by Kathy Matuschka
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… it is not the children by physical descent who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as Abraham’s offspring (Romans 9:8).
Read Romans 9:1–18
I love reading narratives (including biblical narratives) because I love to picture the people and the places of the story in my mind. In contrast, I find it difficult to connect with the Book of Romans. Described by some commentators as part letter, part treatise, it seems to be full of reasons and rationales, with many words and long sentences.
But not far beneath the surface, there is still a story – an amazing story! Saul of Tarsus had been pursuing God’s righteousness fastidiously, following the Jewish laws and rituals and protecting the faith from impurity and threats as he waited for the promised Messiah.
Suddenly and dramatically, his life and assumptions were changed when he met the risen Christ on the road to Damascus. Saul, persecutor of Christians, was transformed into Paul, follower of Jesus and apostle to the Gentiles.
In previous weeks, our devotion writers have been unpacking the chapters of Romans that have been termed ‘the heart of Christianity’. Now, in our readings this week, Paul grapples with what the arrival of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, means for himself and both Jews and Gentiles. A new aeon has dawned; unprecedented things are happening, and it is a lot to process!
Paul processes the implications of what has been revealed to him. He expresses both amazement that the Gentiles are included in the promise first given to Abraham and grief that, at the very moment the promise was fulfilled, so many Jews chose to reject the Messiah. It’s a plot twist, all right!
The Christian church in the western world has been the major keeper and teacher of the Christian faith for centuries. But are you noticing some plot twists today? Are you amazed at how God’s Spirit is leading people from all over the world to Christian faith in our day? Do you grieve that many western Christians no longer connect with a local congregation, and some have even rejected Jesus Christ?
Loving God, your mercy never fails to amaze and delight us, but we are a fickle lot. As a church, we are sorry for all the ways we have distorted the freedom you won for us, leading many to reject you. Please forgive us and restore us, so we can be part of the new things you are doing. In Jesus’ name, we pray, Amen.
Kathy Matuschka works as a hospital chaplain and worships at Our Saviour Lutheran Church Rochedale in Brisbane. As parents of three adult children, Kathy and her husband Mark have been taking great delight lately in learning how to be grandparents.
by Kathy Matuschka
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Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God (Luke 13:13).
Read Luke 13:10–17
Something new is happening … Jesus heals a woman who has been bent for more than 18 years due to a spinal condition. Jesus places his hands on her and says in verse 12, ‘Woman, you are set free from your infirmity’. Immediately, she stands up, feeling so fantastic that she can’t help praising God.
For most of my adult life, I have been a physiotherapist working in hospital settings. Would you like to hear my professional observations as I work through this story?
First, I thought about the woman’s spinal deformity. There was probably an initial cause of her back pain, but then over time, other parts of the woman’s spine became stiff and fixed. She is likely to have developed a ‘bony fusion’. In other words, her spine likely was to have been permanently stuck in a bent-over position.
Then, I considered that as the woman spent her time bent forward, the ligaments and muscles in the front of her body would have become tight and shortened. This would have been a secondary reason for her inability to stand straight. She would have lacked sufficient flexibility in her soft tissues to stand up straight.
Finally, as she spent 18 years in this position, her balance muscles would have wasted away. If I were an observer, I would be expecting the woman to topple over the moment she stood up straight!
A fused spine, weakened muscles, a loss of balance. ‘Woman, you are set free.’ Something unprecedented has happened. Jesus mends everything that is broken and dysfunctional by a word and a touch … as a sign that God is breaking through to establish a new aeon – the one in which we live!
Dear Jesus, some days the complexities of life on this earth overwhelm me. But then I recall how you broke into human history to set us free. And you left your Spirit to keep setting us free from our broken condition every day. We give you all our praise and thanks, Amen.
by Mark Gierus
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The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love (Psalm 103:8).
Read Psalm 103:1–8
Do you ever get frustrated with others around you because they seem to do the same thing that irritates you or lets you down? Do you have those friends who always cancel a catch-up at the last minute? Does that make you angry because it happens so much? Do you have children who continue making the same mistakes over and over again, and no matter how much you try to change them, it happens again?
Wouldn’t it be terrible if God had a human heart? Would he become irritated when we continue to sin in the same way repeatedly? Or perhaps he would get frustrated or become angry because we are not doing any better in trying to live a perfect life.
