Taste and see that the Lord is good

The psalmist encourages us: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him” (Psalm 34:8).

Perhaps as a child you remember your mother giving you oatmeal, Cream of Wheat, or Malt-O-Meal for breakfast. Your mother may have insisted that you needed food to “stick to your ribs” when you left for school in the morning or to play in the cold and snow.

Your heavenly Father insists that you also need food to “stick to your ribs.” Except God’s food isn’t hot grains for breakfast. Rather, it is His holy Word that you get to taste every time you read your Bible or hear a devotion or listen to a sermon.

The sad truth, however, is that many of us Christians are biblically illiterate. We don’t really know what God’s Word says. That’s because our appetites aren’t for the eternal and life-giving words of God, but rather for the trivial and novel ideas on Facebook or Pinterest. We find it difficult to spend an hour in God’s house for worship, but have no trouble spending four hours in front of the TV for a football game. We bemoan the fact that our children are having their morals battered in music, TV and movies, but that happens because we are not faithful in instilling God’s morals into their hearts by being in God’s Word daily with them.

St. Paul reveals that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). These are the words of Christ that stick to our ribs, stick in our ears, stick in our mouths, stick in our hearts, and stick in our faith.

Join with me in reading God’s Word daily to taste and see that the Lord is good.

To help you with hearing God’s Word so that it sticks to your ribs, I have included a number of resources for your daily growth in faith in this New Year. These resources will aid you in becoming Bible literate and teaching the faith to your children.

You can also sign up for daily devotionals in your email.

WELS devotions
Time of Grace devotions
Lutheran Hour devotions


These are the devotions that I receive on a daily basis. You can also read them on Epiphany’s Facebook page. If you read them on Facebook, please like and share them so that others may taste and see that the Lord is good. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Max Lucado - False Doctrine

I love the way author Max Lucado writes. He is a great storyteller and a fantastic wordsmith. I have a number of Lucado's books on my shelves and receive his daily paragraph devotions. However, as popular as he is, as many books as he has sold, as many lives as he has touched with the Gospel, he still proclaims false doctrine. I still remember being told at the Seminary that you can generally tell a pastor's theology based on the kind of books he has on his shelves. Though our WELS pastors may have a few books by Lucado, Covey or even some fiction by Peretti, they had better have the majority of their books be sound, Lutheran, biblical doctrine. Martin Luther, The People's Bible commentaries, The Book of Concord, People's Bible Teachings, C.F.W. Walther, Francis Pieper, Werner Franzmann, etc. I mention this because of the devotion I received via email from Max Lucado on Friday, June 12 entitled "Saved by Faith." In the devotion he calls communion and bapti...
Read more

Jesus has prepared a place for you - A funeral sermon for Jim Hermann

Image
John 14:1-4 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me.  2  My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  4  You know the way to the place where I am going.” “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” Did you catch the difference between what I read just now and what I read in the Gospel lesson? The Gospel lesson was from the NIV. The second verse I read was from the King James Version. If you’re older than 50, that’s the version of the Bible that you heard in church and learned in catechism class. But, even if you’re older younger than 50, you know about the mansions. “The mansions of heaven” is a term Christians use pretty...
Read more

Water into blood and water into wine

Image
Here are some thoughts that didn’t make it into Sunday’s sermon. The Old Testament lesson for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany is the account of Moses turning the water of the Nile River into blood. The first of the ten plagues God used to get the Israelites out of Egypt. Exodus 7:14-24 Then the LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh's heart is unyielding; he refuses to let the people go. 15 Go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes out to the water. Wait on the bank of the Nile to meet him, and take in your hand the staff that was changed into a snake. 16 Then say to him, 'The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to say to you: Let my people go, so that they may worship me in the desert. But until now you have not listened. 17 This is what the LORD says: By this you will know that I am the LORD: With the staff that is in my hand I will strike the water of the Nile, and it will be changed into blood. 18 The fish in the Nile will die, and the river will stink; the Egyptians will not ...
Read more