40 Days of Prayer - Week 1

1 Corinthians 3:10-13 According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done.

Devotion: We in Lutheran CORE are about the awful and awesome task of founding a new church. We must “take care” that that new church—the North American Lutheran Church—is laid on the firm foundation of those who through the generations have built on the right foundation, Jesus Christ. Other foundations will simply not flourish in the long run. For the test of fire is coming; it will become more and more difficult for all churches to gain and retain new members. If the Spirit determines that we have built on that firm foundation, we will flourish, both in size and quality. If not, we will wither and die. So let us take care how we build upon it.

Prayer: O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, send forth your Spirit to enliven our efforts to build rightly on that firm foundation, Jesus Christ. We know that without the blessing of your Spirit our efforts will come to naught. Send your Spirit’s power, we pray, that our church might be patterned after that of a master builder. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by Dr. Robert Benne, Director of the Center for Religion and Society, Roanoke College, Virginia and Advisory Council Member, Lutheran CORE.

1 Thessalonians 1:2-10 We always give thanks to God for all of you and mention you in our prayers, constantly remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. For we know, brothers and sisters beloved by God, that he has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of persons we proved to be among you for your sake. And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit, so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place your faith in God has become known, so that we have no need to speak about it. For the people of those regions report about us what kind of welcome we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead—Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath that is coming.

Devotion: The example of the Thessalonians reminds us of how greatly God is at work to renew His church in faithfulness and outreach. The Apostle Paul was greatly encouraged by the Thessalonians sincere outreach not only locally but in the surrounding region. Their eager reception of the Good News of Jesus Christ had become an example for others and gave obvious evidence that the Holy Spirit was actively leading them forward as they joyfully shared the Gospel with others. Lutheran CORE, the NALC, LCMC, and the Word Alone Network are all working to bring faithful renewal to the North American continent and beyond. What a blessing it is to see members of these Christian entities reaching out in love with the message of God’s Word to countless thousands of people, to hear about new missions being started, dying churches being renewed, ethnic ministries being supported, and connections with Christians all over the world growing. This is a new day for the Lutheran church, a time not of endless parliamentary manipulation, task forces stacked for unfaithful results, and ever doubting revisionism, but a time of Scripture centered guidance, faithful visioning and outreach, prayer and Bible study, faithful obedience and prayerful mission planning. Inspired by the example of the Thessalonians may we seize the day, guided by God’s Word working through the Holy Spirit, walking forward together as brothers and sisters in Christ to spread the renewing and forgiving Word of the Savior throughout the world.

Prayer: Almighty God, you have founded, sustained, strengthened and renewed your church throughout the centuries and the evidence of that continues to abound in the time in which we live. As we prepare for the Lutheran CORE convocation and the formation of the North American Lutheran Church, we give you thanks for this gathering of faithful Lutherans from North America and the world. May this event truly renew the Lutheran church, may it give all the glory to you, may it create a momentum and enthusiasm that carries forth into countless years of faithful outreach and grow for your Church. All these things we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Paul Gausmann, Pastor of St Paul Lutheran Church, York, Pennsylvania and Advisory Council Member, Lutheran CORE.

Psalm 127:1 Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. Proverbs 16:3Commit your work to the LORD and your plans will succeed.

Devotion: There is an enormous difference between doing God's will and doing our will in God's Name. The former is marked by a due humility that recognizes both our finitude and sinfulness; at the same time, it is accompanied by a quiet confidence that acknowledges that we are only a tool in the hand of God and that, while we are called to do as well as we can the tasks set us by God, the outcome lies in God's hands. Doing our will in God's Name proceeds from the presumption of the pride-swollen self; contrary to its oft-repeated pious declarations of "Thy will be done" this presumption reduces God to a tool for its ends and is accompanied by the gut-gnawing anxiety of a functional atheism. Behind the pious facade lies an idolatry that puts its trust not in God but in our schemes and efforts. Let us proceed, not in the futile arrogance that we alone possess the truth, but in the calm and humble faith that He Who is "the way, the truth, and the life" possesses us; let us trust Him to use us and our labors to His ends and leave also the measuring of ultimate success to Him. "It is better to fail in a cause that will ultimately succeed than to succeed in a cause that will ultimately fail."

Prayer: God of grace and God of glory, on Your people pour Your power; crown Your ancient Church's story; bring its bud to glorious flow'r; Grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the facing of this hour.

