Thursday April 28th

“We are unable to stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”  Acts 4:20

“Dear Lord Jesus, when you conquered death and appeared to your disciples, when you poured out your Holy Spirit on your disciples, they lived and preached with a whole new boldness and confidence.  Where they were previously timid and afraid, now they were unafraid and unabashed in their preaching and ministry.  Lord Jesus, let your resurrection fill me with the same confidence.  Let your Spirit give me the same boldness.  I am yours!  You bought me and I belong to you.  I cannot lose since you conquered death and defeated all my enemies.  Your message is true and powerful whether people believe it or not.  It will never return to you empty or void, but is like the rain that pours down from heaven.  Set me on fire with resurrection and Spirit-given swagger to keep on living.  Let these words of Peter be mine: “I can’t stop speaking about what I believe!”  Amen.

Wednesday April 27th

“In God I trust and am not afraid.  What can mere mortals do to me?”  Psalm 56:4

Dear Heavenly Father, So many things make me nervous.  Because I hear on the news about home invasions and every now and then I catch a show about crime, I spend too much time thinking about what could happen if someone came to rob my house or harm my family and me.  I know you put angels all around me and you are not fearful of anyone you have made.  I choose to trust that you are protecting me in every circumstance.  With that peace I will spend my energy loving people instead of pulling in to my shell like a frightened tortoise.  Amen.

God wants us to spend energy on loving others not preserving ourselves.

Tuesday April 26th

“After saying this, he told him, “’Follow me.’”  John 21:19

Dear Jesus, After all the ways in which Peter betrayed, abandoned and failed you, these last words you speak to him are amazing to hear.  Even after all the ways in which he had abandoned you, you never abandoned him.  In fact, even after all the ways in which he had failed you, you still wanted to use him for the kingdom; you even touched my faith and life by his writing and his teaching!  God, this inspires so much hope in me.  Your compassion and mercies are new for me each day.  This day, Lord, forgive me as this day begins.  Cleanse me and create in me a new heart, O God.  Your calling to follow you is new this day too, Lord Jesus.  Help me to follow you as my Lord and God, today.  Wonder of wonders, you still call me to follow and you still desire to use me.  Help me make the most of my moments today.  Amen.

Monday April 25th

“I am the vine; you are the branches.  If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”  John 15:5

Dear Jesus, Apart from you I can’t be spiritual, I can’t do the right things for the right reasons, I can’t cope with the tragedies that strike me.  But when I am with you my attitude changes and I can do wonderful things for the right reasons.  Then I can cope with tragedy because you promise to turn everything for my good.  You and your word are the spiritual blood in my spiritual vascular system, giving strength, life and meaning to everything I my life.  Help me stay connected to you today by reminding me of your words when I need them to bring spiritual sap to my heart.  Amen.

God designed us to run our lives off his power and not our own.

Saturday April 23rd

“When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.  And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.’”   Matthew 28:19-20

Dear Jesus, Thank you for not waiting for their doubting hearts to completely catch up before you gave the great commission.  The way you motivated them to go serve the planet with their words which were filled with your word amazes me.  It has reached me on the other side of the globe some 2000 years later.  I’ve become your disciple through their lifetimes so I could be redeemed from my sins and aimless meandering.  Now, help me run my leg of the relay race with vigor and wisdom so I redeem the time instead of wasting it on myself.  Give me the courage to fight for balance so I enjoy your blessings but do not make an idol out of them.  Open doors for your word to enter from my efforts too.  Thank you for the privilege to live and work for you in the world you have made.  Amen.

Live for Christ and his mission for people and you’ll never be bored. 

