“And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.’” (Mark 7:27)

Today’s devotion isn’t for learning.  It’s for praising.

“He has done all things well.”  Here is the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He has done all things well!  With His Father, He made the heavens and the earth and that is in them (seen and unseen!); He delivered Israel from her enemies and established her in a beautiful land; and by the Spirit He came to the prophets to prepare the world for His blessed Advent.  Those great acts alone win Him our eternal praise.

Yet there is more.  The “all things” that Jesus did “well” were not just things like making a sculpture or delivering a speech in fine style.  They were things He did for the sake of His neighbors!  He did them “well” because they were merciful, like the acts of creation and prophecy.  He healed, forgave, comforted, and freed people—and He is the same Lord who knows you by name and loves you.

What has He done well for you?  Make a list, and praise Him!

LET US PRAY:  Dear Father, what a good Son You have!  You must be very proud.  He has done all things well!  For me, He has . . . [fill in the blank!] . . . I am so thankful for His mercy and love, a mercy and love that He shares with You and Your Spirit, one God forever.  Amen

Pr. Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.  (Ephesians 6:11)

When cleaning my grandfather’s home, my family and I came across a pair of wooden shoes that he had carved for himself as a young man in Norway.  Undoubtedly many such pairs of shoes could be found across the world, carved by different hands in different cultures.  But the connection between these shoes and my grandfather set them apart for us, and we’ve kept them to this day.

When St. Paul speaks of “the armor of God,” he speaks about something similar.  The armor of God (the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes of the readiness of the gospel, etc.) is not simply armor that God has given us; it is armor that He wore Himself!  He wore it when He came to this earth to preach good news, die, and rise again.  He clothed Himself in truth, righteousness, peace, and the Spirit, and now we have inherited this armor and may wear it also.

Taking up that armor confirms for us our intimate union with Jesus.  Defended by His truth, wielding His word, and covered by prayer in His name, we are assured all the more that He is ours, and we are His, as sure as the shoes on our feet.

LET US PRAY:  Lord of great might: I cannot fill Your shoes or measure up to Your stature.  Yet You have kindly honored me by numbering me among Your ranks and calling me to serve Your kingdom.  Grant that I may do so faithfully and to Your glory.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen

Pr. Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

“’Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”  (Ephesians 5:31-32)

It seems that the apostles couldn’t read a passage from the Old Testament without seeing Jesus in it.  Here we read that a passage from Genesis, written about Adam and Eve’s union as husband and wife, is really about Christ and the Church.  Just as Adam and Eve became one flesh, so have Jesus and His believers.

Have we fully apprehended that mystery?  At the very least, it carries this stunning truth for us: the Spirit at work in the body of Jesus is at work in us, too.  The Holy Spirit bore Jesus into the world, and ultimately into the grave, only to raise Him again in the power of a new creation.  United with Jesus through the wedding vows of Baptism, we experience this same Spirit through the power of repentance and forgiveness.

Repenting, we go by the Spirit into the grave of Jesus; forgiven, we are a new creation, free of guilt and accusation by this same Spirit.  Here’s why we preach repentance and forgiveness, and here is why faith comes with repentance and forgiveness: It is the Spirit of eternal life at work, wedding us to the risen body of Jesus, flesh of His flesh.

LET US PRAY: God, You have taken me to be Your own, for better or for worse, in richer and in poorer, in sickness and in health, and not even death can part us.  Forgive me for my wandering heart and ways; for I trust You to be as You have promised, merciful and kind forever; in Jesus’ name.  Amen

Pr. Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

“And he asked that he might die, saying, ‘It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life, for I am no better than my fathers.’ And he lay down and slept under a broom tree. And behold, an angel touched him and said to him, ‘Arise and eat.’”  (1 Kings 19:4b-5)

Elijah had good reason to prefer death to life.  Hated, hunted, and doubtful, he figured that he was the last prophet of God in Israel.  He felt as you and I may sometimes feel: alone, dispirited, and failed.

Yet then God granted him sleep, as God grants to all His beloved (Psalm 127:2), and the good angel came with good words: “Arise and eat.”  God cared for His own, as a shepherd cares for His sheep.  He comforted Elijah not only with physical nourishment but also with His own, merciful and divine fellowship.

Here is the God who greets you in Jesus Christ.  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).  “Take, eat.  Take, drink.”  With such tender words He nourishes and raises us up, too.  Though we may feel sorry for ourselves, He has a journey for us to walk.  Though we may mark ourselves for dead, He marks us for life.  Come to Him; rest in His arms; eat and drink His Supper; then rise, and be on your way.

LET US PRAY: Lord, feed me.  I’m hungry, and I’m not smart enough to know what food is best.  Nourish me with Your bread of life, and send me on the way of life.  Amen

Pastor Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

Editor’s Note: The article below by Pastor Steven K. Gjerde originally appeared in the Summer 2018 Newsletter.

Click here to read the article.

“And [King Herod] vowed to her, ‘Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my kingdom.’”  (Mark 6:23)

Half a kingdom: that’s all that Herod was willing to offer.  And even for that half-kingdom, his wife’s daughter had to please him with a dance.  Do you see how different your Lord is?

Your Lord doesn’t give you a half-kingdom but a whole kingdom, and for this great gift He doesn’t even require a song and dance.  Your Lord gives you His kingdom for His own sake.

