Mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea – the Lord on high is mighty (Psalm 93:4).
Read Psalm 93
For the people in the days of Jesus and even in Old Testament times, big bodies of water held a connection to the dark and demonic. Unknown creatures, unforeseen forces of nature and weather and the unfathomable depths of the sea contributed to this. But God is Lord over all forces and chaos and puts light and order into the dark and demonic. Some psalms talk about a great sea monster, Leviathan, lurking in the deep (Psalm 74:13,14; Psalm 104:26), yet the Lord God is mightier and stronger than this perceived threat. When Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee with his disciples in the boat, his rebuke of the winds and the waves not only calms the storm and settles the nerves of those with him; Jesus displays his power over the demonic forces of darkness in a similar way to when he is driving out demons. Our God is mightier than anything. The surging waves, the thundering wind and even the demonic forces of hell bow to his sovereignty. For us, as followers of Jesus, to know that Jesus is in the boat of life with us and calms the storms swirling all around is comforting to the highest degree – we know Jesus as our gracious, compassionate and loving Servant King, and also as our mighty and sovereign Lord and King over all things. Jesus is truly our stronghold and our fortress. When we stay close to him, we have nothing to fear.
What unsettles you or makes you anxious at the moment? Hand it over to your God, who is mightier than anything.
Almighty and powerful God, you are the creator of all things great and small. You are sovereign over the whole world, and yet you also know me and care for me day in and day out. Your ways are too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. Take all that fills me with fear and anxiety at this moment. I hand it all over to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice (Luke 17:15).
Read Luke 17:11–19
My daughter came home from school with glowing eyes. ‘Mum, I had a real God moment today!’ I was astonished. ‘What happened?’, I asked. She told me how she had to go to a room in an unfamiliar part of her large new school and quietly prayed in her head that God could help her find the way and that, next thing, an older student took notice of her and asked whether she needed assistance, and then ended up walking her to where she needed to be. My daughter recognised God’s help at that moment and said a quiet prayer of thanks to God. It made me think, how often have I been lost, literally and figuratively, and was gently pointed in the right direction or set on the right path again by God, but failed to recognise it? How often have I failed to give thanks to God when thanks was due? How often have I acted like the nine lepers who didn’t return?
The story of these 10 lepers healed by Jesus gives me so much hope. You see, Jesus knew before he healed them all that not all of them would return to give thanks – and healed them anyway. Jesus knew Judas would end up betraying him – but he called, journeyed with, and taught him anyway. Sometimes I’m ignorant of God’s goodness to me, but he lavishes blessings upon me regardless. Jesus also did it for the thief on the cross, the soldiers who crucified him, and Saul who persecuted the Christians before he became known as Paul: Jesus embraces, prays for and blesses those who are most unworthy of his love and grace. So radical, so unexpected. So Jesus.
What are you thanking God for right now?
Gracious Jesus, you are gracious, loving, and compassionate even when you know I don’t deserve it. Grant me the strength and guidance of your Holy Spirit to act graciously, lovingly and compassionately towards others, and to give thanks to you in all circumstances. Amen.
So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty’ (Luke 17:10).
Read Luke 17:1-10
It helps to be reminded of important matters over and over. Humility is a core matter for Jesus. He keeps reminding his disciples, and us, to be humble. In the Sermon on the Mount, he carefully explains that ‘when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing’ (Matthew 6:3). Likewise, he tells us, ‘When you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen’ (Matthew 6:6), and, ‘When you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that it will not be obvious to men that you are fasting’ (Matthew 6:17,18). Jesus’ disciple Simon Peter himself expresses Jesus’ emphasis on humility in his epistle (1 Peter 5:5,6): ‘All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, so that He may exalt you.’ Humility is a big deal for God, and so it should be a big deal for us. Let us be guided by Paul’s letter to the Philippians (2:5,8) when he says, ‘In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus … He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death – even death on a cross!’
Does humility come naturally to you or do you sometimes struggle being humble?
