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Wednesday October 17th

Water Combined with God’s Word

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Matthew 28:19

Where the Lord puts His name, there you can count on His being there to bless. God’s name and blessing go together in the Old Testament: wherever He records His name, He comes to show His favor to His people (Exodus 20:24). The Lord gives Moses the words of the benediction; through him, He instructs the priests to put the divine name on the people, and in that name, He promises to bless (Numbers 6:22–27). The temple is the place where He causes His name to dwell for the benefit of His people (1 Kings 8:27–30; 9:3). As we read today, now the Lord Jesus establishes Baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
When we are baptized, the Lord puts His name on us. Water combined with His strong Word marks us as those who belong to Him. Your signature inside the cover of a book indicates that the book is your property. God’s name on you means that you belong to Him. You are His disciple and an heir of heaven. No wonder that Baptism is such a priceless treasure, for it gives you the Lord who died and rose again that you might be His own for all eternity.

Baptized into Your holy name—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—grant me grace to live as Your child this day. Amen.

Thursday October 18th

Great Gifts

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16:16

Baptism is God’s work, for it delivers the gifts that Jesus acquired for the world on the cross. This is why Peter boldly states, “Baptism . . . now saves you” (1 Peter 3:21). Baptism is not a ritual we perform, but God’s work in joining us to the death and resurrection of Jesus. God has placed in Baptism the benefits of Jesus’ atoning death. It brings the forgiveness of sins, delivers from death and the devil, and gives eternal life to all who trust the promises God has joined to the water.
Our faith does not make Baptism any more than faith makes Christ and His cross. Baptism, like the cross, is not a work that we do, but a gift that God gives. Faith lays hold to the promises of God that He has planted in Baptism.
Luther once commented that our faith is certain because it is outside of us. When taunted by doubt, terrified by a troubled conscience, or stricken with fear of death, we have something to which to cling, something to trust that is trustworthy and sure, because it is done by God and not us. The gifts of Baptism are received, not achieved.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your words and promises that declare to me in Baptism the entire forgiveness of my sins and the gift of Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Friday October 19th

Genesis Repeated

He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. Titus 3:5

Jesus speaks of Baptism as being “born of water and the Spirit” (John 3:5). Paul uses similar imagery in today’s reading. Both make the point that we are recipients of new life through this saving work of God. No one was given physical birth by his or her choice. Birth came completely as a gift; we had no choice in the matter. So it is with the new birth of Baptism. It is the work of the Spirit alone as His Word is joined to the water.
When God baptizes, He regenerates; that is, He performs another genesis. Out of the nothingness of sin and unbelief, His Word brings forth a new life created not by the will of human flesh but by His gracious promise. Without His Word, the water is nothing but ordinary water. Included and called for in His command and connected to His Word, mere water becomes the instrument of regeneration and renewal wrought by His Spirit. In short, Baptism is a miracle. It is the miracle of salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone.

Baptized into Your death, O Lord, You have given me the gift of heavenly birth. Sustain me all my days in this inheritance until You bring me into Your heavenly kingdom. Amen.

How Serious Are You?

The Old Testament prophet Elijah had lived an adventurous life! He was instrumental in turning people back to the Lord, and he defeated the 450 heathen prophets of Baal. When his time on earth was coming to an end, God instructed him to find a young man named Elisha and to anoint him as Elijah's replacement as God's prophet.

Elijah found his replacement plowing a field with 11 more teams of plowers in front of him. Elijah went to the back of the line and tossed his personal coat across Elisha's shoulders. A person's coat was the most valuable piece of clothing he owned. It served several purposes: Not only was it used to keep him warm and protect him against the wind, sun and cold, but it was also used to sit on, to lie on as bedding and even to carry things in as a piece of luggage.

Elisha, a man of God, knew exactly what the significance meant. He understood that God was calling him to become Elijah's successor. Elisha's response was, “First let me say goodbye to my parents before I come with you.” Elijah agreed.