The resurrection of the body, the hope everlasting, the daily joy, the forgiveness and mercy, the favor of the Father, the fellowship of the Church, the life to live, the death that is but a sleep, the new creation that comes with Jesus—all these things are yours, not because you pleased your king, but because your King died for you.

Now there’s a reason to dance!

LET US PRAY: Almighty Lord and King, Your gifts so far exceed all that I can imagine that I tend to forget them, or at least, to forget their magnitude.  Help me to remember the great mercy that You have shown me, and to be awed by it, that I may ever praise and delight in You; for Jesus’ sake.  Amen

Pastor Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

“Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.”  (2 Corinthians 12:9)

Imagine, the next time someone criticizes you, listening very calmly to the criticism and then saying: “You know, you just made me sound much better than I really am.”

Yes, it might be a rather cheeky thing to say—it could be used as just another form of self-defense—but that isn’t my point.  My point is really the opposite: the grace of Christ not only allows us to see the truth about our weaknesses, but it even allows us boast in them—and when we do so, it’s good for everyone.

Boasting in a weakness is different from accepting it.  Boasting in a weakness, for Christian believers, is abandoning the self to rejoice all the more in Jesus Christ.  It’s confessing honestly who we are, warts and all, in the confidence that such weaknesses are not the final or most important word.  A greater, kinder, and more forgiving word has been spoken for each one of us in the life of Jesus Christ.

So we can be honest about how weak we all are, even how bad we are.  Speaking with such honesty blesses our neighbors and allows them to be honest, too.  It “levels the field” and sets us all before the kindness of our Christ.

LET US PRAY: Lord, you know my weaknesses.  You know my sins.  I’m sorry you had to see and know all that.  Thank you for not forcing me to look at it every day.  Thank you for your beauty, your mercy, and your strength.  Thank you for being the better person who I cannot be, and thank you for being that person for me.  Give that consolation to all who struggle with weakness and sin.  Amen

Pastor Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

“Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?” (Job 38:2)

I suppose the best answer is simply to raise one’s own hand.  I am the one who darkens counsel by words without knowledge.  I rush to speak where I should be silent, to explain where I do not know, and to offer my opinion where God’s Word is better.  For what are my thoughts compared to God’s?

Every Christian should pause and sit with this reality for a bit, taking it to heart.  Many people extol the virtue of being still and silent for meditation, but we’re not truly silent until we have pondered the futility of our own thoughts compared to God’s—yes, even our pondering of our ponderings is a chasing after wind.  Until we extinguish our love for our own opinions and discernment, we’re still yakking away in the arrogance of our hearts, however still our mouths may be.

Yet once we have confessed our ignorance and said, “Your thoughts, O Lord, are higher than my thoughts,” then we are truly silent, however much we may speak.  Those who make God’s Word their counsel are quiet and still before Him, even though they may make a great noise, because they have silenced their minds in favor of God’s mind and refrained from exalting their judgments over His.  Here is the joy and gift of the Church: always having a better Word than our own, because it carries so much greater consolation and wisdom.

LET US PRAY: Silence the imaginations of my heart, O Lord, so that I may truly speak and speak the truth.  Amen

Pastor Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

“For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Corinthians 5:1)

Here is the Christian’s courage.

A thousand things can attack us in the flesh, from accidents to illnesses, from crime to war.  As we go into a day, we don’t know what will happen; every morning starts a venture of which we cannot see the ending.  The unknown is so great, not only for each of us individually, but also for our families, neighborhoods, and churches.

Yet God has breathed His Holy Spirit into the believer, the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  By His own word of promise, God declares that we belong to the world to come, the same world that broke into this earth through the death and resurrection of Jesus.  The destruction of our “earthly tent” (our flesh, our homes, our lives as we now know them) cannot destroy our “heavenly tent,” the body of Christ.

God pitched that heavenly tent among you through the birth of His Son, and He opened the flap of it in His Son’s wounds, handing Him over for sinners.  Now, He has zippered you securely in its shelter through the ministry of His Spirit, making for you a home in His mercy.

Of what shall you be afraid?

LET US PRAY: Fill me with courage, good Lord, and let no fear of loss or suffering prevent me from abiding with You, both here on earth and in the world to come; through Jesus, Your Son.  Amen

Pastor Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.   So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:28)

People often think that Christian morality rests on blind commitment to a list of rules.  They think so because Christians will sometimes make moral arguments by quoting one or two commands from the Bible.  In this passage, our Lord Jesus Christ shows us a better way.

Someone throws a law at Him—“You can’t work on the Sabbath!”—and He responds by going back to creation: “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”  The Redeemer of creation, Jesus unpacks the divine will at work in time and nature alike.  God’s purpose in hallowing the Sabbath was for people to rest in His good work, not to live in the fear of doing work.

So it always goes for Christians.  Morality is not about checking off rules to keep ourselves pure; it’s about living as God has given us to live in His Son, who leads us faithfully into creation as God intends it: pure gift, pure rest, and pure joy.  Forgiven in the blood of Christ, we are free to take up the work He gives us without fear.

LET US PRAY:  O Lord of the Sabbath, You are the rest of the weary and the crown of creation.  Fill the earth with the joy of Your salvation, and write Your law upon our hearts; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God forever.  Amen

Pr. Steven K. Gjerde

Zion, Wausau