Friday April 22nd

“So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.  Suddenly Jesus met them.  ‘Greetings,’ he said.  They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him.  Then Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.  Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.’”    Matthew 28:8-10

Dear Jesus, The women had fear mixed with joy. Those two emotions seem so mutually exclusive. But I understand how they could both coexist in the hearts of your followers. I love how you told them to not be afraid. I hear you saying that to me. I don’t need to be afraid when you show your control over my life and allow huge things to happen I don’t need to be afraid after very near misses. I don’t have to be afraid when I can see trouble on the horizon. I don’t have to be afraid ever because you are risen from the dead and you rule over all things .Help me to hear your words whenever fear creeps into my heart so I learn not to be afraid even though I’m going through uncertain circumstances. Amen

Thursday April 21st

“After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.  There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.  The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.  The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.  He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.  Come and see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples: “He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee.  There you will see him.”  Now I have told you.’”  Matthew 28:1-7

Dear Jesus, Those women weren’t supposed to be there at the tomb.  You had told them that you wouldn’t be there to be found.  But even though they loved you deeply, they still couldn’t embrace the unthinkable, that you would rise from the dead.  At any moment in the story you and your angels could have given up on them.  They were slow to believe your words although not one syllable from your lips ever failed to come true.  I understand them because I doubt your word too when I don’t get to use my reason or my senses.  I find great comfort in the fact that the angel said, “Come and See the place where he lay.”  It tells me you are patient with my doubting heart too.  I cling to your resurrection and the grace that makes you coach me into believing the facts.  I get what they got, both the experience of seeing you alive after your death and the grace to process it as my greatest treasure too.  Thanks for loving me so patiently.  Amen.

God’s love waits for our hearts to catch up to his great blessings.

Wednesday April 20th

“However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” Acts 20:24

Lord Jesus, I recently thought about your words, “Why do you worry about your life?  You cannot make it one hour longer by worrying.”  These words from Paul are similar.  It’s misguided energy to worry about my life and illness and how long I have left before heaven.  Our best way to spend our lives is to employ our hands, feet, tongue and teeth, money and time spreading the wonderful good news that you have saved sinners from the dead end they have created for themselves.  Help me find new ways to teach people your spiritual word for their eternal benefit and help me order my life better around making disciples for you, even in my family relationships.  Amen.

Tuesday April 19th

“Jesus did this, the first of his signs; in Cana of Galilee.  He revealed his glory and his disciples believed in him.”  John 2:11

Lord God, The Bible is full of accounts from your ministry and life that demonstrate your power and your glory, your grace and mercy, your compassion. Each story presents you to me as my Savior. Each story shows me what you are like and how deeply and dearly you care about me. Each story drives me to believe in you and put my trust in you .As I follow you this year, and dive into your Word, show me who you are that I may believe in you and be saved by you .Amen

Monday April 18th

“Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.”  2 Corinthians 4:16

Dear Jesus, Just this week a friend told me I was looking old.  He’s right.  The bell tolls for me too.  My body moves slower and creaks more every week.  But my soul is as young as it became the day you saved me.  I am renewed in eternal youth by the promise of restoration.  I choose to think about this renewal more than about my aches and pains.  I love you for releasing me of the spiritual aging effects of guilt and shame.  Amen.

Saturday April 16th

“…and the tombs broke open.  The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.  They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared too many people.”  Matthew 27:52-53

Dear Jesus, You give us one verse about this crazy phenomenon that happened Easter weekend and leave us with so many questions.  Which saints got to come back to life and walk the earth?  How long were they here?  Who did they show themselves too?  When did they leave again?  All tantalizing questions!  But this I do get; your death and resurrection was underscored by their resurrection.  You really did conquer death for us.  They were the early fruit after your first fruit resurrection.  I will be next along with millions of other Christians who will arise on the last day and live forever in glorified flesh and blood.  I look forward to that day and find great comfort in believing this truth, especially when I consider the way my body is slowing down and showing its mileage.  Thank you for raising those folks to encourage me about my future.  Amen.

