is.
Though the questions and the challenges are bigger now, but God’s Word meets the challenge. Though you learned the basics of the faith, God uses these challenges and questions to drive you deeper into his Word, to learn more about him, to rely more on his wisdom and strength.
It’s not easy to be a young Christian, especially in today’s world. Those of us who are a little older are praying for you. We are here for you. Pray for us that we might show you also the love and understanding of Christ as we all come together in his kingdom.
No Hospitals in Heaven
When Jesus came into Peter’s house, he saw Peter’s mother-in-law lying in bed with a fever. He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.
When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
“He took up our infirmities
and bore our diseases.”Matthew 8:14-17
There are 118 hospitals in the DFW Metroplex serving 6.5 million people.
There are 0 hospitals in heaven serving the countless souls who now rest with God.
That may seem obvious, but it’s a point worth emphasizing. Most of us spent our first days in a hospital. Many families have made visits to the ER for a broken arm or stitches. Some have been in the hospital so often they know every nurse by name. As you get older, you tend to visit the hospital more often, for surgeries, for illnesses. And many leave this world in the same place they entered it, a hospital.
But there are no hospitals in heaven. We won’t need them anymore. That’s because Jesus has come to take away the root cause of all our diseases.
We see Jesus healing people, casting out demons, giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. The evangelist Matthew tells us that this fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.”
Maybe you heard those words as recently as last Friday. They come from a longer well-known section of Isaiah in chapter 53:
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.Isaiah 53:4-6
Isaiah 53 points to Jesus’ suffering as payment for our sin. The apostle Peter makes that clear in the second chapter of his first letter. But the Holy Spirit also inspired the apostle Matthew to connect his suffering and death to our infirmities and diseases. In his wounds, God promises us eternal healing when we get to heaven. By his death, he has defeated physical death for us and all its symptoms. Because in heaven there will be no more death, there will also be no more hospitals.
Validation or Forgiveness?
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8
Do you know how a presidential pardon works?
The intent of the pardon isn’t to say that the person was wrongly convicted or what they did was actually ok. Here is the description of a pardon from the Department of Justice website:
A pardon is an expression of the President’s forgiveness and ordinarily is granted in recognition of the applicant’s acceptance of responsibility for the crime and established good conduct for a significant period of time after conviction or completion of sentence. It does not signify innocence.
The pardoned person still did what they did. They committed the crime. What the pardon does is remove the penalties for the crime.
Sometimes, it is easy to twist Jesus’ love and pardon into validation. To think, “I can do whatever I want because Jesus will still love me.” It is even easy to forget the need for forgiveness and to see Jesus only as proof of validation for who you are.
We can become like Ron Swanson in an episode of Parks and Recreation. He ironically wins the award for Woman of the Year (because the grantors of the award are trying to shake things up. His colleague Leslie Knope calls him out on passing off work to someone else by saying, “That’s not really the attitude I expect from an award winner.”
And Ron retorts, “Everything I do is the attitude of an award winner because I have won an award.”
We might change that to say, “God validates everything I do because I am a child of God.”
Not so. Jesus doesn’t come to bring validation. He comes to bring forgiveness. Though we are truly guilty, he took our guilt on his shoulders. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Because of Jesus, the penalties for our sin are removed forever, and we are made God’s children.
Understanding Jesus’ forgiveness changes how we live. Rather than doing whatever we want in an abuse of God’s paternal love, we now strive by God’s grace to do what God wants. We have been changed. The Holy Spirit dwells within us to produce fruits of the Spirit, to help us resist sin, and to live at peace knowing that all our sins are forgiven and that we stand righteous before God because of his Son.
At the Top of Your Game
All our days pass away under your wrath;
we finish our years with a moan.
Our days may come to seventy years,
or eighty, if our strength endures;
yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow,
for they quickly pass, and we fly away.Psalm 90:9,10
It took Ray Bourque 22 years to win a Stanley Cup. It took John Elway fifteen seasons to win one, and, for good measure, he won another the next year. Both retired after their championship seasons.
Most star athletes would prefer to go out on top. If they can’t win the championship, perhaps at least they can at least still be at the top of their game. But how many times do we see someone who sticks around just a little too long? At some point, it just seems sad. They can’t compete anymore.
