A PRAYER FOR VETERAN'S DAY

"Lord Jesus, the Captain of my soul, who endured the pain of battle with the old Evil Foe in order to secure my redemption, grant me a grateful heart for the freedoms I enjoy through Your grace & mercy. Help me to treasure my spiritual freedom from sin, death, & the devil, & open my lips continually to praise You for my liberty in You. Teach me to be thankful for my liberties in this blessed land, which were won & preserved for me by the sacrifices of my countrymen. Help me to honor their memory by a conscientious & loyal citizenship & a readiness to defend the rights of free people everywhere.

"Grant Thy comfort to families who remember with sorrow the death of one who gave his or her life for our country. Sustain those veterans who are confined to hospitals & veteran's homes throughout our land, who bear the scars of war, so that I might enjoy the wholesomeness of peace & freedom. Keep me from forgetting the heroes of the past, lest I become a coward in the face of the future. Grant the gift of peace to our land & to the world so that Your Gospel may have free course & more people everywhere may march under Your lordship beneath the banner of Your Cross. Amen."  My Prayer Book

HOLINESS & GRACE

"If we are called by God to holiness of life & if holiness is beyond our natural power to achieve (which it certainly is) then it follows that God Himself must give us the light, the strength, & the courage to fulfill the task He requires of us. He will certainly give us the grace we need." Thomas Merton, Men's Devotional Bible

GOOD WORKS

"We cling to Christ's blood that atones for all our ins & that makes all works done in faith good & pleasing to our heavenly Father. As Paul proclaimed, 'We know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ' (Gal. 2:26). Our good works please God not because they are perfect or because of the amount of good works we have done, but because they are done in faith in Christ. Those works are covered by the blood of Christ--& they are truly good works because of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, at the end of our life, it is not the number or greatness of our good works that we cling to. We cling to Christ alone."  Rev. Andrew Packer, The Lutheran Witness, SEP 2020.