TAKE UP YOUR CROSS
Devotional for September 16, 2018 based upon Mark 8: 27-38

Jesus never calls upon anyone to do anything that He Himself would not do and/or has not done. What He asks us to face, He Himself has already faced. Jesus has the right to challenge us to take up a cross, because He Himself has already taken up His cross.

But all that goes against the grain. The world tells us that anything that bothers us or becomes difficult we should seek to avoid. Jesus said, “If any want to become My followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me.” What does it mean to “take up your cross”?

First, TAKING UP A CROSS IS ALWAYS VOLUNTARY. Jesus calls us, and Jesus challenges us, but taking up a cross and following Jesus is always voluntary. A bad medical diagnosis, a personal tragedy, or a severe accident may all be a heavy burden to bear. But they are not a cross that you have taken up for Jesus, because you did not volunteer for them.

Second, TAKING UP A CROSS IS AN ACT OF LOVE. An act of love that we freely choose. It is a price we pay out of love. For Jesus taking up His cross meant going to Calvary to die. He did it because He loves us so much that He could not do otherwise. Taking up a cross means taking the love of God and touching the lives of other people, even those who are very difficult to love. Taking up a cross means denying and sacrificing and paying the price regardless of the hardships that we must endure.

Third, TAKING UP A CROSS IS HARD. In fact, it is so hard that whenever the message of the cross is preached, some people will object. They will say, “You cannot be asking me to do that. That would be too hard.”

Kind of like Peter in our Gospel lesson for this coming Sunday, when Jesus was talking about His impending death on the cross. Peter objected. “Lord, that is not the way it is supposed to happen.” A few years later the apostle Paul called the cross “a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Greeks.” Not much has changed, has it?

The cross was a stumbling block to Jews because it was not what they were expecting. It was not what they wanted to hear. As an oppressed people they wanted their Christ, their Messiah, their Anointed One to deliver them. It is not what we want to hear either. All of Jesus’ talking about taking up a cross bothers us. We lean back in our chair, wanting to take it easy, but we hear Him say, “Take up your cross and follow Me.”

This morning Jesus offers you a cross. Not a life of ease. Not a church that will always make you comfortable and happy. Not a guarantee of success on the job. Not a promise that everything will always go smoothly and exactly as you want for the rest of your life. Rather this morning Jesus offers you a cross. But along with a cross He offers you eternal life. For, as Jesus said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel, will save it.”

Will you do what Jesus said and take up a cross?

Dennis D. Nelson
Director of Lutheran CORE

“But You have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; I have been anointed with fresh oil. And my eye has looked exultantly upon my foes, my ears hear of the evildoers who rise up against me.” (Psalm 92:10-11)

Look to the Lord before you look out at those who would do you harm. Who is the One who has all power? Who can threaten you? Can the plans of a wicked man overcome the will of the One who made all things? You have been anointed with the Holy Spirit and given the power to become a child of the Heavenly Father. Come to Him and know His peace and goodness.

Lord, I forget to turn to You in all things. I become afraid of the terrors that are around me and do not see through them that all things have always been in Your hands. Lead me, O Lord, to walk humbly with You. Guide me according to Your will to look to You in every circumstance to know that You alone are God and there is no other. Comfort me in the truth of Your presence.

Holy Spirit, constantly remind me that You are here. You have given me comfort that in spite of the circumstances of this world God can never be overcome. Help me now and always to rest in the assurance of all that has been done that I may walk humbly in the Father’s presence and do what I should do as You direct. Keep me close to You now and always that I may learn obedience. Amen.

“But You, O Lord, are on high forever. For, behold, Your enemies, O Lord, for, behold, Your enemies will perish; all who do iniquity will be scattered.” (Psalm 92:8-9)

Who is man that God should be mindful of him? Yet, the Lord has looked with favor upon His creation. He cares for all that He has made. All those who are in rebellion against Him will one day no longer wreak havoc on what He has made. Those who do evil will be scattered. Come into the rest of the Lord and seek Him while He may be found. Be comforted in His peace.

