A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers this week. We continue our sermon series of the 500thanniversary 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”