Friday April 15th

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, ‘My father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.  Yet not as I will, but as you will.’”  Matthew 26:39

Dear Heavenly Father, I was taught to fold my hands when I pray.  With these folded hands I’m humbly and confidently telling you, “It’s all up to you.  You answer as you think best.”  I don’t know about Jesus’ hands the night he prayed in Gethsemane.  I do, however, know how extreme anguish drove him face down into the dirt.  Before him stood a cup filled to the brim with the poison of the whole world’s sins.  Its every drop would be bitter right down to the dregs.  This horrendous cup was his to drink if he would save mankind’s souls.  And he would have to empty it alone.  No wonder he fell with his face to the ground in prayer that night.  Jesus’ deeply felt sin’s weight but did not refuse to bear it.  He prayed earnestly with tears but did not turn away from your will.  “It’s up to you,” he was humbly telling you.  He also was confidently telling you, “You answer as you think best.”  He trusted a Father who loved him.  How could Jesus do it?  The answer has to be divine love.  Out of love for you he came to this ball of mud where I live.  Out of love for me, a sinner, he stained Calvary’s dirt with his precious blood.  Because of your saving work, I can fold my hands in humble, confident prayer to you.  Even more so, I can live with you forever in your eternal home.  Amen.

Lord, teach me to pray. 

Thursday April 14th

“After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.”  John 13:5

Dear Heavenly Father, We use our hands to express love.  With them I caress my spouse, hold my children, and comfort my loved ones in distress.  What would I do if I couldn’t touch those nearest and dearest to me?  Jesus also used his hands to express love.  In the upper room at Jerusalem the night before his death, his hands picked up the basin of water and proceeded to wash his disciples’ feet.  Shouldn’t it have been the other way around?  Shouldn’t they have been washing the feet of their Lord?  He who came to seek and save the lost, now stoops to the work of the lowest slave.  Why?  To give me an example of humble service, of course.  He wants to remind me that he gave me hands to wipe away tears, watch over a soul, forgive a fault, bear with an injustice, invite a sinner, and encourage a saint.  Loving hands change diapers, scrub floors, prepare meals, do homework, bring home the paycheck, fill offering envelopes.  Even more, he wants me to remember how deep his love for me really is.  That night his hands washed feet with water.  The next day they washed souls with his blood on Calvary’s cross.  This night the Savior in love handled the disciples’ feet.  Tomorrow, in a far greater display of love, he handled the world’s sins.  From such wondrous love comes wonderful cleansing for my soul.  Amen.

Lord, help me, the sinner, to pray daily, “Wash me, Savior, or I die.”

Wednesday April 13th

“During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission .  Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.”  Hebrews 5:7-9

Dear Jesus, It’s Wednesday of Holy Week.  We don’t have anything recorded in the Gospel accounts about what you did on Wednesday of that last week just two days before you died for us.  We only know that on Thursday you came back into Jerusalem from Bethany.  I think you spent the day in prayer.  You had been contemplating the great sacrifice you were about to make for millennia.  You talked about it in detail as if it had already happened in Old Testament times.  (Isaiah 49, 50, 53, Psalm 2, 22, 69, 110, Zechariah 3).  You had been telling your disciples this was coming.  You even said this was your last trip to Jerusalem.  So, I think you spent the day wrestling with God in prayer.  Your verse in Hebrews describes how in your earthly life you had fervent prayers, cries and tears to your father who could save you from death.  You prayed not in defiant anger but in broken hearted obedience.  You perfected obedience by doing the unthinkable for the Father and for me.  You were fully engaged and fully aware of what it cost.  It took perfect faith that God the Father would accept the sacrifice for all humans and raise you from the dead.  Today as I spend Wednesday, help me to learn how to obey from the heart and how to suffer all the painful circumstances of my life with faith, hope and love.  Make me a man of God in all circumstances.  Amen.

Jesus was fully engaged his whole life right to the end so that we might have a reason to fully engage with him.

Tuesday April 12th

“’Anyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; anyone on whom it falls will be crushed.’  When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard Jesus’ parables, they knew he was talking about them.  They looked for a way to arrest him, but they were afraid of the crowd because the people held that he was a prophet.”  Matthew 21:44-45

Dear Jesus, You pulled out all the stops on Tuesday of Holy Week.  You preached pointed words in an effort to give the Jewish leaders what many others were receiving.  You wanted them in heaven with you but they would not admit to themselves their need for grace.  You called yourself the stone that they (the builders) had rejected.  And you said if they would not let you break their pride into pieces then you would crush them in judgment.  It’s judgment now while we can be forgiven or it’s judgment on the last day when it will be too late.  You don’t care what we have wasted when it comes to salvation.  You just want us to be honest and admit our need for you.  I know my sins.  I am broken by your law.  I need your grace.  Forgive me and heal my heart from guilt and shame.  Give me a pure heart that does not pride itself in anything.  But also give me a pure heart that believes it is truly forgiven.  Finally, help me reflect this humble but liberated posture to those with whom I live and move today.  Amen.

