Daily Devotions
Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. John 3:20
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
My junior high school was heated by a huge, burning furnace.
The entrance to the furnace room was down a dark, narrow stairway under the stage in the auditorium. One day when I got to school, I noticed the principal and several teachers standing near the top of those stairs. All of us students realized something serious had happened. We stood around our lockers trying to figure out what was going on. Soon after the bell rang for the first period of class, the principal called an assembly of the whole student body.
He announced the janitor had discovered a fire in a trashcan at the bottom of the stairs.
After looking through the papers and other trash, the janitor had found the remains of a cigarette. Since neither the janitor, the principal or any of the rest of the staff had been on the stairs that morning, he pointed out that a student must have thrown the cigarette away to keep from getting in trouble.
Then, he warned everyone of the terrible danger we had all been exposed to and demanded that no one ever smoke in the building again.
This incident illustrates how evil hates the light.
Whoever had been smoking on the stairs leading to the basement felt the need to hide.
An adult would have simply gone outside to his car or walked around the block while smoking. Only a student would feel the need to hide in the darkness. He hid because he didn’t want his evil deed to be exposed.
Nothing has changed since the very first sin was committed thousands of years ago. As soon as Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they hid. Of course, we look at their action and think how stupid can you get? Surely they knew God would find them! But, don’t we do the exact same thing? Instead of owning up to our sin and disobedience, we try to hide it by making excuses or blaming others.
Of course, our attempts at hiding our sins are about as effective as Adam and Eve’s. God sees right through us. He calls us out into the open and insists that we expose ourselves to His holy light. Then, He does the very same thing He did for Adam and Eve.
Through the sacrifice made by His Son, He offers us His forgiveness and hides our sin. God hid Adam and Eve’s nakedness by killing some animals and clothing them in their skins. He hides our sin behind the blood of His Son Jesus who died so we could be forgiven.
THE PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank You for lifting the guilt of our sins and showering us with Your forgiving love in Jesus. Amen.
Biography of Author: Today’s international devotion was written by Sosana Yousef, an 18-year-old student at the Egyptian Music Institute.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhmint.org.