Daily Devotions
(Jesus said) “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray.” John 16:1
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
Recently, in southern Ethiopia, an evangelism rally was held.
At that rally two elderly Muslims were brought to faith in Christ by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.
After the sermon was done, the preacher asked if anyone was ready and willing to respond to God’s saving grace and come forward for prayer.
Unexpectedly, these two people came forward. This surprised some of us as we knelt before the Lord and were in tears of wonder.
After the prayer, they took the Muslim caps from their heads and the scarves from their necks in total surrender to the Lord.
When the service was over, they came and greeted me with smiling faces.
As we talked, I saw in depth the spiritual thirst they had for God. I asked them to explain what had happened to them. They answered that they had been waiting for an opportune moment like this since 2001. That year there had been an evangelism conference held in their district. Since the area was Muslim dominated, when the Christians held their worship service, a fundamental Muslim threw a grenade into the tent, killing two Christian leaders and wounding many more. One of the victims who lost an eye was part of their family.
Since then, they had been restless in their hearts for the wrongs done to the innocent Christians. They began learning that the Christian faith is peaceful and does not believe in violence.
I asked them about their community. How would they be able to stand or tolerate the persecution that was sure to come? They answered, “It is better to die for one’s faith than to kill others for it.”
Jesus has told us, “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or Me … It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you… When He comes He will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.” (See John 16:1-8.)
I thought you might want to know that here in Ethiopia the Lord is fulfilling His promises and prophecies. Pray that others also see the light.
THE PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, give us the courage to reach the unreached through the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. May we be bold in our sharing, and they be bolder in their believing in Him who died and rose for humankind’s salvation. In Jesus’ Name I ask it. Amen.
Biography of Author: Today’s Devotion comes from our Lutheran Hour Ministries office in Ethiopia. It was written by Berhanu Moges. Moges, Lutheran Hour Ministries’ director in Ethiopia, attended Concordia University in Seward, Nebraska. In Ethiopia, LHM-Ethiopia operates as Berhan Media Ministry. Established in 1996 in the capital of Addis Ababa, this ministry spreads the Gospel in this country of 85 million through evangelism rallies, Bible Correspondence Courses (BCC) and the Equipping the Saints (ETS) program working in partnership with church congregations to organize these workshops.
To learn more about our International Ministries, click here or visit www.lhmint.org.