St. Johns News

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:8,9

Inconceivable Love

Daily Devotion – March 19, 2023

Devotion based on Isaiah 55:8,9

See series: Devotions

When my family first moved overseas, much of the new culture didn’t make sense to me. Their way of thinking was so foreign to me that I couldn’t always understand why they acted the way they did. With time, however, living among our new neighbors, I realized that they weren’t so different after all—they were human beings like me who grew up in a different setting, a different environment, and they behaved accordingly.

In the end, we really should be able to empathize with just about any other person we meet. Studies indicate that we share 99.9% of our DNA in common with all other human beings. The main reason that we can’t get along or see things from the other person’s perspective is that we don’t want to. We want to believe that somehow, we’re better, that our thinking is superior. And that goes for clashes between cultures, countries, and couples.

But what if the person we’re trying to understand is God? Why does he allow suffering? Why does he seem to bless those who do evil? Why does he sometimes take the people we love long before we think it’s time? Because sin and selfishness blind us, much of what God does is incomprehensible to us.

How fortunate for us that his ways are not our ways! Instead of punishing us, on the cross of Jesus, God did “what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived” (1 Corinthians 2:9). God the mighty Creator died for his sinful creatures. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, the debt of everyone’s sin has been paid in full. All who turn to Jesus and trust in him as their Savior are blessed with the peace of forgiveness.

It is not the way of sinful people to freely pardon. It is not the thinking of selfish people to graciously show mercy to enemies. But oh, what a blessed truth: God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways!

Prayer:
Father in heaven, I never could imagine that you would love me as much as you do. Teach me to understand your ways so that I might share them with others. In Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

The Only Peace That Matters

Daily Devotion – March 18, 2023

Devotion based on Romans 5:1

See series: Devotions

A wealthy man wanted to have a painting that captured the ultimate picture of peace. Many artists entered their paintings. They all made noble attempts at putting down on canvass what peace really was. Some featured a mirror-smooth lake. Others featured quiet trees under a soft evening sky. Still others featured a grassy meadow where a flock of sheep grazed undisturbed.

The winning picture, however, had none of that. On the contrary, it contained elements that were not peaceful at all. An angry waterfall hurled itself down a rocky cliff. Overhead, dark clouds were beginning to explode with lightning, wind, and rain. Everywhere in this picture, there were signs of danger, menace, and trouble.

But there was something else. Near the middle of the picture, a small, frail tree clung to the rocks at the edge of the falls. One of its branches reached out in front of the falls itself. And there, in the elbow of that single branch, a bird had built a nest. Her little ones were asleep, content, and undisturbed under the shelter of her wings.

In this life, peace is not the absence of trouble or turmoil. After all, we live in a fallen, broken world, and by nature, you and I are fallen, broken people. Unexpected storms, sudden grief, and jarring disappointment will be with us until the day we die.

But there is something else. There is Jesus. There is God’s forgiveness of our sins for the sake of his Son. And along with that forgiveness comes the Lord’s promise to shelter us in every storm, every trouble, every moment of turmoil.

That’s real peace. That’s the only peace that matters. That is the peace under which you and I can rest, content and undisturbed.

Prayer:
Heavenly Father, through faith in your Son, you have given me full forgiveness. You have also sheltered me in every storm. Remind me that, in you, we have nothing to fear. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” . . . The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
John 4:15,25,26

Where can I get this water?

Daily Devotion – March 17, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:15,25,26

See series: Devotions

Her interest was piqued as Jesus revealed her deepest secrets and talked about living water for her thirsting soul. So the Samaritan woman Jesus had met at the town well asked, “Where can I get this water?”

Jesus answered, “I am he.” He is the source of eternal life. He gives relief from sin and shame. It’s relief that lasts.

Where can you and I get this living water? Jesus takes us to concrete places to find this steady stream of living water. The Bible, the Word of God, is pictured as water. Through it, we find life because it’s more than just a book. It is the power of God from which his love and forgiveness flow freely.

You can also find this living water through the water of baptism. There water is applied in connection with Jesus’ Word, and God floods you with his full and free love and connects you to Jesus, the eternal life source. If you haven’t been baptized, it’s not too late. Find this living water in the waters of baptism. If you have been baptized, know that what God did and promised through your baptism has not dried up. No matter how messy life has been, there’s no stain Jesus can’t wash away. In Jesus, through his Word and baptism, we find living water in abundance.

Prayer:
Jesus, every day lead me to you to find comfort and relief that lasts. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water . . . Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
John 4:10,13,14

A gushing spring of living water!

