Tag: grace

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Grace to Abound

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. As so many all over the world gather together in your house, they bring so many different experiences and emotions to worship. Nevertheless, we all have one need in common that unites us: grace. What we cannot find anywhere else apart from your Word and Sacrament, pour out in abundance to all. Let it not be subtle or hidden, but rather preached clearly and sung loudly for all to hear.

Since we could have no relationship with you apart from grace, nor would we have the guarantee of a place in heaven without it, let it abound. May it wash over hearts heavy with guilt and shame. Use your grace to stir up passion and zeal among believers to carry out your mission and ministry with relentless fervor. Through us all, flood the earth with your grace.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Eagerly Serve My Church

Selfless Savior,
While most people think of Sunday morning worship when they think of church, the local congregation is really about so much more. Yes, worship is the highlight of the believer’s week, serving us Word and sacrament, and providing a foretaste of what awaits us in the future, but you build up the body of Christ is in so many other ways, too. Churches carry out your work through schools, Bible studies, and various other ministries and acts of service both internally and externally.

While we are grateful for church workers who are called to guide and equip us for this work, help each of us to see the important roles we have in helping carry this work out. Service isn’t about official roles or titles, but about a willing spirit – a spirit willing to imitate Jesus and wash my neighbor’s feet. Move men everywhere to demonstrate servant leadership in your church, looking to serve first rather than be served. When opportunities or needs arise, grant us the faith-focused desire to get our hands dirty and eagerly jump in. Lead us to support our church workers and each other by making their work a joy and not a burden. Compel us to serve our congregations because through our service, you’re not just getting work done through us, but also in us. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Multiplying Division

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(Luke 12:49-53)

Before applying the cotton ball soaked with rubbing alcohol to the freshly scraped knee, a mom warns her child, “this is going to sting a bit.” In trying to determine the extent of the injury, whether it’s a sprain, a break, or something else, the doctor grabs hold and twists this way then pushing that way, all the while asking his patient to “tell me if this hurts.” Days or weeks of underlying tension between a husband and wife culminate with the words, “we need to talk.” Real pain is being experienced in these examples, whether it’s physical, emotional, or even spiritual.

Yet, while none of those examples are pleasant experiences – for the person on either end – they have in common that the end result is intended to make things better. The hurt happens so that healing can follow. One of the biggest lies we tend to believe is that our problems – and the hurt that goes with them – will eventually just go away if we avoid them. Rather than bring up an uncomfortable topic that will likely involve some tension or conflict, we just avoid it and convince ourselves that doing nothing is the better way. What we’re saying is that we prefer to avoid the hurt of a challenging encounter or conversation by riding it out until things improve.

But tell me, if you can, how many times things have ever actually improved, how many times healing has actually taken place, with that approach. Almost never. This “Wounds that Heal” series may be a tough one for many, but it’s essential that we understand that even when Jesus’ words hurt, that hurt is the necessary precursor to healing. So we pray that this series will be for us like making your way into the ocean on a beach day. At first the water feels cold and uncomfortable, but once you’re in, it feels invigorating and refreshing. May Jesus’ words in this series hit us like that.

The wisdom of Proverbs also provides helpful insights to our understanding of this series. Proverbs 27:6 says, “Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” The words of a friend may hurt or sting, but when you consider the source, you know they are being candid with you for your own benefit. An enemy, on the other hand, will schmooze and sweet-talk all day long, not because he’s interested in building you up, but because he wants to soften you to eventually serve himself. If wounds from a friend can be trusted, let’s go into this series remembering that we have no greater friend than Jesus, and trust completely that even when he speaks words that hurt or are hard to hear, his goal is always my healing and growth. 

We start off this series with words from Jesus that will hit home for some of us a little more than others. “Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division” (v.51). How do we handle these hard words? When we address what looks like a contradictory statement compared to the way the rest of Scripture speaks, we’ll better understand what Jesus is saying. Then, as we do, we’ll start to see how his hard words actually help and heal us. 

Let’s address some of the passages that come to mind when we hear Jesus and peace in the same sentence. Right away, many of our minds likely go to one of the most comforting lists of titles given to Jesus that we associate with Christmas. Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” It seems like even more of an odd thing for the one called the “Prince of Peace,” to say he didn’t come to bring peace, doesn’t it?

Then there are also the words out of Jesus’ own mouth that he spoke: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). “In me you may have peace” sounds about as 180º from Jesus bluntly saying that he didn’t come to bring peace, but division! What gives?