Lord, I see both what the wicked have done, and also the truth that what they do eventually dissipates into nothing. Help me to see, O Lord, that in You alone is there hope and glory. Guide me to walk always in Your presence and in Your ways. Lead me according to Your righteousness to be a humble and willing servant living out Your goodness for others to see.

Thank You, Lord Jesus, for leading the way that we may come with You to be in the Father’s presence forever. Guide me to learn to obey all that You command that I may now and always walk in the will of the Father. Help me show the faith You have given me through all that I say and do. May I learn faithfulness from You and live as You direct now and always. Amen.

“A senseless man has no knowledge, nor does a stupid man understand this: that when the wicked sprouted up like grass and all who did iniquity flourished, it was only that they might be destroyed forevermore.” (Psalm 92:6-7)

The way of a man shows his heart. The wicked will do what they need to do to serve themselves. Those who lean on the Lord seek what is good and right in every circumstance. It may seem for a while that the wicked flourish, but they do not. They walk in the way of condemnation. Come into the way of the Lord and learn to live life as the Lord meant for it to be lived.

Lord, You offer wisdom and understanding. My heart tugs and desires the things of this world. My mind knows that all of this will be left behind at the end of this life and yet I still struggle to have what I do not have. Save me from this conflicted heart and guide me along paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake. Lift me up out of the mess of this world that I would live for You.

Savior, You have come to save us from ourselves and the mess of this world. Guide me in the way I should go and help me to learn how to live in this world without being a part of it. Help me today to see through the temptations that tug at me that I may live into the eternal life You grant through grace. Guide me, Lord Jesus, to walk in Your way now and forever. Amen.

“For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done, I will sing for joy at the works of Your hands. How great are Your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very deep.” (Psalm 92:2-3)

Too many live life thinking that everything they learned in Sunday School is enough. Then again, many families are in shambles, marriage ruined and life a mess. Being a disciple means being a student. Being a student means studying. God shares His knowledge in Scripture. Those who seek to be wise will spend time in the Word to begin understanding the wisdom of the Lord.

Lord, I live in a time where people want instant fixes without effort or difficulty. Life is difficult in this age. Help me to see and then act on the truth that there is much I need to learn. Guide me, O Lord, in the way You would have me go and learn what You would have me learn. Lead me to the place where I grow in wisdom and see more clearly Your hand in all things.

Holy Spirit, minister to my mind that I would grow in knowledge and wisdom. Give me a thirst for the righteousness of the Word and then fill me that I may find true satisfaction. Teach me how to meditate and pray. Lead me into deeper thoughts. Guide the thoughts of my mind and the meditation of my heart to seek after Your leading all the day long. Amen.

“It is good to give thanks to the Lord and to sing praises to Your name, O Most High; to declare Your lovingkindness in the morning and Your faithfulness by night, with the ten-stringed lute and with the harp, with resounding music upon the lyre.” (Psalm 92:1-3)

You have given good gifts, Lord, and give them freely. May I learn from You to give praise and thanksgiving for all of Your goodness. Put praise on my lips and let the gifts You have given be freely used to praise and worship You in and through all things. You are faithful and worthy of all praise and honor. Guide me, O Lord, to learn to worship and praise You at all times.

Lord, I often think of worship as a routine and not as a part of my daily life. Lead me, O Lord, to learn that You have created me to live a life filled with praise and thanksgiving. Teach me to truly worship that I may spend all of my days the way You would have me spend them. Bring me to those places in Your Word where I may learn from You the purpose for which I have been created.

Holy Spirit, come and direct my thoughts and desires that I would live in thanksgiving for all of the goodness You bring. Put praise on my lips and guide kind words to issue from them. Fill my heart with the love You desire I have for all. May my life be a devotion to You and the wonder You have brought forth in creation. Guide me according to the Father’s will now and always. Amen.