Daily Devotion – March 16, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:10,13,14

See series: Devotions

A person who has felt the guilt of a specific sin or ongoing struggle with temptation may say or at least think, “If people really knew me, how could they love me?” Maybe something like that ran through the Samaritan woman’s mind as she first encountered Jesus, but then she discovered that Jesus really did know her. The truth was out in the open!

But then Jesus flips that thought and says, “If you really knew me… If you knew who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” A guilt-ridden soul thinks, “If people really knew me, they’d run in the other direction.” Jesus, true God, really does know us to the core, but he doesn’t run away! He offers living water—the kind that quenches the deepest spiritual thirst caused by guilt and shame. This water doesn’t dry up or just keep you going for the day. This water gives eternal life.

Picture a desert where water is scarce. You have to dig down deep to find water that is essential for physical life. Now picture a gushing spring of water. It bubbles up and spills over; there’s an endless supply. That’s the picture Jesus paints for a spiritually thirsty soul beside a well. This living water that Jesus gives is not a shallow pool or babbling brook. It’s gushing over in an endless supply.

Jesus gives us more than just a sip of this living water, more than a drop on a thirsty tongue. It’s an endless fountain of God’s love and forgiveness, gushing over. That fountain never runs dry because the living water that Jesus gives is eternal life.

Prayer:
Jesus, meet me beside the waters of your Word where I find relief from the guilt of sin and the refreshing flood of your forgiveness. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
John 4:9,10

Thirsting for acceptance.

Daily Devotion – March 15, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:9,10

See series: Devotions

He simply asked her for a drink of water, and suddenly the true thirst spilled out. “How can you ask me for a drink?” She was shocked that Jesus would talk to her before she even knew who Jesus really was. She recognized that Jesus was a Jewish man. Jews looked down on Samaritans because they were not full-blooded Jews. On top of that, Jesus revealed that this woman had been married five times, and the man she was currently with was not her husband.

Jesus exposed her real spiritual thirst by simply asking for a drink of water. She thirsted for love and acceptance, but she was looking in all the wrong places to quench that thirst. We might seek approval from peers or acceptance through a relationship that becomes more important than a relationship with God. Our world has a twisted view of love and acceptance and looks for it in all the wrong places.

But Jesus cared about this woman enough to have a deep and tough conversation. And his end goal wasn’t to crush and reject her; it was to reveal himself as the solution to her sin, the living water to wash away her sin and quench her thirsty soul. She knew rejection and what it was like to be looked down on. But she had never been loved like that, like only God can love, until she met her Savior, Jesus.

Jesus cares about you enough to come to you in his Word and to meet a deeper thirst that nothing in all the world could ever quench. Jesus quenches our thirst for love and acceptance, not by downplaying sin, but by forgiving it completely. By washing it away in an unending flood of his love and acceptance.

Prayer:
Jesus, meet me beside the waters of your Word so that I may find the kind of love and acceptance that only comes from you. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?”
John 4:6,7

He knows our thirst.

Daily Devotion – March 14, 2023

Devotion based on John 4:6,7

See series: Devotions

Can God truly know what I’m feeling? Is God in tune with what is going on in our world? Maybe at times, we’ve misunderstood God as a distant deity disconnected from the average human’s experience. But Jesus steps into human history, and he shatters that false assumption.

Maybe it seems like a minute detail in the true story told in John chapter 4—Jesus was tired. He asked for a drink of water. Jesus understood being physically tired, worn out, and thirsty because he experienced it all. Even more, he understood being worn out and thirsty on a deeper, spiritual level.

As true God, Jesus knows us intimately. But to prove he’s not a distant God, he became a real man with flesh and blood to experience pain and thirst and even temptation—yet he never sinned. But he still thirsted.

Jesus sat down by a well, thirsty and tired from his journey, and there he encountered a woman thirsty and tired in more ways than one. And God himself asked her for a drink of water. How ordinary and disarming is God’s approach! And in this way, he shows his extraordinary love for every human being.

By the well, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” On the cross, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” He was literally thirsty, but on the cross, he suffered the agony of God’s crushing punishment, and it parched his very being. He thirsted for relief from his Father in heaven. He knows what we’re going through, and he did something about it! Jesus’ rest beside the well and visit with that woman was a pitstop along the way to his cross, where he would experience something that he wanted no other human to experience—punishment for sin. From his wounds flowed forgiveness and peace for every thirsting soul.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for approaching me in gentleness and love and with your almighty power to rescue me from sin’s curse. Amen

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

So they quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.”
Exodus 17:2

We need water!