The reason is really quite simple: we’re dealing with different understandings of peace. Take an example from the sporting world. Why will fans and analysts always debate about who is the greatest in any given sport? Why will that always be an ongoing debate that can never be settled? It’s because we aren’t working with the same definition of “great.” We can’t agree on a GOAT if we can’t agree on what greatness is. Does greatest mean the most championship rings, because there are plenty of players who were not superstars, but who had the privilege of being shuffled around and playing on championship teams. Does greatest mean the best statistics? If so, which statistics matter the most, and what if someone has great statistics but no rings? Does greatest mean record-holder in any given statistical category? What if a player dominates in only one statistical category, but is mediocre at best in others? And what about sports where different players play entirely different positions – a great lineman on the football field cannot be compared to a great quarterback by using the same metrics for greatness. 

Just as rabid sports fans will become rather unruly when discussing who is the greatest, should it surprise us that Jesus guarantees that division will come about as a result of the peace he came to bring? How does one define peace?

Ask yourself what most people on the planet have in mind when they think about peace. What does “peace” mean to most people? Tolerance? It means unity. It means we don’t let our differences divide us. It means we all get along. It means the absence of conflict. It means you don’t force me to share your views or opinions. You might have a few more thoughts to add to the world’s view of peace, but these about capture it, don’t they?

Now, what is God talking about when he speaks of “peace” in the Bible? We don’t have to wonder or guess, because he tells us. “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand” (Romans 4:25-5:2). The phrase we need to hear to get to the bottom of all of this is “we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” That’s the peace Jesus came to bring: peace between God and men.

So what we’re talking about is not the same thing at all, and realizing that gives us a better understanding about the apparent contradiction in Scripture. It all depends on which peace we’re talking about: the world’s varying definitions, or Jesus’ definition? Jesus came to bring the kind of peace we need, but not the kind of peace the world thinks it needs or wants. And, sadly, until anyone sees the need for Jesus’ peace, they’ll look in vain for it everywhere else. 

Their search for peace ends up looking like a guest trying to figure out the lighting in an unfamiliar room. If you live in or have stayed in a place with a room that has outlets controlled by a light switch, that can serve to help us understand Jesus’ words this morning. If you don’t know the outlets are controlled by a light switch, think of all the steps you’ll first take to address a lamp that doesn’t turn on. First, you might check the obvious to make sure there’s a bulb in the lamp, maybe even changing it if there is. If that doesn’t do the trick, then you check to make sure it’s plugged in. If it’s plugged in and still doesn’t light up, you maybe start to wonder if the lamp is just broken and needs to be replaced. So you spend all this time on the lamp, when all you really need to do is flip the light switch when you enter the room and it gives power to the outlets, turning on the lamp.

By nature, without Jesus, we all do the same things to address division – or a lack of peace – in our lives. We try to fix all of the symptoms without realizing the real problem: a lack of peace between God and me. So I work on this symptom and that symptom. Nothing improves – and often it gets much worse! – so I try a different approach with no luck. And on and on. 

It isn’t until the light switch is flipped on – which just so happens to apply perfectly to Jesus, the Light of the World – that the peace that is lacking in my life now starts to flow from the peace I have with God into all other areas of my life. We try to manufacture a horizontal peace when the solution is the vertical peace we receive from God in Christ Jesus. Only from that peace does the world ever receive what it’s actually looking for.  

That’s the irony, isn’t it? The world would have much more of the peace it is looking for, if only it pursued more of the peace Jesus did come to bring. But until it does, there will be division. Some will long for Jesus’ peace; others will dismiss it in frustration, demanding that an all-powerful God cater to their whims and provide their version of peace. And that is the reason for the division.

But the source of that division is also the solution to it. And we have it. Yes, these wounds that heal us mean that we need to expect they’ll do the same for others, because it is an undeniable reality of the ministry of the church. We are called to bring peace, yet God prepares us for the hard work of ministry by telling us that our efforts will result in even more division. So we aren’t surprised when we see the peace we pass along result multiply division.

But there is no other way. We cannot change doctrines or teachings for the sake of getting along better with other churches who do. We cannot ignore or avoid parts of the Bible which cause people offense. There is no other way. And those who think there is are not only fooling themselves, but also compromising the real peace Jesus came to bring, the real peace every man, woman, and child, needs: peace between God and man.

