A brief prayer is offered that you can add to your daily prayers
this week. The scripture is from our Sunday Service Bulletin for today.
Gospel Reading- Matthew
4:18-22 [ESV]
18 While walking by the Sea of
Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his
brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 19 And
he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” 20 Immediately
they left their nets and followed him. 21 And going
on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his
brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he
called them.22 Immediately they left the boat and their
father and followed him
Devotion: The Great
Adventure
Today we start a sermon series called: “The Great Adventure”.
I think it is very appropriate to start a new year with this effort. If you are
a protestant and especially a Lutheran, the year 2017 is a remarkable
milestone. This year marks the 500-year anniversary [31 October] of the
Reformation, where Dr Luther defiantly posted the 95 church-challenging Theses
on the door of Castle Wittenberg church. The reformation was undoubtedly a “great” adventure
and, in some sense, it still is! Today’s text talks about Jesus’ call up of the
first Apostles who then start their great evangelism adventure which made it
possible for us, 2000 years later, to know of and believe in, the saving power
of our Savior. As we start 2017, It seems to me that there has been a recent change
in the mood of a lot of folks here in the US to more optimism even though world
events are still tragic. Especially when we hear of the terrible persecution of
Christians in the middle east and elsewhere. Let us start this year with hope for
our country and its leaders. Let us also pray for our country’s leadership, for
our fellow Christians, and especially those who are undergoing daily persecution.
We pray: “Lord, make
strong those who are being persecuted and lead us to find a way to help them.
Amen”