We're told in the New Testament of another time when someone asked to say goodbye to their parents before accepting God's call, and Jesus denied the request. Christ was issuing the call for believers to follow Him wholeheartedly. One young man asked to bury his father first. Jesus told him to let the dead bury their own dead.

Was Jesus being mean? No. Culturally, it was common to make excuses regarding your family, to get out of things you didn't want to do. It was very likely that this man's parents were actually in excellent health. Jesus was in essence telling him to be concerned with matters of living instead of focusing on problems he hadn't even encountered yet-the future of his parents death.

Elisha's situation was different. His father expected him to fulfill his obligation of working the fields. To honor his father, Elisha wanted to explain why he was leaving. He wasn't using this as an opportunity to let his parents talk him out of following Elijah. Rather, he was actually showing respect to his parents.

Elijah sensed Elisha's genuine spirit and granted him permission to do so. To prove that he wasn't second- guessing his commitment to Elijah, Elisha told his folks goodbye, and then killed his oxen, and burned their plows. With his tools now gone forever, Elisha knew he couldn't return to the fields. He was serious about answering God's call on his life!

God wants total commitment from you. Those who follow Christ half-heartedly, don't follow Him very far. Elisha was demonstrating that he desired to follow God's call on his life with abandon.

Know It!
Have you given your entire life to God with reckless abandon? When you do, you'll experience true freedom and joy of total commitment and obedience.

Read It!
1 Samuel 15:22; 1 Kings 19:15-21; Matthew 8:22; Luke 9:59-62.

Pray It!
Ask God to reveal any excuses you've been making in regards to your commitment to following Him with total abandon.

Sunday October 21st

Broken Bones and Unlocked Lips

Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that You have broken rejoice. Psalm 51:8

Confession and absolution go together like death and resurrection. Without confession, there is no absolution. Without death, there is no resurrection. Nathan preached a word to David that crushed him. In his rage over Nathan's story, David is brought to see himself. He is the man, convicted by his own lips. He confesses his sin to Nathan and hears from the prophet's lips a word of absolution: "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2 Samuel 12:13). Bones crushed by the Law are revived by the Gospel. Only as the Lord opened David's lips could he praise God. We know what happens when we attempt to open our lips. Rather than confessing our sins, we whine over the sins of others; we rationalize our sins and justify ourselves. We may even blame God for our sins and justify ourselves. We may even blame God for our sins. But when God opens our lips, we are freed to speak truthfully about our sin and God’s forgiveness in Christ. To confess your sin is to acknowledge the truthfulness of God’s judgment. Reviving absolution, we utter amen, truth, to God’s pardon. To hear the word of forgiveness is to hear joy and gladness, for God does not desire your death. It is His will to give you life through the cross of His Son.

Praise be to You, O Lord, for Your Word of forgiveness. Amen.

Sometimes . . . it's Tough

Following God with reckless abandon isn't always easy or comfortable. In fact, sometimes it's downright tough! Elisha knew the adventure of following God, but he was also very well aware of the obstacles. The issue when following God isn't how many miracles you'll experience or what kind of trials you'll encounter. The issue always remains total obedience.

It's easy to obey God when miracles are happening! When it's cool to belong to the Bible club on campus or receiving praise for carrying your Bible to school, it doesn't take much effort to call yourself a Christian. But when people are making fun of you or spreading false rumors about you, it's not cool any more, is it?

Because of Elisha's obedience, God did more miracles through him than He had through Elijah before him. But Elisha's obedience remained strong through the tough times as well. Often it's after we've experienced a spiritual “mountain top” high, that we encounter a spiritual “low valley.” After healing the infected waters of Jericho (high moment), Elisha was mocked and made fun of because of his baldness (low moment). Did Elisha's faith teeter during this low time? Not at all! He had learned that the God he served was not only King of the mountain but also Lord of the valley.