We’d like to go out on top. If only we could live our seventy or eighty years at full strength. If only we didn’t physically peak in our mid-twenties. If only our minds would stay sharp. If only our bodies wouldn’t give out.
Moses reminds us that’s not how it works. “We finish our years with a moan.” Maybe it just seems sad.
The frailty of our lives reminds us that need someone else’s strength. A strength that will endure. In verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 90, Moses writes,
Lord, you have been our dwelling place
throughout all generations.
Before the mountains were born
or you brought forth the whole world,
from everlasting to everlasting you are God.
God is always at the top of his game. He is always at his mental and “physical” peak. He is always almighty and all-knowing.
And, at the same time his power and knowledge and wisdom are all-encompassing and everlasting, he is also our dwelling place. In him we find the place to rest our withering bodies, our weary minds, and our worn-out souls.
When you get up out of your chair in a few minutes, and your muscles ache and your joints creak, remember that you may not be at the top of your game anymore. But in God, you have place to retire.
Start the New Year Off Right
“I the Lord do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord Almighty.
Malachi 3:6,7
Have you planned your New Year’s resolutions yet? What new diet are you starting January 1st? Maybe you’re planning to give something up. Maybe you’re planning to start something new. Or maybe you’re planning to restart something old.
How was your relationship with God this past year? Was he first in your life? Did you make time for him?
Perhaps this past year you turned away from God’s Word. Maybe not a 180° turn. But a slight turn. Other things in your life took priority. Kids. Work. Leisure. I’m not saying I’m perfect in this regard either.
Do you know who is? As unfaithful as we can be to hearing and reading God’s Word and to doing his will, God is always faithful. That’s what he told the Israelites: “I the Lord do not change.” Long ago, he had made a covenant that he wouldn’t destroy Israel. Even though they turned away from him again and again since the time of their ancestors, God still didn’t destroy them.
In fact, he called them to return. “Return to me, and I will return to you.” God hadn’t destroyed them physically, but they were dying and dead spiritually. God wanted them to return to him so that they would again receive his spiritual blessings of peace, hope, and forgiveness.
God has been faithful to you throughout this entire year. He doesn’t change. And even though you haven’t always been faithful to him, he still reaches out with his call to return. Return to hearing his Word. Go to church where you can receive his Supper for the forgiveness of your sins. Come home to him, and he will give you rest.
How Good and Pleasant It Is!
This devotion is provided by WELS Congregational Services.
How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!Psalm 133:1
It is a beautiful thing when everyone works together and is unified. We are more joyful, more supported, more productive, and we love one another. Getting to this peaceful place and maintaining it can be difficult. There are so many personalities in a congregation, so many opinions on the best way to do things or plan for the future. Everyone is so busy!
Jesus knew the struggle. He battled division among his own disciples as they argued about who was greatest. There was the time Mrs. Zebedee asked for her sons, James and John, to sit on thrones on either side of Jesus relegating the rest of the disciples to folding chairs. They were indignant.
So, what brings cohesiveness? Only God’s grace in Jesus Christ can accomplish unity among us. At one time we were all strangers, foreigners outside the kingdom of God. Jesus brought us into his kingdom through his selfless, innocent suffering and death in our place, paying the penalty of our self-centeredness, arrogance, and hard hearts. God has forgiven us because of Jesus and only because of him. The Word brings us the unity that comes from God’s grace. We put aside our agendas, our self-centeredness, our need to be first, and we learn from our Savior to love one another according to his Word. As we grow together into a cohesive unit around his Word, we seek to bring others in as well.
Jesus told his disciples the world would know they were his if they loved one another. People notice it when they walk into church—they can sense the love or lack of it. How important God’s grace is! Hold to his Word. Love one another. As you seek to be hospitable to others, they’ll recognize, “How good and pleasant it is.”
May God use unity to open doors for his Word and his love in Christ.
