December 22, 2023   

Today's Reading: 

Daily Lectionary: Isaiah 43:1-24; Revelations 9:13--10:11

Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. (Isaiah 43:19)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Israelites in exile endured each day, and longed for when God would deliver them. God did not abandon them, or leave them without His Word. He sent men like Isaiah to remind them that God had not forgotten His promises to deliver them. God had not forgotten them, and He would be the one who would redeem them, bring them back home, and be their Savior. 

We long for our suffering to end. That our struggle against our sinful flesh and its desires would cease. That the groaning of all creation would be silenced. Your God has heard your groaning, and has answered you. As we endure each day of our earthly lives in our fragile flesh, we go about each day not despairing as the world does, but full of hope and joy for what is to come. God has redeemed His creation. His Son Jesus, is the Savior of the world. In Him the one whom they have pierced flows rivers of life giving water, and blood for His chosen people to drink.

You were baptized into this life giving water, and receive the body of Christ to eat and His blood to drink. You are strengthened by this life-giving meal. Getting up each day and remember that in your Baptism you do not simply struggle against the world and your sinful flesh as a poor miserable sinner, but as a baptized redeemed child of God. These promises are for you, and all believers in Christ. Behold God has done a new thing in Christ Jesus, not just for Abraham’s offspring, but for the whole world. In Christ your longing for home is ended, because in Christ you are redeemed, and declared a witness of the resurrection.  In Christ you may have peace that there is a place prepared for you, and whether in death or on the day He returns God has received you as His beloved child and welcomed you into His kingdom. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

You sit in splendid glory, enthroned at God’s right hand, Upholding earth and heaven by forces You command. We know that You will come as our Judge that final day, So help Your servants You have redeemed by blood, we pray; May we with saints be numbered where praises never end, In glory everlasting. Amen, O Lord, amen! (LSB 941:4)

-Vicar Justin Chester is vicar at Shepherd of the City in Fort Wayne, IN.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Study Christ's words on the cross to see how you can show more Christlike grace in your life. Perfect for group or individual study, each chapter has a Q&A at the end, and the back of the book includes a leader guide. Available now from Concordia Publishing House.