Daily Reflections From Higher Things®

Today's Reading: Mark 7:31-37 Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 12:20-13:5, 33-34; 2 Corinthians 8:1-24 Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was loosed, and he spoke plainly. (Mark 7:35) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Our English Bible tells us that this man's tongue was loosed by Jesus and he spoke "plainly." But the Greek word is "orthos" as in "orthodox." He didn't speak plainly, he spoke correctly: He spoke truth. How can a guy who is not schooled in the Torah of Israel say anything right about God? Because God-in-the-flesh is the One who opened His mouth. "O Lord, open my lips; and my mouth shall declare your praise." Here's the truth: Without Jesus' dying for our sins, without His resurrection from the dead, and without the preaching of this Good News and faith given by the Holy Spirit, we could never say anything right about God at all! Just think of all the opinions and ideas about God that people express. You could almost think that there are as many "gods" as there are peopl

Today's Reading: Mark 6:14-29 Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 11:42-12:19; 2 Corinthians 7:1-16 Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded [John's] head to be brought. And he went and beheaded him in prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb. (Matthew 6:27-29) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. John was the fiery prophet at the Jordan preaching the coming Messiah who would burn those who did not repent and bear fruit. John was the faithful preacher who told sinners of God's grace and baptized them in the Jordan, washing away their sins. John was the voice crying the wilderness to prepare the way of the Lord. He was the preacher who pointed out the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. He was the pastor who called Herod to repentance for taking his brother's wife. John was the last prophet of the Old Testament and the first preacher of the New Testamen

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 11:1-26; 2 Corinthians 6:1-18 We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Augustine, bishop of Hippo (a town in North Africa in the fourth century AD) was not always a pastor. He had not always even been a Christian. But like Saul, who we also know as Paul, Augustine was brought by the Holy Spirit from being a pagan blasphemer who lived for himself, to one of the greatest pastors and theologians the Church has known. It was Augustine's emphasis on grace that gave Martin Luther the foundation later on for reminding the Church that it is not by our works but by what Jesus has done that we are saved. For Paul, "Now is the day of salvation." Don't wait! Believe in Jesus! Now and every day. Many Christians ar

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 9:1-9; 10:1-13; 2 Corinthians 5:1-21 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. We often think of the work of pastors and missionaries in the conversion of unbelievers. The fact is, all Christians give a witness to those around them of God's goodness to the world in His Son, Jesus. One such Christian was Monica, the mother of the famed St. Augustine, a very important father in the early church. Monica, as described by her son, is said to have persevered in prayer for her pagan husband and for her wayward son. Her husband was baptized not long before his death, an answer to her fervent prayer. Likewise, her son Augustine later became a Christian when he was baptized by Ambrose, the bishop

Today's Reading: Small Catechism: The Office of the Keys Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 8:22-30, 46-63; 2 Corinthians 4:1-18 Where is this written? This is what St. John the Evangelist writes in chapter twenty: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (Small Catechism: The Office of the Keys) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. What is the Office of the Keys? It's the authority Christ gives to His Church to unlock the gates of heaven by pronouncing forgiveness on sinners! Wait a minute. How can someone forgive sins? Can't only God forgive sins? Well, what does Jesus say? He tells His apostles, human men, to go and forgive sins. Here's the thing: When your pastor forgives your sins, he's not saying that he's God! He's saying what God has told him to say. He's speaking as a herald and ambassador of Jesus. "Hear ye! Hear ye! I declare to you that you have been pardoned by the King!"

Today's Reading: Genesis 4:1-15 Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 7:51-8:21; 2 Corinthians 3:1-18 And the Lord said to him, "Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold." And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him. (Genesis 4:15) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain thought the Lord should accept his sacrifice. Cain thought he was religious, spiritual, a "good Christian" even. Cain thought that he deserved God's favor. Abel, whose name means, literally, "nothing but a breath of air," knows that he deserves nothing. Only God's mercy will save him. Somehow thinking that you deserve something from God makes it all the more irritating when you are dealing with a guy who doesn't think that. It makes Cain so angry he kills his brother. This is what happens, of course. Thinking we're "all that!" is what gets our Brother killed. Jesus came to give us life and we gave Him death. He came to show us how we are saved by God's grace. We sho

Today's Reading: Luke 22:24-30 Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 5:1-16; 2 Corinthians 1:23-2:17 But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves. (Luke 22:26) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Luke tells us there was an argument among the apostles as to who was greatest. He doesn't list names but we can suppose Bartholomew was in on it. Of course we know Peter, James, and John were kind of an "inner circle" of Jesus and maybe the other guys were jealous. At any rate, none of that is the point. Jesus came to do the serving. He came to do the bearing of the sins, the dying on the Cross, the rising from the dead. When He sends His apostles it is also to be servants. They are just supposed to do their job of preaching the Good News. It's easy to want to be the top dog. They want some recognition and glory perhaps. Don't we all? That's why Jesus teaches them--and us--that His kingdom doesn't work that way. In the Church, preachers are given