Saving the Self-Righteous Son
Now the tax collectors and sinners were all gathering around to hear Jesus. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
Then Jesus told them this parable:
…
“Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”
Luke 15:1-3,25-32
Many, if not most, people naturally relate with the prodigal son in that famous parable. The son who demanded his inheritance before his father even died, who wasted it in wild living, who had nothing when famine struck, who hit rock bottom feeding the pigs. You likely do, too. We marvel at the father’s grace as he welcomes his son home without question or condition.
Because we often put ourselves in the prodigal son’s place, we often direct much of our outreach efforts toward those lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7) and lost coins (Luke 15:8-10). Indeed, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). We turn our attention to the people who already sense how lost they are. People who think church isn’t for them because they aren’t worthy of God’s grace. We get to the convey the message: God’s grace isn’t for the worthy; it’s for sinners.
We often ignore, however, the other son in the parable. Well, maybe ignore isn’t the right word. We recognize him. He’s that person who makes those prodigal sons and daughters feel uncomfortable. They’re the people who make the lost not want to come to church. We may even find a little bit of the older son in our own hearts when new people who don’t quite fit the mold enter our doors.
What we often don’t recognize is the older son is just as lost. He’s not lost like the younger son. The younger son is lost in despair. The older son is lost in self-righteousness. “All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders,” (Luke 15:29) he says.
Does Jesus want to save the self-righteous? He says elsewhere, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Luke 5:31,32). Perhaps Jesus only came to save those who know they are lost and to condemn those self-righteous religious bullies.
This is, in fact, what many would like Jesus to do, including us at times. Save the lost. Condemn the self-righteous. But Jesus also wants to save the self-righteous. He wants to save them, too, because even though they are righteous in their own eyes, they are lost in God’s eyes because they trust in their own righteousness and not in Christ’s.
The father in the parable invites his older son to come into the party. But we don’t know if he did. The invitation is there. Will he abandon his self-righteousness and come to the feast?
Jesus told this parable and the other two in Luke 15 to the self-righteous Pharisees. On the one hand, he affirms that the lost are welcome in his kingdom. On the other, he also invites the self-righteous to recognize their own lostness and enter the feast as well.
This call is sincere. We even see the self-righteous answer the call. The apostle Paul was a self-righteous Pharisee before he became a missionary for Jesus (Philippians 3:4-6). Jesus came to Paul in a vision and totally destroyed his self-righteous delusions (Acts 26:9-18). Jesus came to save Paul, even Paul as self-righteous as he was (1 Timothy 1:12-15).
Jesus called the self-righteous while he was here on earth. He died for the self-righteous. So, why do we struggle to seek the self-righteous?
It’s hard. We see how the self-righteous opposed Jesus even as he called them. The lost don’t need to be convinced of their need for salvation. They need the Holy Spirit to convince them they can be saved. The self-righteous person, however, first needs to be convicted of their lostness before they can be brought to the knowledge of their Savior.
Even from a perhaps less than sanctified perspective, the power dynamic is different. When reaching the lost, we set ourselves up in a position of knowledge and power. We reach a hand down to lift them up. But the self-righteous stand high above us on pedestals of their own making. Even though they are still slaves to sin, they believe themselves lords over the lost.
It’s hard to reach the self-righteous. They wear an armor the lost don’t wear. But the armor of their self-glory and self-righteousness is not impenetrable for the Holy Spirit. He empowers our words of both law to convict the sinner and gospel to save the sinner so that they might hear the father’s invitation and enter the feast.
As you consider how you share the good news of Jesus, remember the self-righteous. Jesus came to save them, too, just as he came to save the lost. Just as he came to save you—once lost, now found, at times self-righteous, at others despairing, always needing a Savior.
Watch Out for Ear Scratchers
For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
2 Timothy 4:3,4
What do you do when you have an itch you just can’t quite scratch? Maybe you ask your spouse to get that spot. Or you have a backscratcher shaped like a little hand. Or you rub the itch on something that takes care of it.
What do you do for itching ears? No, Paul’s not talking about itchiness from allergies or poor hygiene. He’s talking about ears itching for affirmation and approval.
Let me stop you right here. When you read the passage from 2 Timothy or saw the words “affirmation” and “approval,” did you immediately think of all those people who twist the Bible to say what they want it to say and find as many people as possible who agree with them so they can keep on living their lifestyle? Sure, Paul’s talking about them.
