Devotion for 1 January - The Great Adventure

A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin for today.

¹⁸ While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. ¹⁹ And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” ²⁰ Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹ And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.²² Immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him

Today we start a sermon series called: “The Great Adventure”. I think it is very appropriate to start a new year with this effort. If you are a protestant and especially a Lutheran, the year 2017 is a remarkable milestone. This year marks the 500-year anniversary [31 October] of the Reformation, where Dr Luther defiantly posted the 95 church-challenging Theses on the door of Castle Wittenberg church.  The reformation was undoubtedly a “great” adventure and, in some sense, it still is! Today’s text talks about Jesus’ call up of the first Apostles who then start their great evangelism adventure which made it possible for us, 2000 years later, to know of and believe in, the saving power of our Savior. As we start 2017, It seems to me that there has been a recent change in the mood of a lot of folks here in the US to more optimism even though world events are still tragic. Especially when we hear of the terrible persecution of Christians in the middle east and elsewhere. Let us start this year with hope for our country and its leaders. Let us also pray for our country’s leadership, for our fellow Christians, and especially those who are undergoing daily persecution.