Loving God, help me to be humble. Use me to be a servant to others and to do the work you demand of me with a willing heart. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
by Maria Rudolph
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last (John 15:16).
Read John 15:9–17
I didn’t know Jesus growing up. My family were not Christian. I became a Christian as an adult. There’s a lot I can tell you about having a conversion experience, weeping tears of joy as I was overcome by the Holy Spirit the first time I ever went to worship at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Adelaide. I can tell you how transformational it was for me to read the Bible for the first time, and that I have kept a diary of that time in which page after page I tell God that I will follow him and live for him. Throughout that time, a small LLL tract was stuck to the wall near my pillow, and I read what it said every night before I closed my eyes. A Lutheran friend had given it to me: ‘You did not choose me, but I chose you’ (John 15:16). Etched into my memory forever. I didn’t understand those words, at the time, but they seemed important. Now I get it. We do not choose to follow God, God comes to us.
Three lost and found – or chosen – stories in Luke helped me to understand. The parable of the lost sheep (Luke 15:1–7): The sheep was too stuck and too lost to turn around and choose to follow the Good Shepherd again. But he went out looking for the sheep until he found it and threw a joyful party! That’s our God. The parable of the lost coin (Luke 15:8–10): The woman searched high and low until she found her treasured coin – and then threw a party! That’s our God. The parable of the lost son (Luke 15:11–32): The prodigal son was too disgraced to return as a beloved son, so he asked to be taken on as a servant. But the overjoyed father ran to meet and embrace him – and then threw a party! That is our God. God turns to us in love and joy. There will be rejoicing in heaven over you. You are chosen. Jesus says: ‘Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John 15:9,10,12). You are chosen to love.
Who can you show Christ-like love to today?
Jesus, thank you for loving me as the Father has loved you. Help me to remain in your love by loving others. Thank you for choosing me to love and for not giving up on me. Amen.
By Maria Rudolph
Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvellous things (Psalm 98:1a).
Read Psalm 98
My wife and I spent over two years searching for a retirement village to move into once we admitted that our home of over 30 years was no longer meeting our needs. It feels like a miracle of timing and circumstances that led us to where we now live. The village facilities, the staff, and other residents provide a wonderful environment to live in.
Yet, when a group of us residents get together, it is surprising how quickly we find ourselves complaining about things that are not perfect. Often, one of us has to speak up and remind us how we are all generally very happy with living here and wouldn’t want to live elsewhere.
This is why the message of this psalm is so important. It invites us to look up from preoccupation with the issues facing us and instead see God at work – in our lives and those around us. It might mean stopping talking about what irritates us and instead listening to what others are experiencing. It might mean asking God to help us to see what he is doing more clearly.
Never should we think that God needs our praises; instead, God has given us this gift of praising him to keep us focused and balanced as we face challenges in life. As we see God at work loving, encouraging, and healing people, and we acknowledge that our God’s love is the prime mover behind these activities, our focus changes from ourselves to being part of the family team God is using to love, encourage, and heal others.
One other thing the psalm brings out is how infectious praise is. It affects those around us and even possibly nature itself. As people see the joy permeating our being, they will want to know the source of this joy, too, and this allows us to share the source of it with others – in a very natural way.
Awesome God, we praise you for all the wonderful things you are doing in our lives, in the lives of our family members and friends, and, of course, in the lives of the billions of people we know nothing about. As we become aware of all you are doing, help us too to burst into praise to you. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on communications projects for the Air Force, Army and Navy. He lives in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren with whom they love spending time. He keeps himself busy with pot plants, a community vegetable garden, researching his family history, and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.
‘No, Father Abraham’, he [the rich man] said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’ Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead’ (Luke 16:30,31).