But he’s warning you, too. Those teachers aren’t the only ear-scratchers. The teachers Paul mentions don’t even have to be religious or “Christian” teachers. They can be philosophers, news pundits, and influencers. What are your ears itching to hear? Whom are you allowing to teach you?
Have you gathered around yourself teachers who affirm your greed? Maybe they don’t proclaim, “Greed is good,” like Gordon Gekko. But they do tell you that you don’t have to be generous with your hard-earned money. That’s all for you.
“Greed is good.” — Gordon Gekko, Wall Street
Have you found teachers who affirm your hate? Teachers who despise the people you despise, who teach you new and different ways to be outraged and loathing, who know you’ll keep coming back because hate is so much more addictive than love.
Have you abandoned teachers who did not give you the affirmation and approval you sought? Teachers who showed you from the Bible that your desires and actions were wrong, who, instead of scratching your ears and affirming your sins, told you that those sins were unacceptable to God.
As affirming and approving as such teachers may be, they are merely pandering peddlers of myths. Salvation doesn’t mean affirmation and approval of a person’s sinful desires. Jesus saves us FROM our sinful desires which lead us away from life with God now and in heaven. That’s the truth!
The next time you find yourself sitting at the feet of a teacher you’ve found, be they in a coffee shop, in your living room, on your TV or phone, ask yourself, “Is this person telling me what I need to hear or what I want to hear?” Better yet, ask yourself, “Is this person telling me what my God says or are they echoing what my heart says?”
And if you find they are only telling you what your itching ears want to hear, if they are denying what God says about greed, about hate, about sex—about any sin—run away! Turn off the screen! Run to the truth of God’s Word which condemns your sin but reveals your Savior Jesus who won’t scratch your ears but who will soothe the itching.
We Have an Image Problem
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:1-3
My son is a lot like me. He looks like me. For better or for worse, he acts like me. He is a son in my own image.
“When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God.” He created mankind to be like him, holy and righteous and just. But a lot happened between Genesis 1 and Genesis 5. The first people, Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and fell into sin. Their perfect nature was corrupted. This image of God was lost.
Evidence of this appeared quickly. Adam and Eve’s firstborn son killed their secondborn. Later, they had another son, among all their other sons and daughters, named Seth. We’re told that “when Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.” Uh oh.
The Bible reveals how everything we touch or form or create, we make it in our own image. Paul states in Romans 1:
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
Romans 1:22,23
When it comes to creating “gods,” humans are short on creativity. Their images are made of human beings or even of the inferior animals.
We form our families in our own image. We shape our careers in our own likeness. We make our friendships and relationships a reflection of ourselves.
And what do we find? Though what we shape, what we form, what we create may be a near-perfect representation of ourselves—imperfect, defective, broken—it will be unrecognizable as a reflection of the holy God who is wholly God.
But there is good news. Though our image is imperfect, defective, and broken—though it is sinful—God restores his image to us. He sent Jesus who “is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). As the the image of God, Jesus lived a perfect, whole, and unbroken life for us. What he shaped, what he formed, what he touched, all of it was made whole.
And he has chosen us to be “conformed to the image of his Son” (Romans 8:29) so that we may be seen as perfect, whole, and unbroken before God. In Christ, we “have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (Colossians 3:10).
Because we are being renewed in God’s image, we now shape our families according to his will. We pursue our careers to his glory. We treat our relationships with others as God treats us. Though we fail, he still renews us. Though sin gets in the way, he still sustains us.
We had an image problem. But no more. God restores us in his image and his likeness through his Son and makes us whole again.
Goodbye, Old Life! Hello, New!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!
2 Corinthians 5:17
You’re struggling with life. You’re overworked. Your family’s a mess. Perhaps, you’re struggling to take care of yourself, to eat right and exercise. Who has time to prepare a homecooked meal? Who has the energy to go to the gym?
Perhaps, your spiritual life is struggling, too. Now, the dots are starting to connect. Maybe you’ve already made this connection. “If I just get back into a healthy spiritual routine, then I’ll have the power/strength/energy to do it all.”