Today's Reading: Luke 18:9-14 Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 3:1-15; 2 Corinthians 1:1-22 And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner!" (Luke 18:13) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Best "gotcha!" parable ever! We see what a self-righteous guy this Pharisee is and we think, "I'm glad I'm not like him!" Gotcha! Jesus won't let anyone slide. Whoever we are, there's always someone we can look down on and who probably looks down on us. It's the tax collector who teaches us what it looks like to be at the bottom of the rung, with his good confession of faith: "Lord, there's nobody to look down on. I'm the very bottom of the barrel. I've got nothing. Have mercy on me!" Jesus does have mercy! That tax collector, who has nothing and is nothing, now has everything and is everything in Jesus. Jesus takes the low spot to give us the high spot. In doing so, He drags us down and saves us from our own high spots where, wi

Today's Reading: Introit for Trinity 11 (Psalm 68:1, 3, 7a, 10b, 19; antiphon: vs. 5b, 6a, 35b) Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 2:1-27; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 O God, when you went out before your people, in your goodness, O God, you provided for the needy. Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. (From the Introit for the 11th Sunday after Pentecost) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Introit for tomorrow is drawn from the words of Psalm 68. Like all the other psalms, the 68th is a prayer. It doesn't seem to us like much of a prayer because it doesn't ask for anything. Instead, it is a song of thanksgiving for the great works of God. That's how prayer is sometimes. There are days when we can only cry out to God from within our pain. Sometimes we run out of words to say or are so beaten down that we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to cry to God on our behalf (Romans 8:26). And then there are days when we are filled with joy and our prayers reflect it. If you take quick look at just a hand

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 1:1-4, 15-35; 1 Corinthians 12:14-31 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. (1 Corinthians 12:18) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. What a strange conversation Paul presents to us: body parts talking to each other! The foot seems depressed because it has the boring work of supporting the body. It is not like the important hand with its opposable thumb! The ear is jealous of the eye and in their envy and jealousy, the foot and the ear want to quit the whole body. But if they were to jump ship, there would be no body at all. God put each part in the body "as He chose. You are the body of Christ and individually members of it." Paul is not talking about some imaginary world of talking body parts. He is speaking about you! Earlier in 1 Corinthians 12, Paul wrote, "For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one bo

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 12:1-25; 1 Corinthians 12:1-13 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, "I have asked for him from the Lord." (1 Samuel 1:20) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The conception and birth of the child named Samuel was miraculous. His barren mother, Hannah, was gifted with a son. Israel was gifted with a great prophet. It was Samuel who reluctantly anointed Saul to be king over Israel and later would anoint the shepherd-king, David, to rule in place of Saul. Samuel's work as a prophet was not what we would call successful. The people, more often than not, would ignore Samuel's preaching and thereby ignore the God whose Word he spoke. That is nothing new for God's servants. So why appoint a day to remember another rejected prophet of God? Well, days commemorating saints of old aren't really about those saints. They are about remembering the work of God through them. Samuel served as God's hand and voice in anointing David as king o

Today's Reading: The Small Catechism: Confession Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 11:1-27; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34 But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. (2 Samuel 11:27b) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The effort that King David expended to cover his sin is staggering. That level of deceit took a lot of thought and planning and the cold way in which he reacted to the news of Uriah's death is sickening. Of course, we would never be like David, would we? You know that is a lie. You are an adulterer, you who look at another lustfully. You are a murderer, you who destroy the reputation of others with your gossip. You are a deceiver, you who put the blame on others for your own sin. The things you have done displease the LORD. So what is there to do? "What is confession? Confession has two parts. First, that we confess our sins, and second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting, but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before

Today's Reading: Roman 9:30-10:4 Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 7:18-20; 1 Corinthians 10:23-11:16 But that Israel who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness did not succeed in reaching that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works. (Romans 9:31-32a) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. There is nothing wrong with trying to do your best. It is what is expected of you at school, at home, and at work. Your neighbors (teachers, family, and your boss) are blessed by such efforts. But don't bring that idea into your relationship with God. It didn't work for Israel and it won't work for you. The huge rock of the Law will crush you under the weight of its demands and the perfection that God's Law requires of you will always be out of reach. The apostle Paul works this truth to a fine point in our reading for today. Israel couldn't reach a right relationship with God because they had the devilish idea that it was up to them to make it happen. They ran smack into the promise