Daily Devotion – March 13, 2023

Devotion based on Exodus 17:2

See series: Devotions

Have you ever been dying of thirst? We might use that phrase when we are really parched on a hot summer day, but it’s no joke. A hiker ventures out into the desert, not even that far, and if he hasn’t carried enough water, he could literally be dying of thirst.

God’s people, the Israelites, were led out into the desert by God and through Moses, God’s appointed leader. God had just rescued them from brutal slavery in Egypt and was leading them to the Promised Land. But now they had run out of water. Sadly, rather than trusting in God to meet their need, they complained to Moses and God.

God demonstrated his patient love for them. He had Moses strike a rock with his staff, and water flowed! God provided water in the middle of the desert. God quenched their thirst.

God, in his love, quenches thirst. When our physical needs are met, when we have cozy homes, and nourished bodies, when our physical thirst is quenched, it can be easy to stop there and think, “What more could I need.” So many in our world are lost in a desert of sin and unbelief and dying of spiritual thirst—thirst for answers, for acceptance, for purpose. The problem is when we look in the wrong places to have that spiritual thirst quenched—the well runs dry. The danger of spiritual dehydration is eternal death.

God provided literal water for thirsty travelers in a miraculous way. In a miraculous way, God quenches our spiritual thirst through his Word. God may not scratch our every curiosity in life, but he does quench our thirsty souls. Our thirst for answers to life’s big questions, like “What will happen after this life?” He answers this with an empty cross and empty tomb—Jesus died for you and rose for you; heaven is yours! Our thirst for acceptance is quenched by God’s forgiveness and assurance that we are his children. This thirst-quenching, life-giving water doesn’t flow from some rock. It flows from God himself, from Jesus Christ, who is true God.

Prayer:
Lord, when all my physical needs are met by your blessing, even then, lead me beside the life-giving waters of your Word and quench my thirsty soul with your love and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1

Thankful for Permanent Peace

Daily Devotion – March 12, 2023

Devotion based on Romans 5:1

See series: Devotions

Earthly peace is elusive. Leaders of nations sign treaties to establish foundations on which peaceful relations can be built. Too often, however, treaties are broken, and the peace they sought to establish is lost.

As wonderful as earthly peace is, it is not the kind of peace we need most. We need peace with God, which is something sin took away. Sin brought strife between God and people. This strife is most evident in troubled consciences. It’s also reflected in the conflicts that exist between people everywhere.

To establish earthly peace, the involved parties must often give up something or contribute something. By contrast, there is nothing that we could give up or contribute to establish a peace treaty with God. Our sins alienated us so far from God that such a treaty could never be ratified.

God, however, did what we could not do. Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans: “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Through the redemption that came by his own Son, God brought to the peace treaty table everything he needed to sign the treaty with us. Jesus’ blood blotted out our guilt. He arose from the grave to announce God’s peace. Through Jesus, true peace is ours forever! Oh, give thanks to the Lord!

Prayer:
O Jesus, by shedding your precious blood, you bought me back from the eternal destruction I deserved for my sin. Praise and thanks to you, my Savior, for establishing peace between me and God and giving me the gift of everlasting life! Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

It was not through the law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression. Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.
Romans 4:13-16

Only One Way

Daily Devotion – March 11, 2023

Devotion based on Romans 4:13-16

See series: Devotions

“There is more than one way to skin a cat.” The origins of this English saying are uncertain, but the meaning is clear. There is more than one way to achieve an aim. There is more than one approach to solving a problem. There is more than one way to get from A to B. Whatever you are trying to do, there are alternate ways of doing it; if plan A fails, one goes to plan B, and so on.

While this may be true in many earthly endeavors, the apostle Paul makes it clear that it is not true when it comes to heaven and eternal life.

For example, if you could get to heaven following God’s laws, the “more than one way” axiom would be true. One person could choose plan A, another plan B, and so on. However, the law does not bring life; the law brings wrath. That’s because where there is law, there is sin, and where there is sin, there is condemnation. The way of the law as a means of righteousness and eternal life does not and cannot work. That leaves us with only one way.

And what a beautiful way it is! The promise comes by faith. Righteousness comes by faith. These are beautiful words: by grace… guaranteed… to all!

The righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus is the way for all. It is the only way for all.

That is not a limiting truth; it’s a liberating truth. You are free from doubt, worry, and uncertainty concerning your eternal future. You are free to rejoice, worship, serve, and live. Free, through Jesus.

Prayer:
Lord Jesus, you are the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Help me cut off every thought and philosophy that suggests there is another way from me to you, from earth to heaven. May I rejoice in you always! Amen.

Daily Devotions are brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.