Yes, it will mean that our mission will multiply division. The ministry of the church will increase division in the world. But more importantly, it will also increase the number of souls that are saved. It might hurt to share it, but the best kind of healing will follow: the kind that provides the permanent peace our hearts crave, and can find nowhere else but in Jesus. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Embrace My Place in Your Kingdom

Mighty God,
By your grace, you called me to faith and it pleased you to give me the kingdom. What more could I possibly need when I consider all that is included in your kingdom? Let me find my treasure, my purpose, and my life in your kingdom and nowhere else, since nothing else could ever measure up or compare. Furthermore, I marvel that you didn’t give it to me hesitantly or reluctantly, but that you were pleased to do so. 

And, you have given me the keys to your kingdom – the power to absolve and forgive sins. What a great privilege and responsibility this is! Let me take it to heart, take it seriously, and not take it for granted. Keep me forever in your kingdom and use me to extend and expand it with your powerful Word, so that through it your Spirit can bring many more souls into the present and eternal joys of your kingdom. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

Raised & Renewing

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(Colossians 3:1-11)

Significant past milestones can sometimes have an affect long after they happen. How much do the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution affect not only the United States, but the entire world still today? Events like Pearl Harbor and 9/11 had an immediate impact on people enlisting in the military. Once the smart phone was invented, life afterward will never be the same.

Such past events can impact the present for individuals, too. Listen to the stories of individuals who survived a life-threatening accident or injury talk about how much more they value life in the present. The sedentary heart-attack survivor becomes a regular exerciser. The at-risk diabetes diagnosis results in radical dietary changes. The person who had to file for bankruptcy rebounds by dramatically changing his financial habits and becomes wealthy enough to retire way ahead of time. Some event happened in the past that triggered ongoing changes ever since then and into the present day.

One such event took place in the past, 175 years ago. On May 26, 1850, in Milwaukee, WI, after several months of ongoing discussion about the possible formation of a new Lutheran synod in Wisconsin, the initial convention took place and the Wisconsin Synod was born. It was just a handful of pastors at the time, serving congregations around the Milwaukee area. While the majority of them shared connections from mission societies in Germany, they had not had very extensive theological training (and, although the WELS is often pegged as being too conservative or strict theologically, it is somewhat ironic that part of the original wish to establish another Lutheran synod was driven by the desire to be more tolerant than the existing Lutheran synods, who were perceived as being too theologically stiff and inflexible). That little Lutheran synod survived and this year we celebrate the 175 Anniversary of the WELS.

That past event is responsible for ongoing blessings ever since then and into the present. In our American landscape of Christianity, which continues to see churches and church bodies split and fracture as unbiblical teachings are tolerated, pursued, and even celebrated, God has blessed our church body with an even firmer theological confession than when we first began. And how does one track all of the other blessings continue to happen right up into the present? We are able to carry out ministry together as a church body that our individual congregations would be incapable of carrying out individually. We support a robust school system at the high school, college, and Seminary level, specifically in place to train our future pastors and teachers, ensuring faithful adherence to all of Scripture. We are in mission fields all over the world, both sending and supporting missionaries. We are in the middle of a plan to start 100 new churches over ten years right here in the U.S. While these are the significant priorities and focus of our WELS, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the total ministry we’ve carried out together. So that event that happened in the past, 175 years ago, is responsible for more blessings that we can count in the present day.

Another significant event took place in the past, sixty years ago. Noticing the growth taking place in and around La Mesa, our sister congregation, Reformation Lutheran Church, expanded its ministry sixty years ago to include the start of worship at Grossmont College in the very infant stages of our Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church. The goal was to establish another congregation in East County that could share the responsibility of proclaiming that Jesus has been raised and we are being renewed. Shepherd of the Hills Evangelical Lutheran Church was formed in 1965 with nineteen communicants and met originally at Grossmont College in the Fine Arts Lecture Hall. The first service was conducted on March 21, 1965, by Pastor Lowell K. Smith, who was serving Reformation Lutheran Church, San Diego. 

That past event is responsible for ongoing blessings ever since then and into the present. How many total souls have come to know Jesus and the confidence of his grace, forgiveness, and salvation, through our congregation’s ministry? For how many Christmases, Good Fridays, and Easter Sundays have we eagerly preached the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus? How many students have received not just a good education, but a Jesus-centered education, and a deeper understanding of the Bible and its place in their lives, through our K-8 school? How many hearts have been brought closer to Jesus through our Bible studies and various ministries for sixty years? How many hands have been held at bedsides, easing our brothers and sisters in Christ across the threshold of their heavenly home? That event that happened in the past, 60 years ago, is responsible for more blessings than we can count in the present day.