Lo! the hosts of evil round us scorn the Christ, assail His ways! From the fears that long have bound us free our hearts to faith and praise. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage for the living of these days.

Cure Your children's warring madness; bend our pride to Your control; Shame our wanton, selfish gladness, rich in things and poor in soul. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage lest we miss Your kingdom's goal.

Save us from weak resignation to the evils we deplore; Let the gift of Your salvation be our glory evermore. Grant us wisdom, grant us courage serving You Whom we adore. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Ken Kimball, Pastor of Old East and Old West Paint Creek Lutheran Churches, Waterville and Waukon, Iowa and Steering Committee Member, Lutheran CORE.

Ephesians 4:1-6 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Devotion: A pastor close to me offered, "I regard schism to be worse than heresy." He meant that to discourage my participation in Lutheran CORE. It is not CORE, rather it is the ELCA, which in its adoption of false teaching in Minneapolis last summer, became guilty of schism - schism from the Church Catholic. When we of CORE, separate ourselves from that schism, we do so to reassert our identity with the Church Catholic, which the ELCA so tragically chooses to abandon.

Prayer: Abba, Father, You sent your Son among us to save your world. Now we, by the Spirit, are part of his church. We need to be sustained by him in this hostile world, yet we are sent by him into this very world to proclaim and serve his Gospel. As we strive to do this, save us both from weak fear, and from self-righteousness. Lead and guide us, we pray in his own name. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. George Mocko, Towson, Maryland, former Bishop of Delaware-Maryland Synod and Advisory Council Member, Lutheran CORE.

Matthew 2:9-10 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

Devotion: Normally we would associate this text with Epiphany, but I believe it also has a powerful message for us as we anticipate the Lutheran CORE Convocation in August.

For years I assumed that once the star appeared it was stationary. The wise men saw it and then set out to find the king whose birth the star announced. But then I read more carefully the two verses above. They say that the star moved and it continued to move until it brought the wise men to Bethlehem. It was because the wise men continued to follow the star that continued to move that they found the one who had been born king of the Jews.

I remember hiking in Sequoia National Park in California. Orange triangles on trees indicated the trail. At the beginning of the hike I could not see all the orange triangles that I would need to see in order to find my way all the way to the end of the trail. Rather when I got to one orange triangle I could see the next orange triangle. To find my way and to stay on the trail it was enough to see only one orange triangle at a time.

As we prepare to gather for the Lutheran CORE Theological Conference and Convocation, which will include the Constituting Convention of the North American Lutheran Church (NALC), we do not know everything that will develop and everything that will happen as we see this reconfiguration of North American Lutheranism unfold. Some days will be filled with uncertainty, as I am sure the wise men’s journey sometimes was perilous. But we believe that God is with us and that he is guiding and blessing us. We want to follow his guidance one day at a time and one step at a time so that as we continue to serve him we, like the wise men, will be “overwhelmed with joy.”

Prayer: Thank you, Heavenly Father, for the star that guided the wise men and brought them to Jesus. Thank you for your guiding us as we anticipate and prepare for the beginning of a new Lutheran church body and the ongoing ministry of Lutheran CORE. Help us to follow your leading one day at a time and one step at a time. We pray that your Holy Spirit will use our efforts to bring people to Jesus, as the star led the wise men to Bethlehem. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Dennis Nelson, Pastor of Christ Lutheran Church, West Covina, California and Advisory Council Member, Lutheran CORE, representing the Evangelical Mission Network from the Southwest California Synod.

Galatians 5:16-18 So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law.

Devotion: The Christian life is a life lived in tension between the Spirit and our sinful nature. It is like the tension between Law and Gospel. One kills, the other gives life. The Law shows us our sin and our need for a Savior, but it cannot save us. The Gospel shows us our Savior and saves us. By God’s grace we receive the Holy Spirit who empowers us to repent of the sin the Law reveals to us and to live under the Spirit’s guidance. We are set free from the Law to live by grace.

Lutheran CORE exists to proclaim the truth of God’s Word in Law and Gospel for the salvation of humankind. In these days when the words of society are loudly proclaiming its message of death, the Church must proclaim God's Word in truth so that folks can be saved from sin, death and the devil. Those of us who realize that the ELCA is parroting the words of the world are excited about the North American Lutheran Church. We look forward to there being an orthodox Lutheran denomination whose focus is on God's Word and the Great Commission. Let us be in prayer, as we Lutherans gather in Ohio in August, that the Holy Spirit will guide us in the formation of the NALC that it will indeed be a Lutheran body that proclaims the truth of God's Word and upholds the teachings of the Lutheran Confessions. May God the Holy Spirit empower us to know and do His will in all things so that the world might come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.