Nothing compares to a soul cleansed of self-made pride or guilt. 

Monday April 11th

“For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteousness, that he might bring you to God.”  1 Peter 3:18

Lord Jesus, Such freedom and joy is mine.  You suffered for all my sins, all of them.  All of the sins of this week, all of the sins of my past, even for all the sins of my future.  You suffered for all of my sins just once.  And you did it all righteously and innocently.  You didn’t deserve a single lick that you got from your enemies.  You didn’t deserve a single stroke of the justice that your Father doled out to you.  And yet you suffered all of that for me.  You suffered all of that so that you might bring me to God.  You have opened the way for me into God’s presence so that I might see him, live with him, and come to him.  This next week, dearest Jesus, as I see you make your way into Jerusalem to suffer for all of our sins, help me to see what you’re doing.  You’re going into Jerusalem to take away my sins.  You’re going there to die for all of my sins.  You’re going there to bring me to God.  Lord Jesus, thank you for this your deepest passion.  It is my salvation.  It is my entry into God’s presence.  Amen.

Saturday April 9th

“When they observed the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were uneducated and untrained men, they were amazed and recognized that they had been with Jesus.”  Acts 4:13

Dear Lord God, You called, trained, and then used fisherman to be your disciples, to be your apostles and even to lay the foundation for the church through the Spirit-inspired teaching, preaching and writing.  Father, you have called me to be your child.  You have made me holy by your Son’s blood and by the Spirit’s work.  Use me, just as I am, just as you have created me, to serve you this year.  Equip and disciple me this year for every work that you have prepared in advance for me to walk in it. Inspire and set me on fire to follow you with devotion and dedication this year.  This is your year and the life you have given me to live.  Help me dedicate all that I do to you and to your glory.  Amen.

Friday April 8th

“But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.”  Galatians 5:13

Dear Jesus, I heard in the news last week about a man who had just been released from prison who went on a rampage and killed several people.  I thought to myself, “How sad that he used his freedom to continue wreaking havoc.”  Then I remembered how many times I had felt bold to sin because I knew you would forgive me.  In my more quiet moments the guilt of such exploitative behavior haunts me.  How could I do that to you?  I’m begging you to build me up in your Spirit to use my freedom under grace to serve others freely from a loving heart.  Take away the puny strength of the law and replace it with gospel appreciation.  Make me a willing and faithful servant of all.  Amen.

There is nothing in all the universe more liberating than divine love. 

Thursday April 7th

“Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up.”  Romans 15:2

Dear Lord Jesus, I will never know perfectly what it’s like to live 100% for others and their welfare.  That’s why this passage and its cousins in Scripture will always resonate with me.  I naturally want to please myself and not people around me.  By your Holy Spirit, cleanse out of my heart today the new selfish motives that have precipitated there.  Give me a deep love for others and their welfare at every level so I do and say what is best for them.  I want to spread the good news and be the good news for everyone I meet.  Amen.

Make someone’s day today and you will create a memory for them that keeps on giving long after today is forgotten.

Thursday April 7th

“After this, Jesus revealed himself again to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee.  He revealed himself in this way.”  John 21:1

Dear Lord Jesus, This one word captures my heart: “again.” For three years you essentially taught your disciples the same truths always taking them further up and further into your Word. For three years you appeared to them again and again, taught them again and again. And even after your resurrection when one appearance should have proved the point, you appeared to them repeatedly to make it overwhelmingly clear to them. Again and again. Jesus don’t give up on me. Don’t give up on this world. Keep coming to me by your and sacrament to prove to me convincingly that you are who you say you are. Keep sending your people into this world to show yourself again and again to those who do not yet know you are alive. Don’t give up on me and don’t give up on the world. Send your Spirit and come to gather people to yourself. Amen