ReadLuke 16:19–31
The parable Jesus told of the rich man and Lazarus is about a selfish, self-centered rich man who had no compassion for the poor beggar Lazarus, who used to sit outside the rich man’s gate begging for food. After they both die, the tables are turned, Lazarus is carried to ‘Abraham’s side’, and the rich man ends up in Hades (hell). In the parable, the rich man can see Lazarus and Abraham in the distance and pleads for help from Abraham but is advised this is now impossible. In a slight glimmer of compassion for others, the rich man asks if Lazarus can be sent back to the rich man’s brothers to warn them of where they are headed. Abraham advises the rich man that his brothers already have all of the Old Testament (Moses and the Prophets). We then pick up the story with the two verses quoted above.
I’ve often wondered what it takes for someone to dramatically change their position on an issue. When we are children, we tend to parrot back our parent’s views, but as part of our growing up, through the various influences around us, we develop our views, which tend to solidify in early adulthood. Some we take on almost subconsciously, while others we arrive at after much more thought, often involving lots of discussion with others. But we are pretty much set in our ideas by adulthood. We then tend to defend our views on issues and reject alternative views, sometimes very forcefully.
What about my views about God and his purpose for my life? I don’t believe God wants us to have blind faith in him because, if he did, it would be just as valid to have blind faith in any other religion. When Jesus was on Earth, he performed many miracles and other signs to prove he was God. He even returned from death (as suggested by the rich man in the parable). But many people still rejected him as God because they had blind faith in their distorted version of Judaism, and there was no room for Jesus in it.
Looking back on my 70-plus years, I can see God at work changing my views and attitudes, especially about my relationship with him. Often, he had to send challenges into my life to get me to review my attitudes and beliefs and then send people to me with wonderful words of godly wisdom to help me work through the challenges with new perspectives and insights.
I sometimes think how much easier my life would have been if I didn’t have to learn the hard way. And then I remember that if God made us humans, he would have had the best understanding of how to work in our lives to bring about his desired changes.
Heavenly Father, I surrender all my ideas and attitudes to you and ask that you lead me to take positions that honour you and demonstrate your love for all people. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on communications projects for the Air Force, Army and Navy. He lives in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren with whom they love spending time. He keeps himself busy with pot plants, a community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery (Luke 16:18).
Read Luke 16:10–18
Why would I pick this passage for our devotion today when there were much safer subjects in today’s reading? Well, for starters, both my current wife and I were divorcees when we were married some years ago, and this was a passage we had to come to terms with. The passage is seemingly unambiguous and comes from the mouth of Jesus himself. So, there is no wriggle room.
For this devotion, I also bravely searched the internet for inspiration and discovered lots of discussion on who fitted into the categories of those who could never marry again because of divorce. I found discussions on who could find wriggle room to squeeze out of these categories. I felt that much of this was very legalistic and not in the spirit of the God I have come to know. Yes, God has very high standards, and there is no option for divorce (and, therefore, remarriage) in God’s perfect plan.
When my first marriage broke down, and we eventually divorced, I did commit myself to be single for the rest of my life. (Looking back, I think part of the reason was my guilt at failing to make my marriage work). I found a group of loving Christian friends (or they found me), and through these relationships, God matured me in my relationship with him. But all the time, I kept fending off any attempts by women to develop a romantic relationship with me. But God seemed to have a different idea. First, he brought Diane into my life. Then, God organised for a Christian friend to lecture me on the practicalities of God’s forgiveness and grace. He stressed that when God forgives, the past is forgotten; in God’s eyes, it is as if it hasn’t happened. While he was haranguing me, the Holy Spirit was lovingly convicting me that the failure of my marriage was no longer on his mind. Jesus had dealt with it on the cross, and it was buried with Jesus in the grave. Unknown to me at that time, God was also working in Diane’s life to bring us together.
After we got married, we still had to deal with many issues from our previous relationships, but we were also able to provide more stability for our respective children. There were ways God grew us through being in our relationship that may not have happened if we both had stayed single. And we came to understand more personally about God’s grace and mercy.
So, back to Jesus’s words. The context was that he spoke to the religious and legal rulers who loved playing legal games by adding their own interpretations and providing legal loopholes for themselves. Jesus just cut through to God’s clear plan.
