Father, send Your Holy Spirit that we who see Jesus being tortured, suffering, and dying may so look that our hearts are melted and transformed by His love. And, having been warmed by that love, we ask You to send Your Holy Spirit to transform our lives so that we, individually and as a Body of Christ may love others as He has loved us. We ask in Jesus’ name, our loving and life-giving Lord. Amen!
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Father, send Your Holy Spirit that we who will experience the kindness of Jesus in His Meal, feeding our souls with His presence and forgiveness, may be exemplars of kindness in our communities. We ask in the name of Jesus, our kind and life-giving Lord. Amen!
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Gracious Father, we see the Jerusalem crowd greet the long-awaited King. We too need a King in our lives – One who will defeat the destructive forces of fear we face every day. Send Your Holy Spirit that we might experience the power of this King to establish His kingdom in our hearts and lives today and forever. We ask in the name of Jesus, Your Son and our King, the Same who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen!
Your King Has Come Read More »
Father, may we again hear the Message that is central to Your holy Word and, is also central to our lives, that is, that out of Your amazing love, You sent Your dear Son to die on a cross and to be raised to Life again. For in this Message alone do we experience purposeful lives empowered with the Holy Spirit’s energy. We ask in the name of Your dear Son, Christ Jesus, the One who died for our sins and was raised again for our justification. Amen!
False and True Disciples Read More »
Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father draws them.” Jesus is saying, “The reason you are coming to Me is not because of something you did; rather, it is solely because My Father has drawn you to Me.”
Luther writes concerning today’s Gospel Reading: “It is obvious that in this chapter the Lord is speaking of spiritual eating and drinking. For He Himself interprets this as a thirst and a hunger of the soul.”
Experiencing the Bread of Life Read More »
Jesus knows that everybody has a pervasive inner spiritual hunger. And Jesus says, “Don’t work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal Life.” What He simply means is this; We are all seeking to satisfy a hunger within us that’s very deep, and anything we put there other than Jesus never will satisfy us; only Jesus and believing in Him satisfies our deep inner hunger.
In Galatians 5:22-23 – the “Fruit of the Spirit” text – the NIV translates patience as forbearance and the KJV translates it as longsuffering. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus shows both longsuffering with respect to His imminent suffering and death as well as forbearance with His drowsy disciples.
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It is very interesting, and more than a little intriguing, that the disciples, in the midst of a raging storm, were not terrified until they saw Jesus walking on the water. Jesus says quite tersely, “I AM; don’t fear.” Realizing Jesus is the I AM LORD of the universe ultimately rescues us from the storms of life.
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By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus gives us an example of gentleness in service. More than that, the meaning of Jesus’ symbolic action gives us the motivation to serve others in gentleness. And even more than that, Paul’s definition of what it means to walk by the Spirit, that is, to be led by the Spirit, gives us the ultimate power to serve others in gentleness.
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