Elisha had just left Jericho and was headed toward Bethel. On his way, a gang of young men began verbally assaulting him. Though they laughed at his baldness, they were also mocking the fact that he was a prophet of God. And since Elisha was on a mission to speak out against immorality, it's likely they were also warning him not to speak against their own sin. By doing this, they were flaunting their disrespect for God, His call to holiness and His chosen prophet.

There will be times you'll be mocked for your faith. When you walk through the valley of difficulty, don't allow your faith to falter. Keep your eyes focused intently on obedience to your Master. Chances are high that if you participated at the annual “See You At The Pole” event on your school campus this past September, you received some teasing. And chances are good if you reach out to the weird kid at your school, you'll be classified as weird, too.

Following Christ with reckless abandon requires great cost and sacrifice. That's why Jesus never pulled any punches when talking with those who followed Him. He let them know the cost would be high.

Know It!
Following God in total obedience may cost you some friends, some parties and some dreams. In fact, you probably don't know the full cost yet of following Him. But do know this: The eternal rewards will far outweigh the temporary earthly cost!

Read It!
2 Kings 2:23-25; Matthew 8:18-20; Luke 14:25-35; 2 Thessalonians 1:5.

Pray It!
Tell God you're ready to count the cost and follow Him with reckless abandon.

Giggles, Grins and Falling Asleep

To say we've come a long way in the arena of medicine is an understatement. Ancient Egyptian doctors made sure their patients were unconscious before surgery by hitting them on the head with a mallet.

Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., the dad of the Supreme Court Justice, coined the term “anesthesia” when he discovered the adrenal gland. When anesthesia was first discovered, some very conservative Christians believed it was against the will of God and fought to banish it. The controversy didn't last long, because Christians finally came to believe that when God removed Adam's rib to create Eve, the “deep sleep” God placed him under would have been similar to using anesthesia.

In 1800, Sir Humphry Davy discovered the intoxicating results of nitrous oxide and used it for laughing gas at parties he had with his friends. Ether had also used anesthetic gas at his own parties a few years earlier, but it never occurred to either men to use the drugs for surgical purposed, and eventually the interest in these substances declined.

Flash forward half a century. A dentist named W.T.G. Morton, from Boston, finally realized how useful these two drugs could be for surgery and gave a demonstration for a group of doctors. He anesthetized a patient with a tumor then stepped aside so the surgeon could operate.

Dr. J.C. Warren was the surgeon and was shocked he could actually operate on a patient who wasn't screaming in pain. As he finished the surgery, he endorsed anesthesia. The news began to spread, but people were still skeptical. A dentist named Horace Wells tried to demonstrate using anesthesia on one of his patients, but he didn't give him enough nitrous oxide, and the patient began screaming during the operation. The group of doctors left unconvinced that it was possible to have surgery without pain.

But the man who really put the story together was Samuel Cooley. He had attended a demonstration of nitrous oxide in 1844. At the end of the lecture, the speaker released 40 galloon of NO2 into the audience. Reacting to the “laughing gas,” the audience began to giggle and move about freely. Samuel Cooley was laughing so hard, he fell and severely injured his leg but didn't even know it! It was his story that convinced physicians to try using nitrous oxide in surgery.

Years before Samuel Cooley, Dr. Warren, Mr. Morton, Sir Humphry Davy, Mr. Morton and Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., there was another young man who fell asleep without laughing gas. His name was Eutychus, and he had a little trouble staying awake during the apostle Paul's sermon.

To make himself a little more comfortable, Eutychus stretched out inside an open window and soon started counting sheep. In a matter of minutes, he was dead. He had fallen out of the window from the tall building in which the Christians were meeting and died.

Know It!
It's a natural progression: We get comfortable, we fall asleep. Have you become too spiritually comfortable?

Read It!
Mark 13:33; Acts 20:7-12; Ephesians 6:18; 1 Peter 5:8.

Pray It!
Ask God to wake you up from any areas in your life in which you may have fallen asleep spiritually.