“He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. “With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation.” (Psalm 91:15-16)

The salvation of the Lord is promised to those who turn to Him and accept the invitation to walk in His ways. Come into the Lord’s presence and walk with the One who made you. Know the goodness which He created from the beginning and see how life is to be lived. In Him alone will you find satisfaction, purpose, and the hope which is in your heart. He is the source of life.

Lord, I have wrestled all the days of my life seeking meaning and hope. Guide me, O Lord, in Your ways, for You are the creator of all things. Guide me along the paths of righteousness for Your name’s sake; that I may live into the life to which You have called me. Keep me close to You that I may walk with You all the days of my life and see the salvation You have prepared for those who believe.

Lord Jesus, You are the Savior who has come into the world. You have invited all who hear to come and walk with You along the journey which leads to salvation. Guide me, O Lord, that I may walk in Your ways and know the goodness that has been prepared from the beginning. Abide with me that I may be taught by You this day the way of life which is forever. Amen.

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

“You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent you will trample down. “Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.” (Psalm 91:13-14)

Those who trust in the Lord are trusting in the only One who can save. He will not disappoint you because He knows what is needed. Come to the Lord and be under His protection. Know that the Lord will provide for every time of need and in just the right amount. Be guided by the Lord and His goodness and see that the Lord, Who watches over you, does provide in every circumstance.

Lord, in the ups and downs of this world, I often focus upon the immediate circumstance. Guide me, O Lord, to see in You the hope for all people. Lead me to humbly walk in Your ways all the days of my life. Lead me according to Your goodness that I would now and always live with You as the center of my being. Lift me up to be with You always and in every situation.

Lord, You have come to rescue those who come to You. Lead me, O Lord, according to Your goodness that I would trust in what You have accomplished. Prepare me according to Your will to go where You send me that I would learn from You how to be faithful. Open my eyes to see the hope of glory You have given through grace that my life would be one of praise of You. Amen.

JESUS HEALS TODAY
Devotional for September 9, 2018 based upon Mark 7: 24-37

Our Gospel reading for this morning tells of a time when a group of people whom Mark calls “they” brought to Jesus a man who was both deaf and had an impediment in his speech.

The first thing this passage does for me is to raise the question, WHO ARE THE THEY? Whenever I hear someone say “they,” I always wonder, Who are the “they”? Who are the “they” who are supposedly saying certain things? Who are these unnamed people who are bringing their friend to Jesus?

Mark does not tell us, so they do not get any credit. And yet they still do it. They are among the millions of people who do what needs to be done simply because it needs to be done and because they care. They would never say, “That’s not my job. I’ve already done my share. Let someone else bring this person to Jesus.” They never get thanked during the announcements or in the church newsletter, but they still do it, simply because it needs to be done and because they care. God, may all of us be like them.

The second thing that strikes me is the condition of the man whom “they” brought to Jesus. He was BOTH DEAF AND HAD AN IMPEDIMENT IN HIS SPEECH. I am embarrassed when I think of the times when I have been so deeply focusing on my own, relatively small problems, and then I see someone like the man in our Gospel, who had not just one handicap, but two. At times like those I need to say, Forgive me, Lord. Forgive me for so focusing on my own problems that I have not been attentive and responsive to, in tune with, or even aware of someone else’s problems. Forgive me for being like the man who said, “I grumbled because I had no shoes. Then I met a man who had no feet.”

Third, I am struck with the way in which JESUS TOOK THIS MAN ASIDE IN PRIVATE, away from the crowd. He responded with great sensitivity to all of this man’s needs, including his need for privacy.

And Jesus is sensitive to our feelings and needs. He does not deal with us in front of everybody else, so that we would feel embarrassed and on display. Nor does He relate to us just as part of a crowd. Rather He relates to us individually. He knows our needs, and He cares about our needs – individually. Even though He has everyone else in the whole world to take care of, and even though there are several million other people all talking to Him at the same time as I am talking to Him, He still takes me aside privately and spends time with me individually. There is nothing cold or rushed about the way in which He does it. We all long for attention like that.