Wait a minute. Is that right? Have you connected the dots in the right order? In this line of thinking, faith becomes a supplement to living the old life. If you just need power/strength/energy to live the old life, you could work on your spiritual health…
…or you could drink a Red Bull.
Being in Christ means more than living the old life in a new way with newfound power, strength, or energy. Being in Christ means that the new creation has come. In Christ, you live a new life, a life you weren’t living before.
How exactly is this life new? It’s a life where you’ve been reconciled to God. Paul the Apostle writes,
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them.
2 Corinthians 5:18,19
The old life is at war with God. The new life is reconciled to God. The old life relies on the faltering self. The new life relies on the dependable God. The old life shares the world’s selfish attitude toward living. The new life shares Jesus’ selfless attitude.
“For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.”
2 Corinthians 5:14,15
(You may have noticed that all these verses are connected.)
Now, this doesn’t mean you don’t have to work anymore. But, if you are overworked, consider what factors are causing your exhaustion. Do you have a high-paying, high-responsibility job? Why do you stay in that job if it’s slowly killing you? Will your heart let you find a job with less pay but also less stress? A heart made new in Christ will trust in God to provide even on a lower salary.
Or maybe you’re working multiple jobs to make ends meet. You’re working 80-90 hours a week. Yes, there’s a lot outside your control. But consider what is under your control, leaving the rest to the God who controls all things.
Even in this new life, your family might still be a mess. Consider your role in the mess. Is there something you need to repent of? The person made new in Christ can ask for and give forgiveness because they have already been reconciled to God. This new person seeks to live in and out the grace they have received through Jesus.
The new life is more than just help for living the same old life. It is a whole new outlook on life, indeed a whole new life. Because God has reconciled you to himself in Christ, you are free to live life for him. You are empowered to live life for others because through Jesus you already have the full life from God forever. In Christ, you have a new life. Leave the old behind. Live the new to the full.
The Struggle is...
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Romans 7:14-25
You’ve heard the phrase “The struggle is real.” In a meme-filled world, that phrase has taken on a joking quality. Someone might say, “My internet was down for 2 hours yesterday. I had nothing to do. The struggle is real.” Though today it’s used humorously, its origin is a bit more somber.
Paul describes a very real struggle that goes on within every Christian. It was going on within Paul himself. And yes, this is limited to Christians because only Christians are “born of water and the Spirit,” as Jesus says (John 3:5). The non-Christian isn’t trying to follow God’s law, even if the law they follow sometimes lines up with God’s law.
Yes, this struggle is real. It’s real because though every Christian, like Paul, is sainted and sanctified by God, each and every Christian is, like Paul, “unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin.” And, oh, how this plays out in your life as a Christian.
The Christian man or woman wants to show love to their spouse but often offers up a mean quip instead of an affectionate word. The Christian student or employee wants to honor God through diligent work but laziness wins the day. The Christian wants to shine a light in this dark world but fear or hate take over instead.
The struggle is real. But we Christians (because, again, only Christians have this struggle) often find ourselves living a fiction. On the one hand, we choose to ignore the struggle. We believe we’re somehow not at fault.
“I said that to my wife only because she’s getting on my nerves.”
“I would work harder, but I’m not being rewarded.”
“How could I possibly love that person?”
We make excuses to preserve our self-righteousness. Fool’s gold is what that righteousness is.
On the other hand, we wallow in despair.
“I’m supposed to be a Christian, but what Christian would do such things?”
“How can I call myself a Christian if I’m still sinning day after day?”
“How can I be a Christian and still struggle?”
“I must not really be a Christian.”
Our enemy the devil would love for us to fall into one of these extremes. Either to believe we don’t really need a Savior because we’re so righteous or to believe there’s no Savior for us because we’re too depraved.
The struggle is real. And it is necessary. It keeps us focused. When we admit the struggle is real, we must despair of our self-righteousness. We must declare with Paul, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?”
But despair is not the end. There is one who can deliver you from the struggle because he has overcome the struggle for you. “Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!” He delivers us from our wretchedness and gives us power in our struggle against the flesh, now a reeling opponent on the brink of a knockout. The struggle inside drives us outside again and again to the only one who can deliver this wretched and depraved soul. He gives us his righteousness, a righteousness that is true gold. And he will fully deliver us from the struggle when he removes the sinful flesh from us forever in heaven.
