Saturday in the Fifth Week of Pentecost
Daily Readings
Numbers 13:31-14:25 Romans 3:9-20 Matthew 19:1-12We continue on today with the story of the Israelites rebelling against God in the wilderness, being frightened by mere human beings in spite of having seen miracle after miracle by the LORD. We too have seen miracles, in our baptism as we are brought into the family of God and are made alive when we were spiritually dead, and in Holy Communion when we partake of the very body and blood or our Lord and receive the forgiveness of sins for our salvation. We have no excuse to doubt our Lord even as the Israelites had no excuse. Fortunately for us the Lord is merciful and forgives us our sins, including our foolish doubts, though we miss many a blessing by doubting, still in the end the Lord is faithful to save us.
In our passage from Romans 3 we have one of the clearest declarations of the truth that no one is saved by any act of the law.
For as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 11no one understands; no one seeks for God. 12All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
In the passage from Matthew 19 we find a teaching of Jesus that seems to be ignored in the Church today. How is it that the divorce rate among Christians is just as high as among non-Christians? Part of this is the fault of the civil law making what should be a joining for life instead a joining until we get bored. But even with such laws Christians ought not to succumb to this temptation. Still, the Lord will forgive this sin as well as any other, but it is still a grievous sin.
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Yesterday, when I got home from grocery shopping I noticed that our refrigerator had stopped working. Doesn't it just figure that it would go out just when you get home with a load of perishable items? :-( Today Mike and I went to Best Buy and picked out a new refrigerator. Why does all of this happen when I'm broke?
Such is life.