Check out Grace Lutheran Church at http://www.glcs.org/
Follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/gracelutheranchurchsmithville/
The Congregation at Prayer sheets can be found at https://kslcms.org/education-youth/parish-education/cap/
Music: Bensound
License code: HNCG70BJLEDLGLOI
(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 Monday, December 30th. We reflect on the first Sunday after Christmas and remember the theme, Christ's peace rules our hearts so be thankful. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 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, Hallelujah. 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'll 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. The reading from Isaiah, chapters 58 and 59. "Cry aloud, do not hold back, lift up your voice like a trumpet, declare to my people their transgression to the house of Jacob their sins, yet they seek me daily in delight to know my ways as if they were a nation that did righteousness and did not forsake the judgment of their God. They ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. Why have we fasted and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves and you take no knowledge of it? Behold, in the day of your fast, you seek your own pleasure and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast and a day acceptable to the Lord? Is not this the fast that I choose to loose the bonds of wickedness and to undo the straps of the yoke to let the oppressed go free and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn and your healing shall spring up speedily. Your righteousness shall go before you. The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call and the Lord will answer. You shall cry and he will say, here I am. If you take away the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking with wickedness. If you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the dune day. And the Lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in its scorched places and make your bones strong. You shall be like a watered garden like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. And your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt. You shall raise up the foundations of many generations. You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in. If you turn back your foot from the Sabbath, from doing your pleasure on my holy day and call the Sabbath a delight and the holy day of the Lord honorable, if you honor it not going on your own ways or seeking your own pleasure or taking idly, then you shall take delight in the Lord and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth. I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save or his ear dull that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity, your lips have spoken lies, your tongue mutters wickedness. Justice is turned back and righteousness stands far away for truth has stumbled in the public squares and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord sawed and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Then his own arm brought him salvation and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, so will he repay wrath to his adversaries, repayment to his enemies, to the coastlands he will render repayment. So they shall fear the name of the Lord from the West and his glory from the rising of the sun, for he will come like a rushing stream which the wind of the Lord drives and a redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who turn from transgression declares the Lord. And as for me, this is my covenant with them says the Lord, by spirit that is upon you and my words that I've put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring says the Lord from this time forth and forevermore. O Lord have mercy on us, thanks be to God. A reading from Luke chapter one. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to the city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary and he came to her and said, "Greetings O favored one, the Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid Mary, for you have found favor with God "and behold, you will conceive and in your womb "and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the son of the most high "and the Lord God will give to him the throne "of his father, David. "And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever "and of his kingdom there will be no end." And Mary said to the angel, "How will this be since I am a virgin?" And the angel answered her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you "and the power of the most high will overshadow you. "Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, "the son of God." And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren for nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, "let it be to be according to your word "and the angel departed from her." O Lord have mercy on us, thanks be to God. 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 love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbors 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 tenth commandment? You shall not covet your neighbor's wife or his man-servant or maid-servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear 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. Oh 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.