What a blessing for us that God doesn’t have a human heart, but rather a heart for humans! In this psalm, King David shares God’s heart with us. The Lord gets it, and he gets us in our human flesh and the sin that we so often fall into. The Lord is slow to anger in our failing, and when we sin, the Lord is compassionate and gracious toward us. He abounds in love, loving us so much that he sent his only Son, Jesus, to suffer and die for our sins.
God loves us no matter what we do or what we have done in the past. He will continue to love us tomorrow and always because he is abounding in love. God loves us, demonstrating his amazing love on the cross where his only Son died for us, and fills us with his love to overflowing.
Your cup of life is filled with the blessings God’s gives you day by day to overflowing, so that when you face your frustrating challenges of daily life or you find yourself becoming angry over circumstances or people, it is God’s amazing grace and love that will lead you into actions of love, compassion and kindness toward others. And this is all because God loves you first.
O Lord, thank you for your great patience with me every day. Instead of judging my failings, you choose to show me compassion. Guide me, Lord, day by day in your grace and love, so that I live as one whose cup is overflowing with your love, which I can show to others. Help me to be slow to anger with others, just as you are patient with me. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus serves as a Lutheran pastor in Alberton, Woongoolba and LORDS (Lutheran school) in Queensland. He has three beautiful girls aged 9, 12 and 22. He enjoys visiting the beach, singing and jamming, caring for their pets as a family, going on road trips and seeing people share the love of Jesus with one another. Mark prays that God will continue to bless you as you grow in him and come to know him more and more through his life-giving eternal word.
by Mark Gierus
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If God is for us, who can be against us? (Romans 8:31b)
Read Romans 8:31–39
Have you ever felt like you are just fighting your own battle? It might be against workplace politics, or it might be in seeking a life partner. It might be the fight to make ends meet when you want to save up a little money for a break or holiday from the full-on, busy life you are living at the moment.
Maybe it is your struggle with your body image or what you think of yourself in general. You might not feel that you have any worth in your season of life. You may have come through a really challenging time, and are just trying to find who you are again and what you can do in your new chapter of life. You might feel alone and fighting against that loneliness.
When did you last think of who is on your side in this fight?
We sometimes get into a pattern of living in which we can’t see that anything will change, or we may just accept that there is no-one on our side, yet God is.
The word of the Lord today asks that simple question, ‘If God is for us (for you), then who or what can ever be against us?’
God made you in his image and loves you. He cares; he hurts when you hurt. He knows when you feel alone, scared, tired and just ready to give up. In all this, he says. ‘I am for you. I am on your side.’
He is on your side this much. He sent Jesus, his only Son, to suffer and die for you and to forgive your sins so that you could be whole again. You are a new creation. You have eternal life – life now that is full of joy, peace, hope and love in Jesus and life forever. You are saved, and God is for you. So, then who can ever be against you, as you are his child?
Lord, you are on our side. Help me to stop worrying about the things I cannot control or change, and know that no-one can be against us as we live in your name. Give us deep peace, knowing you love us and are always there protecting us and fighting for us. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus serves as a Lutheran pastor in Alberton, Woongoolba and LORDS (Lutheran school) in Queensland. He has three beautiful girls aged 9, 12 and 22. He enjoys visiting the beach, singing and jamming, caring for their pets as a family, going on road trips and seeing people share the love of Jesus with one another. Mark prays that God will continue to bless you as you grow in him and come to know him more and more through his life-giving eternal word.
by Mark Gierus
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I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us (Romans 8:18).
Read Romans 8:18–25
Suffering is not something we enjoy going through in life. We don’t want to suffer; we want to be comfortable in the things we do. Many of us hate being out of our comfort zones, and we may hear people tell us to ‘push through’. However, sometimes, are we only dealing with first-world problems?
Recently, a question was asked on a local radio station about things that make people suffer. One lady called in and said that the cupholder in her new BMW was too small to fit her coffee travel mug. Another caller said he now had to park one level lower in the underground parking at his workplace, and he couldn’t get full phone coverage there.
We might laugh at this, but do we sometimes place too much emphasis on our first-world problems? Yet, in the face of true suffering – in loss and grief, in physical, emotional and mental struggles, in seeing poverty and war – we are encouraged to not even compare them with the glory that awaits us in Jesus.
The same Jesus who holds us now in his love, presence and comfort in his word, is the same Jesus who will come again one day to take us to be with him forever in all his glory.