"You Will Be Like God"
You will be like God, knowing good and evil.
Genesis 3:5b
Be honest. Why did you click on this devotion? Was it because you were ready to wring my neck for giving it such a brazen title? Or was it, perhaps, because you were just a little interested in finding out where the Bible says that you will be like God?
From the very beginning, the devil has used this temptation against us. Those are Satan’s words quoted above. God had told our ancestors Adam and Eve not to eat from a certain tree in the middle of the garden he created for them. If they did, they would die.
All it took for them to disobey was for the devil to prey on their egos. “You will not certainly die. For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Genesis 3:4,5).
In this case, the temptation was to know what God knows. Even in perfection, Adam and Eve didn’t know everything. They had to rely on God. But if they knew what God knew or even knew just a small part of what God had decided not to reveal to them, they could rely on God just a little bit less. They could instead rely on themselves.
Their eyes indeed were opened. But it wasn’t power that entered their hearts. It was fear. They hid. It wasn’t divine glory that radiated from them. It was shame. They covered themselves. In their desire to become like God, they had made themselves less like him. They destroyed the holiness and righteousness that came from being made in his image.
What did God do? He spoke to the devil: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” He pronounced the judgment on the man and woman: “Dust you are and to dust you will return.”
In other words, he said, “You need me now more than ever. I am here. I will come to rescue you from the serpent’s bite.” Jesus came, the long-awaited offspring of Eve, and he crushed Satan’s head through his death on the cross.
The devil still casts his line with the same bait. “You will be like God.” And just as the fruit of that tree seemed so pleasing to the eye back in Eden, so the allure of sin dangles before us. The seduction of power, to be our own masters, to rely only on ourselves.
The devil tempts us with delusions of becoming rich like God so that we abandon our Father to serve wealth. He persuades us with the promise of God-like power to control the chaos of our lives so that we don’t need God to do that. He lures us in with a promise of self-made righteousness that still allows us to live how we please and not to please God. “You will be like God. You won’t need him anymore.”
Where are we left, however, when our wealth, power, and righteousness fail? They always fail in the end. We are left naked and afraid.
And it is then that God comes to us and says, “You need me now more than ever. I am here. I have sent my Son to rescue you from the serpent’s bite.” And through his Son, he restores the relationship he created at the very beginning: He, our Father; we, his children. We, relying on him for everything; he, always giving us all we need.
A God-Lived Life is Good for Us and Makes God Happy!
This devotion is provided by WELS Congregational Services.
“His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’”
Matthew 25:23
Jesus told the parable of the master who gave his three servants gold in large, yet differing amounts: five bags to the first, two to the second, one to the third—and then went away for a time. When the master returned, the servant with five bags had put the money to work and earned five more. The one with two earned two more. But the one who was given one bag hid it in the ground, then handed it back. The two who had put the gold to work were told the words we hear today. The third, who did nothing, was rebuked.
Here’s the lesson: It brings joy to the master when his servants are faithful workers. The master gives different gifts and responsibilities according to his wisdom and the ability of the servant. But he assigns work for each one. Even the one with the least number of gifts still has work to do.
The message is clear: God has given us differing amounts of gifts, abilities, and gold. Our task is not to focus on what the next person has or to be paralyzed with uncertainty or fear of the master. Our goal is to be wise in the way we use the gold God has given. We are to put it to work in his kingdom to do the good he intends with it.
God’s greatest pleasure is your faithfulness with his gifts. He loves when you grow in ability, understanding, and responsibility. He is pleased to give more as you serve him. Sometimes we act like the servant with one bag of god, fearful and uncertain so we don’t use it or hoard it for ourselves. God forgive us for Jesus’ sake! And God does that because of Jesus’ cross and empty tomb.
Jesus, the perfect servant and substitute, points us to the examples of the two servants and declares, “Live in my grace and forgiveness.” Put the bags of gold he’s given you to work in his kingdom and faithfully labor for him. Whether two or five bags are gained, the Lord says, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” We’ll have eternity to thank him for making us a part of his great kingdom and its work, to talk about all he brought us through and how he grew us.