Fourth, JESUS PUT HIS FINGERS INTO HIS EARS, AND SPAT AND TOUCHED HIS TONGUE. All of which reminds us of how much we need warm, human touch. We cannot survive and be healthy emotionally without warm, human touch. From the moment we were born, we have had that need. If that need is not met, something goes wrong.

One thing that many people with terminal illnesses like cancer express is the need to be touched. And not just poked with a needle and have their temperature taken. They need to be touched with a warm, loving, human hand.

Jesus does not heal from a safe, aloof distance. Rather He got right up next to him and touched him. The one who came to Him with a crying need, He touched. Even the leper, the untouchable of all untouchables, much to the horror of the crowds He touched. And when we come to Him, He does not remain at a safe, aloof distance. Instead He reaches out to us and touches us.

Fifth, JESUS LOOKED UP TO HEAVEN AND SIGHED. What a beautiful, beautiful statement that is. When Jesus sees a situation of deep human need, He sighs. Like when E. T. saw that Elliot was hurting so he touched his own heart and said, “Ouch,” so when Jesus sees that we are hurting, He looks up to heaven and sighs and then touches His own heart and says, “Ouch.”

Sixth, after putting His fingers into the deaf man’s ears and reaching out and touching the dumb man’s tongue and looking up to heaven and sighing, JESUS SAID, “EPHPHATHA,” which means, “BE OPENED.”

We read in the New Testament of those marvelous times when Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, restored the lame, and cleansed the leper, and we say, “Jesus, why aren’t You doing the same thing today?” We all know people who need healing. And like the unnamed “they” who brought their friend to Jesus, so we would do anything we could if we only knew that our doing so would release God’s power to heal.

First of all, we need to realize that Jesus is healing and that Jesus can heal today. Sometimes He heals in spectacular ways. I am sure we all know people who have been healed in a spectacular way. We all know or have heard of someone who had been diagnosed with some kind of terminal, inoperable disease, and then, after God’s people prayed, was found to be healed of that disease. God made our bodies able to heal from all sorts of injuries, diseases, and infirmities. Sometimes our bodies need help from the medical profession, but all that is, is help. Help for the body to help the body do what God made the body able to do.

We need to remember that during Jesus’ ministry, He did not heal everybody. And everybody that He healed did eventually die of something else. But still, through His ministry of healing, Jesus gave us a foreshadowing of that time when we will be delivered from all sickness, sorrow, pain, and death, through the resurrection from the dead, which is our hope if we have faith in Jesus Christ. In the meantime, during our lifetimes, God will make our bodies able to heal many times. And there are other times when we experience the love and power and ability of God to heal us emotionally and relationally.

And so, in the meantime, our Gospel reading leads us to ask ourselves, WHERE DOES GOD WANT ME TO BE HIS INSTRUMENT OF HEALING? How do the words “Ephphatha,” and “Open up,” also apply to us? To whose cries of hurting do our ears need to be opened? To whose need for words of love do our tongues need to be loosened? Who is the person who is suffering from a lack of love that God wants me to love? Who is that scared, resentful, angry, and/or bitter person into whose life I can help bring God’s peace? With what specific person – where does God want me to be His instrument of healing?

And then, finally, what did all the eyewitnesses do once they had seen that a man had been healed? Jesus ordered them to tell no one, but THE MORE HE ORDERED THEM, THE MORE ZEALOUSLY THEY PROCLAIMED IT. They were astonished beyond measure. They had seen what Jesus can do. The Good News of what they had seen they simply could not keep to themselves. They had to share it. Too amazed to be silent, their tongues were loosened and they told everybody about it.

What a powerful example they have set for us. For we, too, in so many ways, have been or have seen someone else being healed. Like the crowds, may we be astonished beyond measure and then join with 999 other tongues to sing our Great Redeemer’s praise.

Dennis D. Nelson
President of the Board and Director of Lutheran CORE