The old hymn ‘It is well with my soul’ was written by Horatio Spafford, who lost his four daughters in a shipwreck. Horatio didn’t go on the journey, and only his wife, Anna, survived. He received a telegram from Anna after she was rescued, with only two words, ‘Saved alone.’
Horatio went to see Anna. As the ship he was sailing on passed the place where his four daughters drowned, he wrote the hymn.
In his grief, he didn’t need to compare his suffering with what was to come, for his eyes were on Jesus in faith, knowing he could say, ‘It is well.’
Know that in your suffering, Jesus holds you, for in him, all is well in the depths of your soul.
Dear Jesus, it is well with my soul because you have saved me. You died for my sins, and, in your name, you give me hope and peace, day by day, no matter what suffering I face. You walk with me through it all, and you will take me to be with you forever in the end. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus serves as a Lutheran pastor in Alberton, Woongoolba and LORDS (Lutheran school) in Queensland. He has three beautiful girls aged 9, 12 and 22. He enjoys visiting the beach, singing and jamming, caring for their pets as a family, going on road trips and seeing people share the love of Jesus with one another. Mark prays that God will continue to bless you as you grow in him and come to know him more and more through his life-giving eternal word.
by Mark Gierus
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For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God (Romans 8:14).
Read Romans 8:12–17
How often have you heard adults say to other adults to grow up and stop acting like a child? When did you last act like a child? If you said it has been a while, or that you never act like a child, maybe it is time to start.
We are children of God; therefore, we should act that way. How often do we, in the space of church politics, pretend that we are all grown up and no longer laugh and play, and must be serious? Serious about our church numbers and serious about our finances, and becoming too corporate in the worldly sense with our thinking.
Perhaps we need to get serious about being like children again in our thinking and especially in our hearts. We are, after all, children of God – let us play, dance, sing and trust our God as a child. The living God, who made heaven and earth and sent his only Son, Jesus, to die on a cross, gave us the right to become his children simply by believing in the one he sent – Jesus, our Saviour.
As children of God, let us live in such a way that reflects our Father’s love. Let us live in a way that doesn’t dishonour our Father by our actions. Let us live as children in the power of his Spirit, easily trusting that God will do his work in us and through us, and that he cares, giving us all we need. Let us live by his Spirit who he has poured into us, and let our actions go with the words we speak of his love for us.
When did you last act like a child? Start today and be carefree, not worrying about tomorrow or the future, but finding joy in the good gifts God has given you. Listen to the gentle voice of God’s Spirit guiding you and leading you in all truth day by day.
Heavenly Father, pour out your Spirit upon us richly as we are led to live as your dear children. Help us to not only say we are your children but also to act like your precious children and share your love with others around us. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus serves as a Lutheran pastor in Alberton, Woongoolba and LORDS (Lutheran school) in Queensland. He has three beautiful girls aged 9, 12 and 22. He enjoys visiting the beach, singing and jamming, caring for their pets as a family, going on road trips and seeing people share the love of Jesus with one another. Mark prays that God will continue to bless you as you grow in him and come to know him more and more through his life-giving eternal word.
by Mark Gierus
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Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).
Read Romans 8:1–11
You may have been to a funeral before, or perhaps you have wondered about death. Maybe you might think this is a very morbid way of starting a daily devotion, yet death is part of life. Have you stopped to ponder how, among death, there is life, and what great comfort we have in Christ Jesus?
It is Jesus who will come to judge the living and the dead, and as the just judge of all, we all will need to give an account of our lives to him. So, what will you say? Are there things you might be ashamed to share among the good things you have done? Does that frighten you?
In the words of St Paul today, there is great comfort. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But what does that mean? It is certainly great news that we are not condemned by Jesus if we are in him, but what does it look like?
If you think of God’s amazing grace and the great love he poured out for all through Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross, we can be at peace. God has done the work on our behalf, so we do not need to worry about an eternity of condemnation, simply by believing in Jesus.
On the day of judgement, when the judge Jesus asks for your account, you can simply say, ‘The account of my life, Jesus, is you, for you love me and died for my sins.’
We have no condemnation in Jesus Christ, the one who will judge the living and the dead, because of faith, trusting that Jesus has done it all. There is nothing more to do than now but to live in Jesus and walk day by day in faith.
