October 15, 2024

Today's Reading: Hebrews 3:12-19 

Daily Lectionary: Deuteronomy 13:1-18; Matthew 13:1-23

But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Hebrews is a definitive book that states so well the freedom we have from fear, death, and the Devil. So exhortation/ encouragement is spoken of here as an ongoing action. It is for today, for each other, that we provide exhortation, encouragement, and comfort… and that can be accomplished in no other way than in preaching the full counsel of God. At first, this sounds overwhelming, doesn’t it? That would mean we’d need to know the entirety of Scripture, all that God has done for us… and that’s certainly true… reading, marking, and hearing the Word of God is certainly important enough for God to give us a commandment that says we should gladly hear the Word of God. There’s more, though… we hear the Word of God together, we talk about what our Lord says to us in the Word of God, and we wrestle with the text and discuss it. What better place to do this than the Lord’s church? As St. Paul mentions to us in Acts 20, he never failed to preach the whole counsel of God… what does this mean? Just this: that Christ Jesus was born to suffer for us, bear our sins to the cross, die, and rise again for our justification! That’s the whole counsel of God, and here’s the best part… what does the writer of Hebrews mean when he writes, “as long as it is ‘today?’”  

A friend of mine once asked me a good question… “Do you live in yesterday? Perhaps you believe that you live in tomorrow?” “Of course not,” I said… to which he replied, “Of course you’re right!” It’s always today. What greater joy do we have as the baptized children of God than to believe and trust that our Lord Jesus has been raised from the dead to bestow to us eternal day, the light of His word, and His forgiveness today and forever! It’s always today, and yet, within each day, we are bought and redeemed. The deceitfulness of sin continues, the temptations of the Devil and world seek to harden us… so it will be until the Last Day… so our Lord gives us His good counsel, sends the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to attend to the Word, and to give faith, hope, and trust in the Lord Who abides with us in His church. So we exhort, provide good counsel and correction to erring brothers, encourage one another with the word of Christ the Crucified, and always are given to the comfort and the stilling of troubled consciences in the word of forgiveness. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, for my many sins I justly deserve eternal condemnation. In Your mercy, You sent Your Son, my dear Lord Jesus, Who won for me forgiveness and everlasting salvation. Grant good and faithful exhortation from my brothers in the faith that in contrition I would make a true confession, that dead to my sin, I may be raised up by Your life-giving Absolution. Grant, I pray, your Holy Spirit, that I may be ever watchful and live a godly life in Your Service and in service to my neighbor. Amen. 

-Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.

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

In Embracing Your Lutheran Identity, Author Gene Edward Veith Jr. will guide readers through that heritage, starting with the Early Church and moving through the Reformation to Lutheranism today. Readers will learn about key people in the history of Lutheranism, from two teenagers who were the first martyrs of the Reformation, through the Saxon immigrants who left everything behind so they could practice Lutheranism freely, to the Lutherans who have stood strong for the faith in our own day.