Faithful management of his gifts is good for us and makes God happy. God bless your life as you live for him!
It's a Gift. Share It Freely!
This devotion is provided by WELS Congregational Services.
Freely you have received; freely give.
Matthew 10:8b
Maybe you had one too—an uncle or aunt who never failed to bring a gift when they visited. Maybe it was a box of expensive kids’ cereal your mom would NEVER get, a whole sleeve of candy bars, or a bunch of pies that would disappear in a few minutes. But the gift would come with a caveat usually understood but sometimes spoken, “Share this with your siblings.” It was a gift meant to be shared by more than one.
Jesus gave his disciples a gift—a mission to share the good news of Jesus and the power to do it. Jesus equipped them with all they would need for their mission. If they lacked something, God would provide it through other people. Jesus sent them out with these words ringing in their ears, “Freely you have received; freely give.”
As we consider living life shrewdly, isn’t that the best motivation? It begins with recognizing the things we call our own are really gifts from our gracious God. God always takes care of us, through normal channels or the miraculous, and teaches us something about his faithfulness in the process. That means our possessions, finances, time, and talents are not to be held with clenched fists and furrowed brow shouting, “Mine!” How much time have we wasted doing that! How many relationships have been strained or opportunities in our lives or the church missed because of our selfishness! No, all we have is for God’s glory and for the good of our neighbor.
To live a shrewd life is to recognize the mercy and grace of God who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. He suffered for our sins and selfishness to earn our complete forgiveness, peace with God, and eternity in heaven. Jesus rose from the grave with power and authority. He is the one who will be with us and provide our every need. He gave forgiveness to us freely, eternal life freely, and everything we have freely, and he continues to give! These are gifts to share! We give back to him in thankfulness to support his work among us. We share ourselves, his message, what we have with our families, our neighbors, all who need it. They are all gifts from a gracious God. Share them freely.
“Freely you have received; freely give.”
With the Lord I Am Rich!
This devotion is provided by WELS Congregational Services.
Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
you make my lot secure.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
surely I have a delightful inheritance.Psalm 15:5,6
Can you say these words and mean it? King David penned these words about the coming Lord but could say it about his life too. They can be yours, no matter how you feel or what life is throwing at you. Jesus stared at the coming cross where he would bear the sins of the world. David stared at the results of his many mistakes, the difficulties of ruling over Israel and Judah, and the coup attempts by two of his offspring.
What difficulties confront you? Is it health worries, money trouble, family strife, or uncertainty at work? They are not your end just as the cross was not the end for Jesus. The cross was the price paid for our forgiveness and where Jesus changed our eternal home address from hell to heaven. Our inheritance dropped into our eternal bank account when Jesus rose from the grave. We can say with David, “Surely I have a delightful inheritance!”
In his mercy, God fulfilled his promise to us. You are a forgiven child of God by his grace through Christ Jesus. You are rich! Jesus ascended into heaven, received the crown as King of kings, and still rules and cares for us today. David looked past the troubles of his life, knowing they were temporary because of God’s promises. He had joy and contentment knowing the Lord made him rich, “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.”
We can say the same. Our riches lie in what God has promised, what Jesus has accomplished, and what we have waiting in heaven. The Lord gives each of us our daily bread and so much more. “Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.”
Knowing we are truly rich in the Lord gives us confidence and security as we give to the Lord and manage our money. It takes our sinful complaints, doubts, excuses, and fear to the cross to be washed away in Jesus’ blood. At the empty tomb, the Lord reminds us that he takes care of us, keeps his promises, and rules all for us. He brings us joy and contentment no matter what we face. “We have a delightful inheritance.” That is true in heaven. But it’s also true now.
Manage his gifts confidently as a wise manager—one who knows how truly rich Jesus has made them. We can surely say, “With the Lord I am rich!”
Jesus Makes Us Real Friends
This devotion is provided by WELS Congregational Services.