But you’d have to go back further than 60 years, and even further back than 175 years, to get to the event that is at the heart of it all: the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, 2,000 years ago. Without that event, there is no WELS. There is no Shepherd of the Hills. There would also be no letter from Paul to the Colossians, for he would have had nothing on which to base his letter to the them.

But Jesus did rise from the dead, and it is that event which allowed Paul to remind the Colossians and us, “you have been raised with Christ” (v.1). The Resurrection is the lynchpin of the Christian faith. It is everything. Jesus dying in our place and remaining dead would have been just another religion, but Jesus rising again and crushing death by proving to the world that it isn’t the end – That’s everything! And faith connects us to that powerful historical event so that Jesus’ resurrection is ours!

And, as a result of what has happened in the past, something is also happening in the present: you are “being renewed in knowledge in the image of [your] Creator” (v.10). Something is still happening. You are being renewed. Change is happening. In you. Right now. Continually. You are changing. You are becoming more like Christ. 

You have been raised. You are being renewed. That may be a simple way to explain why the church exists, to help with those two purposes. And, it might be worth noting that they fit well with the tag line that captures our mission: Seeking the Lost, Serving the Found. We seek the lost with the news of resurrection and the eternal life that is guaranteed with it. We serve the found as we are being renewed in our Christian living.

Paul ties together the past with the present by reminding his listeners that what happened in the past changes how they think, focus, and feel in the present. It changes our priorities. It changes what is important to us. It changes everything about our lives, including the behaviors and thoughts and sin that we now want to leave in the past. Those are the things Paul listed in verse five and following: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices…” (v.5-9). That’s the old you. That’s the you you’re striving to leave in the past. 

Right? You are putting those behaviors to death, right? Or… do you see a thing or two on the list that you’d prefer Paul didn’t include? Are you putting those things to death, or do you suppose that you can somehow allow a few of them to just linger harmlessly? Do you imagine you can return to this or that sin from time to time, as long as it isn’t all the time? Do you pretend that you’re in control of whatever belongs to your sinful nature just because you don’t give in to it as much as someone else? Do you have a part-time relationship with something from Paul’s list, imagining that having a mistress won’t negatively impact your relationship with Christ?

“Put to death” is strong language! Think in terms of the DNR on the wrists and rooms of hospital patients – Do not resuscitate! Kill sin and put it behind you. Be done with it. Paul emphasizes how serious God is about putting sin to death by reminding us of what will happen regarding everything on that list: “Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (v.6). An on-the-side relationship with anything Paul calls us to put to death won’t cut it. We can’t be raised to life while also welcoming and allowing sin to live and breathe and exist in our lives. Wrath – that alone is what awaits such sin. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise. In fact, speaking of thinking, Paul encourages an entirely different way of thinking. 

The life God had in mind when he raised us to faith in Christ includes this kind of thinking: “set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things” (v1b-2). Our hearts and minds are focused in a different direction after we’ve been raised. We’re being renewed to dial into things above, spiritual things, eternal things, salvation things.

This is so essential, first and foremost, because it takes us back again and again to the past event that reminds us of who we are in the present. Jesus’ resurrection not only guarantees my victory over that list of sins that Paul says “do not resuscitate”, but also lines my heart and mind up with the heart and mind of Christ. The Christian life isn’t just a matter of putting the bad behavior behind you, of having “taken off your old self with its practices,” but also a matter of “put[ting] on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (v.10). It’s remembering that you are dressed with baptismal righteousness of Christ. You are new and you are being renewed – because that’s what it means that you were raised. Some events happened in the past that triggered ongoing changes in the present.

There’s more. That past event which resulted in ongoing changes in the present also yields future results. In many of the health scenarios mentioned at the beginning of the sermon, the future results include an extended life or improved quality of life. Financially the past bankruptcy experience that triggered changes in managing finances resulted in an early retirement. 