Dear Jesus, you are right to judge our sins. Thank you for dying for my sins so that I know, in you, there is peace and no condemnation, but forgiveness and hope. Help me to live a life that shows your love to others today and always. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus serves as a Lutheran pastor in Alberton, Woongoolba and LORDS (Lutheran school) in Queensland. He has three beautiful girls aged 9, 12 and 22. He enjoys visiting the beach, singing and jamming, caring for their pets as a family, going on road trips and seeing people share the love of Jesus with one another. Mark prays that God will continue to bless you as you grow in him and come to know him more and more through his life-giving eternal word.
by Mark Gierus
Click here to download your printable verse to carry with you today.
‘Hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of the earth and the sky. How is it that you do not know how to interpret this present time?’ (Luke 12:56)
Read Luke 12:49–56
Are you a gardener or someone who likes the great outdoors? Do you check the weather to see what the new day will bring? Will it rain or be hot? Do you read the signs of what nature is doing?
Jesus told the people of his day that they could interpret the basic things of nature, such as the clouds that bring rain, yet they were unable to understand the times in which they lived. The times of brokenness, sin, division, hate and hurt.
Jesus says that to us today in the same words. Do you know how to interpret the present times? Do you see the sin in the world, the disobedience to God, the selfish living, the hurt, the division, even in our own church? Do you know what time it is? The time is to repent and believe – to turn back to Jesus and hear his word of grace, love, hope and peace.
Jesus tells us he will come again to take us to be with him forever, and he tells us to be ready for when he returns to find us doing his work.
His work is simply living a life of repentance, or an ongoing turning back to him when we sin, when we fail in our best efforts to live a good life in his name. The time to repent is always at hand, just as the time to serve the Lord is. Jesus calls us to a life of faith, to follow him where he leads. He reminds us when we sin and contribute to the brokenness and division of the world to repent and turn back to him, where he receives us lovingly and forgives our sins, for he died on the cross for us all.
He sends us into the world, healed and whole, to share his love amid the brokenness and division of the present time. We are also called to encourage others to recognise that now is the time to listen to God’s quiet yet powerful voice.
Dear Jesus, help us to clearly see that in the division and brokenness of the world, you call us daily to repent, to turn back to you and to fix our eyes on you. In our repentance, help us hear your words of forgiveness again. Change our hearts so that we see things through your eyes and love others in their brokenness and in times of division. Amen.
Pastor Mark Gierus serves as a Lutheran pastor in Alberton, Woongoolba and LORDS (Lutheran school) in Queensland. He has three beautiful girls aged 9, 12 and 22. He enjoys visiting the beach, singing and jamming, caring for their pets as a family, going on road trips and seeing people share the love of Jesus with one another. Mark prays that God will continue to bless you as you grow in him and come to know him more and more through his life-giving eternal word.
by Anne Hansen
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God presides over heaven’s court; he pronounces judgement on the heavenly beings (Psalm 82:1).
Read Psalm 82
I remember the first time I saw the Tom Cruise movie A Few Good Men. What struck me initially was the scene in the courtroom where it appears Tom Cruise has been bested by the Jack Nicholson character, Colonel Jessep, when he says the iconic line: ‘You can’t handle the truth!’ It seems that here the conflict comes to a head as it wrestles to determine between morality and duty. Colonel Jessep rationalises that people must be sacrificed so that the law can be maintained. I won’t spoil the ending for those who haven’t seen the movie – I do recommend it!
Here in Psalm 82, the scene is also set in a courtroom with God as the judge. He sits in judgement against corrupt rulers and judges who fail to care for those in need. It describes a divine council where God confronts ‘beings’ (these can be seen as lesser gods, deities or earthly rulers). God brings them to justice for their failure to uphold justice and protect the poor, oppressed, weak and needy. It reminds us also to care for those who are in need and less fortunate.
This is a very different psalm from many others, as it lacks praise, thanksgiving, confession or lament. Instead, it is God speaking to us. He has gathered all the ‘judges’ to give judgement against them. The God of heaven and earth is greater than any ‘god’ or ruler on earth, and at the end of times, they also will be judged for how they have treated their people/countries. Social justice is God’s cause, and he will uphold it. God will complete his work when he comes again to ‘judge the living and the dead’. There is only one God, and he works for the justice and peace of the kingdom on earth.
This truth I can handle!
May your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. Guide our governments and those in authority to lead and direct with equity, love and care for all who are vulnerable and in need. Amen.
For 19 years, Anne has been the Lutheran Tract Mission Development Officer. She lives in Noosa with her husband, Mark (a pastor), has three grown children – Jonah, Christian and Emma – and is a proud new mother-in-law to Brooke. She enjoys walking, reading, gardening and playing pickleball.