Wealth attracts many friends,
but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them.Proverbs 19:4
Fast money brings fast friends. When the money is gone, so are they. Did you ever experience this as the kid with the new toy or the first friend with a car? When a newer toy came along or others got their cars, you were not as interesting. Friendships forged solely on money tend not to last.
The quest for money and what it can buy are too often the goals for many people. The apostle Paul says we are in the world, but not of this world. Jesus made us different—citizens of heaven (Philippians 3). That changes our view of money and friends.
How do we use wealth as God wants? How can we be real friends? Paul quoted Jesus in Acts 20, “It is better to give than to receive.” Look at Jesus. He joyfully put his Father’s will and work first in his life. He was a true friend to everyone he met. He showed no favoritism. He spoke the truth in love. He healed physically and spiritually. He gave rather than received, even giving his own life for all, for you and me. God sees us as perfect because of Jesus’ life and innocent death which paid for times we’ve acted like this world—wowed by riches, showing favoritism to those with it, looking down on those without.
Jesus paid for our sin. God’s forgiveness in Jesus sets us free. This proverb reminds us to be different from this world because Jesus has made us his real friends, citizens of heaven. Put God first in use of wealth. Be a true friend. We provide for the priorities God has placed in our lives—giving to him, giving what we owe to the government, caring for our family, and using our wealth to help others.
Because Jesus gave all, our life becomes more about giving than receiving. Our wealth stays in our hands for good use and not in our hearts. Only Jesus has first place in our hearts. God brings true friends, true family in Christ as we and others get to know God’s love more and more. Real friends give like Jesus, who gave all to bring us to heaven. What a friend!
Sons (and Daughters) Take Care of Your Mothers
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
John 19:25-27
I don’t think my mom ever expressed it in so many words. But I’m sure it’s a phrase every mother has thought, “Just wait until you have a child just like you.” Since my son is a sinner like his father before him, I only have two words to say: Sorry, Mom.
Being a mom is hard. I know I’m an outsider on this. But I imagine Simeon’s words to Mary resonate much more deeply with you moms out there than with anyone else: “And a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:35). How you hurt when they hurt! Their tears become yours!
Now, Mary wasn’t a perfect mother. She confessed as much in her famous song: “My soul glorifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46,47). What need would she have for a Savior from sin and death if she were already perfect?
She was given the unenviable job of raising the Son of God made flesh. Did that take the pressure off? Or did it make it unbearable at times?
How her heart must have broken when 12-year-old Jesus was missing for three days!
Was she part of the group of Jesus’ family that was saying, “He is out of his mind” (Mark 3:21,31)?
How her soul was pierced as she stood at the foot of Jesus’ cross, watching her son die as a condemned criminal even though he was innocent!
Yet, the amazing thing isn’t so much Mary’s story. Her story is the story of every mother who love her children. Whose heart skips several beats when she loses sight of her child for even a moment. Who perhaps struggles to understand her child’s choices in life, even if their choices are God-pleasing and in his service. Whose soul would be pierced should her child’s death come but she would be present if able even if only to give one last comfort as she had every time she heard that newborn cry.
The amazing thing is Jesus. He’s the one dying on the cross. He’s the one bloodied from head to toe. He’s the one suffering for the world’s sins, for his mother’s sins, many of her sins committed directly against him as his mother. But he thinks nothing of himself. He only thinks of her. He makes sure she’s taken care of by telling his disciple to take her into his home. “Woman, here is your son.”
And by doing this, Jesus fulfills what no son or daughter has done. He perfectly honored his mother. He perfectly loved his mother. He kept the demands of God’s command. My son and my daughter are forgiven. I am forgiven.
Jesus now says to us, “Here is your mother.” Though we are not given the Lord’s mother to care for, we honor our moms as if she were Jesus’ mom. Indeed, he loves your mom as much as he loved his own since he also died for her.
For some, this is easy. For others, this is hard. Not everyone has a good relationship with their mom. Not everyone has a good mom. So first, we rest in the grace of Jesus who did what we could not and died in our place. From this we draw the strength to honor and love our moms. We pray that God would show us what it means to honor our mothers. We ask him to teach us through his Word. And we continually return to the foot of Jesus’ cross where Jesus’ love pours out on sons and daughters, fathers and mothers.