Jesus being raised in the past and your ongoing renewal in the present promise to yield an amazing future result. Paul alluded to it: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory” (v.3-4). You will appear with Christ in glory! That’s the future that is in store – a glory that you better believe will blow any worldly concept of glory or acclaim out of the water. It won’t even be close! The glory waiting for you when Jesus returns, because of what Jesus did for you and what Jesus is doing in you, will surpass everything you could ever think or imagine! 

What a great way to celebrate sixty years – by getting back to the roots of why our congregation was established in the first place.

May it also rekindle our zeal and desire to get back to the basics: proclaiming Jesus raised and Jesus still renewing, so that many more will be ready for Jesus’ returning! 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Grasp How Much You Treasure Me

Precious Savior,
Occasionally, I struggle with my self-worth, my value, or even my place in this world. Sometimes these feelings come as the result of my own failings or perceived inadequacies, while other times they are rooted in the opinions or comments others make about me. 

Rather than pretending I can ever really control or overcome such things, lead me instead to turn from them to the only successful and sustainable solution: remembering how valuable I am to you. Though you provide for every created thing under the sun, you yourself stated how much more valuable I am to you. Since you cannot lie, give me the trust and confidence to believe that you treasure me that much. Then, regardless of others’ opinions of me – or even my opinion of myself – I can rest at peace in your opinion of me, which carries more weight to me than all other opinions combined. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Renew and Refresh Me Through Worship

Heavenly Father,
Sundays are sacred. Over the course of the week, my attention and focus can so easily sway and spin like a weathervane in a storm. My devotions and prayers are a priority one day and an afterthought the next. The good and noble intentions I have as I leave your house each week fizzle and are forgotten as the week unfolds.

So again I gather with my church family in your house, not to eagerly present some proud report of all that I have done for your kingdom this week, but as a beggar, asking yet again for mercy and forgiveness. Hear my prayers again and grant me what I seek and need more than anything else: the peace and rest that go hand-in-hand with your grace and absolution. Then, having been renewed and refreshed, send me out again this week to carry out my calling as your blessed and forgiven child, and grant me the focus and discipline to follow through and carry out your will.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For Full Confidence in My Salvation – Prayers

Gracious Mediator,
Some things in life we feel more confident about than others. We carry out certain responsibilities effortlessly, while others cause uncertainty or even anxiety. If our status before you relied on any effort or requirement on our part, our lives would be a constant carousel of chaos, questions and confusion. 

Thankfully, there is no question and there is no doubt. With you as our mediator, we have full confidence that all of the Father’s righteous requirements have been met and fully satisfied through you. And, since you gave yourself as the ransom for all people, no more payment remains and there is no unsettled debt outstanding. Because we stand before you with the confidence we have through you, make us also bold pray with that same confidence. We have nothing to fear and stand only to gain from your good grace as you choose to bless us accordingly. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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For the Salvation of Many

Savior God,
Prayers for the salvation of those who are lost can never be made too often. Not only will there always be those who are lost in the darkness of unbelief for whom we can pray, but since your desire is also for all people to be saved, such prayers are always inline with your will. 

Therefore, I pray for the salvation of many souls today. As your powerful gospel is proclaimed, wherever your powerful gospel is proclaimed, in whatever situation your powerful gospel is proclaimed, let it reach the ears and hearts of many. With that amazing message of forgiveness and salvation through Jesus, let your Spirit plant seeds of faith that grow and mature into a huge orchard of believers, who then blossom and bear abundant fruit. Soften stubborn, obstinate hearts, awakening them to the joy and peace in you that can be found nowhere else. Bless the efforts of all who share the gospel, raise up more bold believers to join them, and move many more to generously support the continued spread of the gospel in every possible way.

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen. 

DAILY PRAYERS FOR GUYS

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To Please You with My Prayers

Loving Lord,
One of the great joys of being adopted into your family by your gracious gift of faith is this: our lives are pleasing in your sight. How humbling it is that we should be able to carry out a single deed, speak a single word, or consider a single thought that would ever be pleasing to you. Nevertheless, because we are completely clothed with your righteousness, it is so!

Therefore, make even my prayers pleasing to your ears. Mature me to set aside selfish requests. Guide me instead along the paths of your plans and purposes for my prayers. Help me to maintain the proper balance between requests that center on the physical and temporal and the spiritual priorities that matter much more both now and into eternity. Let my heart beat with care and concern for others, routinely bringing their needs before you, since this, too, is pleasing to you. Move me to pray for those over me, beside me, and beneath me, so that your gracious favor and blessing extend to all those around me. 

In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.