Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of North America

Saturday after the Festival of the Ascension of our Lord

Posted on June 1, 2019 by Pastor Dulas under Devotions
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Scripture: Micah 7:14-20 (NKJV)


7:14 Shepherd Your people with Your staff, the flock of Your heritage, who dwell solitarily in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel; Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in days of old.


15 “As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show them wonders.”


16 The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might; They shall put their hand over their mouth; Their ears shall be deaf.


17 They shall lick the dust like a serpent; They shall crawl from their holes like snakes of the earth. They shall be afraid of the Lord our God, and shall fear because of You.


18 Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy.


19 He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.


20 You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which You have sworn to our fathers from days of old.


Devotion


“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage?”


The true God is unique for His mercy. The false gods of the world are characterized by anger and vengeance. The pagans would make sacrifices to their false gods because they feared their wrath; they hoped that the gift of a sacrifice would change their god’s attitude and make them more approachable.


Today, “Evolution” has taken the place of a pagan god for some. Evolution is raised to the level of godhood when men give it credit for creation. They treat Evolution as though it created all that we see by means of death and violence. Survival of the fittest is how it is worshiped; the “more fit” creatures make sacrifice by killing the “less fit” in order to survive. The men who worship this false god become like it; they rejoice to do violence to God’s Truth and His Church—spiritually and, sometimes, physically. Those who reject the God of life and mercy find themselves worshiping a god of death and violence.


Our God alone is a God of grace. He will not let sin go unpunished, but He punished His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, for our sins, so that all who trust in Him would be forgiven and would not be punished for their sins. “There is forgiveness with You, that You may be feared” (Ps. 130:4).


We pray: Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that like as we do believe Thine only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to have ascended into the heavens, so may we also in heart and mind thither ascend and with Him continually dwell; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.


Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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