Prayer: Almighty God, we give you thanks and praise for the gift of salvation you have given us through your Son Jesus. Grant that your Church might always proclaim your Word in truth and Jesus Christ as the only means of salvation. Guide those who gather for the Lutheran CORE Convocation in August by your Holy Spirit to know and do your will in bringing into existence the North American Lutheran Church. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Carl Haynes, Pastor of Christiana Lutheran Church, Salisbury, North Carolina and Member of Lutheran CORE – North Carolina.

Psalm 137: 1-6 By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there we hung up our lyres.
For there our captors required of us songs,
and our tormentors, mirth, saying,
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my highest joy!

Heavenly Father, you willed to make us citizens of your country and singers of your mercy. Do not abandon us in the land of exile, but bring us to the heavenly Jerusalem chanting your praise; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Psalm Prayer from Lutheran Book of Worship)

Devotion: Peter Berger, the Lutheran sociologist, in his Rumor of Angels (1969) shares a helpful analogy by comparing the Christian to a cultural anthropologist involved in fieldwork. In leaving his culture to enter a foreign one the anthropologist knows he is similarly in danger of forgetting who he is and “going native”. He prevents this by always staying “in the company of or at least in communication with fellow outsiders to the culture … and best of all by going home from the field after a relatively short period of time.”

“Going home” rather than “going native”, I believe, is what the Psalmist had in mind as the people of God were in captivity in the foreign land and culture of Babylon. There the people of God longed for Mount Zion and to freely be able to sing their songs of faith. Martin Luther’s prayer that we will pray together shortly using the images of captivity and going home from his treatise, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church (1520), addresses the church of his day and calls her to leave human doctrine and false teaching and to return home to the fullness of God’s word revealed in Holy Scriptures, in both law and gospel.

In light of these 40 Days of Prayer, as we await the Constituting Convention of the North American Lutheran Church, it is good for us to know on that day we will be fleeing Babylon and going home. Home to a church that treasures the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments as the authoritative source and norm for her unity, life and proclamation and that once again the historic Creeds of the church catholic and Confessions of the Lutheran Church will be taken with absolute seriousness. Home to what the church believes in her teaching of doctrine and as the valid interpretations of the faith once delivered to the saints.

All who this day pray with Luther’s words will not be leaving the church they presently find themselves in but will go home daily in prayer with the North American Lutheran Church in the name of the Lord of the Church, Jesus Christ, to the Father in the power of the Holy Spirit, asking to keep themselves faithful and to continue to bear witness to the bishops, pastors and members serving in Babylon as to what the Lutheran church is called to be. We must never fail to rejoice in their partnership in such going home.

Prayer: Let us together pray Luther’s words:
Lord God, Gracious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who banished Israel into Babylon for their sins, but did hear their cry and let them back again into their beloved Country, your Holy Mount Zion, … behold how we long for Zion. Your poor church is dwelling in Babylon now, and the children of Babylon reside among her children who hear no more the sound of the trumpet-cry of your Word and the confessions that kept our forebears steadfast in your Truth. False doctrine dwells among us, and the disagreements of pastors and teachers have scattered your people; … thousands again become as erring sheep, each looking to their own ways, turned from the true Shepherd and Bishop of their souls. How shall they have one faith when they hear the one doctrine no more; for faith comes by hearing the Word; and now, by false preaching has come false faith, and by many teachings must now come many confessions and divisions. Help, Lord and grant unity to the North American Lutheran Church. The more the world and culture departs from you and follows its own ways of thought, so much the more powerfully cause this church, her pastors and people to speak your word, to defend your confessions, your doctrines and moral teachings, and in ever growing circles, cause unity in the Word and unity of doctrine and faith to increase. As time passes ever increase your churches mission and outreach to those who still live in Babylon. The more frequently we pray, so much more do you hear us, and help us to seek and desire nothing other than that your Name be kept holy; your Kingdom come, and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Amen. (Luther prayer from For All the Saints: A Prayer Book For and By the Church, Vol. III, pp. 1098-99; here shortened and slightly revised and paraphrased)

Today’s devotion and prayer is offered by The Rev. Dr. Frederick Schumacher, Pastor Emeritus, St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church, White Plains, New York; Executive Director, American Lutheran Publicity Bureau and Advisory Council Member, Lutheran CORE.