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 8:4-12 Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 7:1-17; 1 Corinthians 9:24-10:22 Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane keep the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the Lord. (Jeremiah 8:7) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. A bird has more sense than you do! That is the message God used to invite His people to return to Him. We call that the preaching of repentance. The people rejected the invitation and yet Jeremiah kept up the call. The meaning of Jeremiah's preaching is clear: even the birds, irrational creatures, know their appointed time and return to their homes, which they have left. Instinctively, they follow the pattern fixed for them by their Creator: they travel hundreds of miles, because that's what they've been created to do. Unbelieving Jerusalem had sunk below the common sense of a bird! What is sadder than the people's refusal to hear the Word and return to the Lord their God is that they had forgotten how much G

Today's Reading: Luke 19:41-48 Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 6:1-19; 1 Corinthians 9:1-23 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, "Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes." (Luke 19:41-42) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. Interesting, isn't it? Jerusalem contains the word "peace" (salem) in its name yet does not recognize the peace of God in the flesh as He prepares to enter her gates. As Jesus wept at the death of His friend Lazarus and the lack of faith that doubted Jesus could call him out of the grave, so Jesus weeps over a people who cannot know and see (believe) that He has come to bring them peace. But those tears do not keep Him from His appointed task. In Luke 18, Jesus told His disciples what would take place in Jerusalem: "'See we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be m

Today's Reading: Luke 1:39-55 Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 5:1-25; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13 And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name." (Luke 1:46–49) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The Church honors significant people of faith throughout the year. They serve as witnesses to us of the faithfulness of God and we are therefore encouraged to follow their example in faith and life. This day, we give thanks to God for Mary, the mother of Our Lord. In his magnificent commentary on the Song of Mary, Luther wrote these words: "Whoever, therefore, would show her (Mary) the proper honor must not regard her alone and by herself, but set her in the presence of God and far beneath Him, must there strip her of all honor, and regard her low estate, as she says; he should then marvel at the exceeding

Daily Lectionary: 2 Samuel 1:1-27; 1 Corinthians 7:25-40 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short…For the present form of this world is passing away. (1 Corinthians 7:29a, 31b) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The appointed time has grown very short. The present form of this world is passing away. Some days those words ring so true. We see the disruption and frustration that sin brings into this world. Our graduation celebrations are cancelled because of a virus. We are isolated away from our friends at school, church, and work. Weddings are postponed indefinitely. The present form of this world is passing away. Yet some days, Paul's words sound just too negative for us. We have joy. We are free from anxiety in our callings. We become betrothed to another and rejoice. So what should our view of life look like? A gloom that paralyzes us or unbridled joy? God's Word shoots it right down the middle for us with words from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. Applying wisdom that

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 31:1-13; 1 Corinthians 7:1-24 So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines, to carry the good news to the house of their idols and to the people. (1 Samuel 31:9) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. It ended so badly for Saul. The one whom the prophet Samuel had anointed as king over Israel dies by his own hand in the midst of a battle that he never should have fought. Saul's death wasn't an honorable one. His body was mutilated and hung on a city wall. What was good news for the Philistines was deflating news for Israel. The dishonorable death of Saul was the sad result of his lack of fear, love, and trust in God. In fact, his last recorded meal was in the house of a medium after he consulted with a demonic spirit masquerading as the ghost of the prophet Samuel (1 Samuel 28). But that isn't the whole story for Israel. David had been anointed king (1 Samuel 16:1-13) and was alive. God's promise to have an "anointed one

Today's Reading: The Small Catechism: Baptism Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 28:3-25; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:11) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. What a gift! A gift that keeps on giving! Holy Baptism. I have always been struck by the profound simplicity of Luther's words in the Small Catechism and their faithfulness to the witness of the Bible. From beginning to end, the catechism reminds us that our relationship to God comes about by His grace. My favorite part of the catechism is our reading for this day: Holy Baptism, part 4. It distills into one beautiful (and long) sentence numerous biblical truths about salvation and then it perfectly connects them to Holy Baptism. What does Baptism mean for you? It means the daily death of your Old Adam and the emergence of the new man made righteous and pure by water and Word. And what is that Word

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:6-13 Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 26:1-25; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. (1Corinthians 10:12) In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. The apostle Paul was a super-religious guy in his previous life. We also know him as Saul of Tarsus, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He had his religious life all neatly packaged up, ready to give to God with the expectation that God would reward him for his good efforts and works. Paul would learn, in baptismal wonder, that such ideas were foolish (Acts 9). Salvation does not rest in any human. It is a gift granted for the sake of the death and life of Jesus alone. It seems like Paul is quoting a Proverb he surely had memorized in his Pharisee days: "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). Some in the church at Corinth prided themselves on their own super religiosity and spiritual strength. They should be careful, Paul warns, not to fall from grace. Tha