Daily Devotions
“And the Gospel must first be preached to all nations.” Mark 13:10
My grandmother’s radio, sitting on top of her refrigerator in Fort Wayne, Indiana, was tuned every Sunday morning to The Lutheran Hour. Her church worship was enriched by the Gospel message she heard over the early-hour airwaves.
My father continues the radio tradition, tuning in to The Lutheran Hour at daybreak, and so do I, with a twist: I read the Lutheran Hour sermon by e-mail.
In church on Sundays, I worship with another Lutheran Hour listener: my friend and her son from Zimbabwe. She tells of visiting her German neighbors in Harare, whose powerful radio picked up stations in South Africa. Suddenly she heard a familiar voice; she was listening to The Lutheran Hour. She had listened while studying in the United States, but her own radio was not strong enough to pick up the broadcast when she returned home. “I was so excited, I told them, ‘Don’t turn the dial,’” she said. “Every week, I would go to their house to listen.”
A half-world away, we tuned together to The Lutheran Hour. The Gospel we heard there and from the pew shaped our hearts and lives to follow Christ to this same ministry in Selma. Today we together worship our Savior, under whose cross we sit, and in whose name salvation is preached mightily around the world to generations of listeners.
Prayer: Risen Lord, You tell us to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Thank You for those who follow Your call. Amen.
Response: Tune in and turn someone else on to The Lutheran Hour.
(Devotions from “Cross of Ashes” by Christine Weerts, a Lenten devotional provided by Lutheran Hour Ministries. Copyright 2005, Int’l LLL. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be printed, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of Concordia Publishing House. Permission is granted for one-time emailing of this link to a friend.)