Daily Devotional Thought--From the New Testament

Collect of the Week

Lord Jesus Christ, in Your deep compassion You rescue us from whatever may hurt us. Teach us to love You above all things and to love our neighbors as ourselves; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Colossians 1:3-4

³ We always thank God, the Father or our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints…

Devotion

In the name of + Jesus.

Every once in a while, I’ll receive a letter from a sister congregation of the LCMS informing me that our congregation has been remembered in prayer.  I’ve attached one such letter, which we received in June.  If you look at it, you’ll see that Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, in Downey, CA, prayed for our congregation and ministry.  How cool is that?!

When you worship with us, you will notice also that in the weekly Prayer of the Church, we are always rejoicing in the faith that is being given to brothers and sisters in Christ all across the world.  We’re giving thanks, and delighting in the fact that the Holy Spirit continue to be up to His work of calling, gathering, enlightening and sanctifying the sinners to be saints, who are saved by grace, through faith in Christ.  It really is something to gave thanks for.

All across the world, in literally 33 confessional Lutheran church bodies, the pure Gospel, and the faithful administration of the Sacraments is occurring, by which the forgiveness of sins is delivered to God’s people.  And all the time, there are more who seek to be in fellowship with us.  Just recently, for example, the Lutheran Church in Madagascar had its bishops vote to seek out fellowship with us.  And that is a church body of 4+ million baptized Lutheran believers!

When we pray, let us remember are brothers and sisters from around the world, who share in our common confession, and who confess the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  For if our salvation is by grace, so is theirs, and this, dear friends, is something to celebrate!  In the name of + Jesus. Amen.

Prayer

With the blood of Your Son, you bind us together, and make us one.  Teach us, O Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, to rejoice in the household of faith, that our love might be shown to all; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.