Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Festival of the Ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Posted on May 5, 2016 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Isaiah 57:15 (NKJV)

15 For thus says the High and Lofty One Who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Devotion

Jesus, after His resurrection from the dead, presented Himself alive many times to His disciples during the following forty days. He commissioned them to go into all the world to preach the Gospel of salvation and to baptize in the Name of the Triune God. He instructed them to stay put in Jerusalem for just a little longer, when the Holy Spirit would come upon them in power, thereby equipping them to be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the end of the Earth. And then, before their very eyes He was taken up into Heaven beyond their sight.

He had ascended to sit at the right hand of the Father, to dwell in the high and holy place as the High and Lofty One, all the while continuing to revive the spirit of the humble and the heart of the contrite, keeping His promise to be with us always, even to the end of the ages. He has risen as He said He would, has ascended, and is even now there with the Father, interceding for us. He has not abandoned or forsaken us. He will return again in the same manner in which the disciples saw Him depart. Heaven forbid we should grow weary or hardhearted. Trusting in His promises, we are made strong. We take heart and wait on the Lord.

We pray: O King of Glory, Lord of hosts, Who didst this day ascend in triumph far above all heavens, we beseech Thee, leave us not comfortless, but send to us the Spirit of Truth, promised of the Father; O Thou Who with the Father and the Holy Ghost liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen (TLH, page 71).

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