Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries

Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is no other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12

Did you ever hear of "The All-Beef Company"?

I hadn't either until I received an e-mail from a well-intentioned reader of the Daily Devotions.

He warned me about the food at McDonald's. According to the information he forwarded me the McDonald Corporation has bought a corporation called The All-Beef Company. Using this name enabled McDonald's to advertise the meat it used in its burgers was "all beef," when, in fact, it was packed with all kinds of adulterating fillers.

That was a scary thought!

Even scarier is what I found out when I checked up on the matter. The bottom line is this: McDonald's does not own such a company and, in order to combat those rumors its website says: "Despite all those myths out there, none of our meat is fake! McDonald's uses only 100% USDA-inspected beef from real beef cattle to make our burger patties." Most importantly, I'm told America's Food and Drug Administration, the FDA, would never allow such duplicity to take place.

In short, the e-mail maligning McDonald's was a lie, and this devotion is being written to set the record straight.

No, it's not setting the record straight about McDonald's; it's setting the record straight about the Savior.

You see, the same thing happened to our Lord. Even while Jesus was going about the business of saving people, His name was maligned. John 8:48b speaks of how they called Him a "... Samaritan and devil-possessed." Matthew 11:10b reports there were those who said our Lord was a "... glutton, a drunkard and a friend of tax collectors and sinners!" Actually, they did get that last part right. Thank the Lord that Jesus was and is a friend to sinners. Where would we be if He wasn't?

In our age Jesus has had His Name maligned in a different way. No longer do His critics call Him "Savior." They like to think of Him more as a "teacher," or a "philosopher," or a "moralist," or a "philanthropist" or a "good guy."

Yes, He was those things ... but Scripture is clear: He is the Christ. Because of His perfect fulfilling of the Law, His complete resisting of sin, His complete conquest of death, His is the only Name under heaven which can save us from the damnation our sins deserved.

We thought you ought to know, and so the world might know the whole truth about Jesus is why we bring Christ to the nations.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, there are those who would demote You, those who would deny Your work. May the Holy Spirit use us to share the complete Christ with a lost and dying world. In Your Name. Amen.

In Christ I remain His servant and yours,

Today's Bible Readings: Leviticus 26-27    Mark 11:19-33

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