25 Trinity – Monday
This weeks devotions: Sunday
[Editor’s note: C.M Zorn only wrote devotions for twenty-four Trinity Sundays. This week’s daily devotions are specially selected devotions taken from F.E. Pasche’s Daily Bread, CPH. 1926. We will resume with C.M. Zorn’s devotions on Sunday November 29th, the First Sunday in Advent.]
Daily Devotion
Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Trinity
– Monday –
“…as the head of the family should teach it in a simple way to his household.” This directive of Dr. Luther stands at the beginning of each Chief Part of Christian doctrine in his Small Catechism and points out the duty of every father (Ephesians 6:4) or other head of the household to teach the members of his family every day and to lead them in family worship. The Lord Himself actually directs fathers to do this regularly throughout the day as they interact with their children (Deuteronomy 6:6-7). Sadly, this Christian duty and privilege, practiced by God’s people throughout the ages, has fallen into disuse in our busy, “modern” day.
Family worship belongs to “the good old customs” practiced by our Lutheran forefathers. During and after the time of the Reformation, it became an almost universal thing in Lutheran lands among Lutheran families. And although in our modern times many have abandoned also this “good old custom” because of the press of so many temporal things and the shortage of time with their families (which we ourselves often permit to be the rule rather than the exception), we Christians, whose desire should be to seek first of all the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33), should seek it in practice and not merely in confession (Psalm 1:2; Deuteronomy 6:7). Retain your family devotion, or return to it if you have let it lapse; and do not omit it if a stranger happens to be a visitor in your house. What a wonderful testimony to your faith and that of your family! What a beam of light that they can see and for which they can glorify God (Matthew 5:16). Do not be ashamed of “the old way” (Jeremiah 6:16). For family instruction and worship is as beneficial now as it was in “olden times.”
The benefits of family worship are many and great. The man [and his family] are “blessed,” says the Psalmist, “[whose] delight is in the law of the Lord and in [whose] law [they] meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2). We have the Savior’s assurance that “where two or three are gathered together in [His] name,” He will be with them (Matthew 18:20). His Word, which teaches us how God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32), has a hallowed influence upon the family’s peace, which so often is threatened by selfishness, discord and an unforgiving spirit. Loving Christian unity is practiced when members of the family “walk together” (Amos 3:3) according to His Word, united in doctrine, fellowship and prayer (Acts 2:42). Family discipline is made easier and the home atmosphere more pleasant when both parents and children, through the Lord’s precepts, gain understanding of His will (Psalm 119:104), motivated and enabled by the Gospel of what He has done and still does for their salvation (I John 4:19). The proper rearing of our children demands “bring[ing] them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4b). Such a God pleasing example of Christian parents will in years to come still be so vivid in the minds of their children and so powerful as to exert a most beneficial influence on them (Proverbs 22:6). Therefore let it be our resolve: “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
Prayer — Dear heavenly Father, grant me grace constantly to delight in Thy Word, so that I gladly hear it, read it, meditate upon it, and keep it, and with it minister also unto others, particularly to my family. Let me speak of it day and night, and let my mouth show forth Thy righteousness and praise to the glory of Thy grace in Christ Jesus, my Savior. Amen.
Unseal our lips to sing Thy praise, our souls to Thee in worship raise.
Make strong our faith, increase our light, that we may know Thy name aright. Hymn 3, 2
Blest such a house! It prosper well, in peace and joy the parents dwell,
and in the children’s lot is shown how richly God can bless His own. Hymn 625, 4
Deuteronomy 6:1-25
1 Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:
2 That thou mightest fear the LORD thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged.
3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
7 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.
9 And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates.
10 And it shall be, when the LORD thy God shall have brought thee into the land which he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give thee great and goodly cities, which thou buildedst not,
11 And houses full of all good things, which thou filledst not, and wells digged, which thou diggedst not, vineyards and olive trees, which thou plantedst not; when thou shalt have eaten and be full;
12 Then beware lest thou forget the LORD, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.
13 Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him, and shalt swear by his name.
14Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you;
15 (For the LORD thy God is a jealous God among you) lest the anger of the LORD thy God be kindled against thee, and destroy thee from off the face of the earth.
16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.
17 Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the LORD your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.
18 And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the LORD: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers,
19 To cast out all thine enemies from before thee, as the LORD hath spoken.
20And when thy son asketh thee in time to come, saying, Whatmean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the LORD our God hath commanded you?
21Then thou shalt say unto thy son, We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand:
22 And the LORD shewed signs and wonders, great and sore, upon Egypt, upon Pharaoh, and upon all his household, before our eyes:
23 And he brought us out from thence, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he sware unto our fathers.
24 And the LORD commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as it is at this day.
25 And it shall be our righteousness, if we observe to do all these commandments before the LORD our God, as he hath commanded us.
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