WHAT WE THINK OF GOD

What we think of God makes a tremendous difference in our lives. Where we get our ideas of God makes a tremendous difference too. We can gather up data & develop our own image of God, or we can allow God to reveal Himself in a self-portrait--His Son, Jesus Christ." Reuben Welch, Men's Devotional Bible

HUSBANDS & WIVES

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church & gave Himself up for her." (Eph. 5:25)

"Paul did not Exhort husbands to rule over their wives. Instead, he commanded husbands to love their wives. The Greek word for love (agape) here means God's love. Therefore, Pau exhorted husbands to show unceasing care & loving service for the well-being of their wives in all areas--physical, mental, & spiritual. In addition, the husband's love for his wife is to be an ongoing process. Husbands must love their wives unconditionally, even when they may seem undeserving & unloving.

"The pattern for the husband's love for his wife is Christ' love for His church. This is a radical love--that led Jesus to die on a cruel cross for sinful humanity . . . Taken literally, the second part of verse 25 teaches that husbands should be willing to make even the ultimate sacrifice (life itself) for their wives! Husbands are to imitate the sacrificial love of Christ in their marriages. If husbands obey Paul's command, they will not behave in an overbearing way toward their wives. Instead, all areas of married life will be characterized by self-sacrificing love." Day by Day in Ephesians, by Don E. AtkinsonCOMFORT

"As God's comforted children, it is also our great privilege to comfort others. There is much opportunity to do that. One can speak a cheering word to the sick & troubled. One can help through acts of service, especially on behalf of the poor & needy & victims of war. Ultimately we will also partake of the eternal comfort in heaven. There we will--along with others who believe in Jesus as their Savior--enjoy & savor the complete, perfect comfort of heaven. We comfort one another today with God's promise of eternal comfort." Reinhold Stallman, A Year with Jesus

THE TRUE CHURCH

"Christ, the Chief Shepherd, has called us out of the world & into His flock (1 Peter 5:2) Wherever one finds the living voice of Christ & those who by the Holy Spirit hear & believe it--both pastor & flock together--there is the church. Lutherans define the church as God's giving & our receiving, that is, Lutheran confess that the church exists where the sinner is forgiven in the stead & by the command of the Lord Jesus Christ's redeeming work & the delivery of that work through the preaching of the Gospel of that work through the preaching of the Gospel leave no doubt for the saints there there is a church or that they belong to it. Christ the Good Shepherd gives; His flock receives.

"Defining the church as shepherd & sheep (John 10:1-18) denies any claim that a special group within the church is the true church, whether the papacy, the local congregation alone, the clergy alone or even one particular institutional church body, such as the LCMS. The shepherd & the sheep belong together, regardless of time & place in the world. That happens primarily in worship, whether here on earth or there in heaven." Jason Lane, The Lutheran Witness, June/July 2021