(upbeat music) You're listening to The Faithful Word, podcast of Grace Lutheran Church in Smithville, Texas. I'm David Walmer, pastor here at Grace Lutheran Church. I pray that you are filled with peace and hope as you hear and reflect on God's Word today. Today's devotion follows the order of the congregation at prayer. You can find this either in your bulletin as an insert or online. The website link is below. Today is Wednesday, January 1st, Happy New Year's Day. We reflect on the first Sunday after Christmas and we remember the theme, Christ's peace rules our hearts so be thankful. In the name of the Father, in of the Son, in of the Holy Spirit. Amen, O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. Make haste, O God, to deliver me. Make haste to help me, O Lord. Praise to you, O Christ, Lamb of our salvation. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever, amen. Praise to you, O Christ, Alleluia. Psalm 111, praise the Lord. I will give thanks to the Lord with all my whole heart in the company of the upright, in the congregation. Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. Full of splendor and majesty is his work, and his righteousness endures forever. He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered. The Lord is gracious and merciful. He provides food for those who fear him. He remembers his covenant forever. He has shown his people the power of his works in giving them the inheritance of the nations. The works of his hands are faithful and just. All his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever to be performed with faithfulness and uprightness. He sent redemption to his people. He has commanded his covenant forever. Holy and awesome is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. All those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen. Him 389, let all together praise our God. Let all together praise our God before his glorious throne. Today he opens heaven again to give us his own son, to give us his own son. He leaves his heavenly father's throne as born an infant small, and in a manger, poor and lone lies in a humble stall, lies in a humble stall. Within an earth-born form he hides his all-creating light. To serve us all he humbly cloaks, the splendor of his might, the splendor of his might. He undertakes a great exchange, puts on our human frame, and in return gives us his realm, his glory and his name, his glory and his name. He is a servant, I, O Lord, how great a mystery, how strong the tender Christ-child's love, no truer friend than he, no truer friend than he. He is the key, and he the door, to blessed paradise. The angel bars the way no more, to God our praises rise, to God our praises rise. Your grace in loneliness revealed, Lord Jesus, we adore, and praise to God the Father yield, and spirit evermore, we praise you evermore. They learn by heart scripture, Colossians 3 verses 15 to 16, and let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. A reading from Isaiah chapter 61. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all whom mourn, to grant to those who mourn in Zion, to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit, that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devestations, they shall repair the ruined cities, the devestations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks, foreigners shall be your plowmen and vine dressers, but you shall be called the priests of the Lord. They shall speak of you as the ministers of our God, you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame, there shall be a double portion. Instead of dishonor, they shall rejoice in their lot, therefore in their land, they shall possess a double portion, they shall have everlasting joy. For I the Lord love justice, I hate robbery and wrong, I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their offspring shall be known among the nations in their descendants in the midst of the peoples, all who see them shall acknowledge them, that they are an offspring, the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exalt in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, has a bride grimdex himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and has a bride adorns herself with jewels. For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations. O Lord have mercy on us, thanks be to God. A reading from Luke chapter one. Now the birth, now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son, and her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and that they were, and they were rejoiced with her. And on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they would have called him Zachariah after his father, but his mother answered, "No, he shall be called John." And they said to her, "None of your relatives is called by this name." And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called, and he asked for a writing tablet and wrote. His name is John. They all wondered, and immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God, and fear came on all their neighbors, and all these things were talked about through all the whole country of Judea, and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, "What then will this child be, for the hand of the Lord was with him?" And his father, Zachariah, was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all who hate us, to show the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father, Abraham, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear, and holiness and righteousness before him all our days. And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high, to give light to those who sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, guide our feet into the way of peace." The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel. Oh, Lord, have mercy on us. Thanks be to God. Today, we celebrate the circumcision and name of Jesus. Already on the eighth day of Jesus' life, his destiny of atonement is revealed in his name and in his circumcision. At that moment, his blood is first shaded in Jesus, receives the name given to him by the angel. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. In the circumcision of Jesus, all people are circumcised once and for all because he represents all humanity. In the Old Testament, for the believers who looked to God's promise to be fulfilled in the Messiah, the benefits of circumcision included, the forgiveness of sins, justification, and incorporation into the people of God. In the New Testament, St. Paul speaks of its counterpart, holy baptism, as a circumcision made without hands and as the circumcision of Christ. They'll learn by heart, catechism, and the 10 commandments. What is the ninth commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor's house. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbor's inheritance or house or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it. What is the 10th commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor's wife, workers, animals, or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and to do their duty. Let us pray, Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for that is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever, amen. O God, our maker and redeemer, you wonderfully created us and in the incarnation of your son, yet more wonderfully restored our human nature. Grant that we may ever be alive in him who made himself to be like us. Through Jesus Christ, your son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever, amen. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I pray that you would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, but all my doings and life may please you. For into your hands I commend myself, my body and soul and all things. Let your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me, amen. Let us bless the Lord. Thanks be to God, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all, amen.
