Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ:
The salvation story of Jesus Christ reaches around the world. So that the readers of our Daily Devotion may see the power of the Savior on a global scale, we have asked the volunteers of our International Ministry Centers to write our Friday devotions. We pray that the Spirit may touch your day through their words.
In Christ, I remain, His servant and yours,
Kenneth R. Klaus
Speaker of The Lutheran Hour
Coming up with a definition for “love” can be tough. Teenagers talk about love and paint it with all sorts of flowery images and syrupy notions. Couples who’ve been married for years know it as a steadfast and reliable bond tested by time and strengthened through adversity. Between lovers the word means one thing; between parents and children, it means another.
Between God and man, it means something else altogether.
That “something else” is the eternal, sacrificial love of God for His creation. Sinful, dying, and eternally lost without His intervention, man’s only hope is God’s mercy. Jesus, the Son of Man, “came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10b). That was His mission; that was His desire – that no one should perish. Finding the lost wasn’t difficult for Jesus. Then, just like today, the lost are everywhere. Look around. Look at your family, your friends, yourself. Anybody among those people lost?
“All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way,” the Scriptures say in Isaiah, “and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6). No, God finding the lost wasn’t difficult at all. It was saving them that cost Him the life of His Son. Consider Isaiah again: “and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
Jesus is love in action. He died and rose from the dead to show us the perfect, forgiving love God has for mankind.
THE PRAYER: Dear God, please dwell in my heart completely and revive me by the power of Your Holy Spirit. Your love alone — as expressed in Jesus’ atonement — reconciles me to You and makes me new. Thank You. Amen.
Biography of Author:
Pastor Fernando Henrique Huf volunteers with LHM-Brazil, headquartered in San Paolo since 1947. Known locally as Cristo Para Todas Las Nações (CPTN), this ministry works closely with people embattled by social inequalities and who often lack basic services like healthcare and educational opportunities.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhmint.org.