Heavenly Father, as hard as we try, we keep failing to live up to your standards. Thank you that Jesus took all these failures on himself to the cross and grave, and they are all still buried in the grave. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on communications projects for the Air Force, Army and Navy. He lives in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren with whom they love spending time. He keeps himself busy with pot plants, a community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.
I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings (Luke 16:9).
Read Luke 16:1–9
This parable is one of the more difficult ones to understand. It is about a dishonest asset manager who gets found out by his boss and is given a short period to finalise the books before getting sacked. The asset manager then acts with further dishonesty by conspiring with his boss’ debtors to reduce their debts and gain their favour, hoping that these favours will extend to him being looked after by the debtors after he is sacked. The surprise of the parable is that the boss then congratulates the dishonest asset manager for his clever response to his impending sacking.
Jesus then makes the statement, ‘Realise that the purpose of money is to strengthen friendships, to provide opportunities for being generous and kind. Eventually, money will be useless to you – but if you use it generously to serve others, you will be welcomed joyfully into your eternal destination’ (from The Voice translation).
In the parable, the asset manager contemplates his future, makes plans, and executes them.
As a retired couple, my wife and I definitely did think while we were still gainfully employed about how we would fund our retirement. We sought financial advice from several sources and then implemented strategies we hoped would accumulate sufficient resources to live on in retirement.
Did we put the same amount of effort into planning for our eternal future? What about the effort to share the good news with others so we could celebrate in heaven together in the future? Am I prepared to review my priorities and goals so that God can use the resources he has given me more effectively in living out his love for others?
Heavenly Father, you have blessed us richly with your gifts to us. Please help us to remember they are a gift from you, and guide us in being clever in using all these gifts in a way that honours you and helps spread the good news to others who will greet and welcome us when we meet in heaven and celebrate together. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on communications projects for the Air Force, army and navy. He lives in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren with whom they love spending time. He keeps himself busy with pot plants, a community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.
The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son'. But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate’ (Luke 15:21–23).
Read Luke 15:11–32
Today’s reading is the third of three parables Jesus told about the ‘lost’ being found. Yesterday, we looked at the parables of the lost coin and lost sheep. This parable has traditionally been referred to as the parable of the prodigal son, emphasising the wasteful life the younger son lived after receiving his inheritance from his living father. The emphasis of this parable is really about the love and compassion of the father of the two sons. Like the previous two parables, we have the contrast of the lost son and the ‘good’ son who stays home and faithfully serves his father. In reality, both sons are lost – one in a very obvious way as he rejects his relationship with his father and squanders his inheritance, ending up a pauper; the other in a less obvious way as he slavishly serves his father with little love in the relationship.
One son hits rock bottom and repents, and there is great rejoicing as he returns home. Remember the rejoicing in heaven we read about yesterday over each person who repents? The other son hasn’t yet seen the need to repent. Hold on, you say, what has he done to repent over? There is jealousy over his brother, who is welcomed back into the family, his sulking and the lack of respect for his father when he is invited to the celebrations – just for starters.
But the hero of the story is the father who responded in very unexpected ways. In western culture, we may find it strange how he welcomed the younger son back. In the Middle Eastern culture where this story was told, the listeners would have never experienced such a father who would run to a disgraced son to welcome him home.
Jesus, again, stresses to his hearers how much his Father is committed to welcoming his repentant children back to him and celebrating exuberantly over their return. There is no hint of punishment for their failures, just forgiveness and a welcome home.
Heavenly Father, we often fail to live as your children, sometimes like the younger son, and sometimes the older son. Thank you for your amazing love and grace to us in the way you openly welcome us back once we acknowledge our failures. Please guide us with your Spirit in sharing the good news of this love and grace with others in the way we live our lives. Amen.
Charles is a retired engineer who has worked on communications projects for the air force, army and navy. He lives in the outer north-western suburbs of Sydney with his wife, Diane. Together they have four children and eight grandchildren with whom they love spending time. He keeps himself busy with pot plants, a community vegetable garden, researching his family history and volunteering in the community and at LifeWay Lutheran Church.