Devotion for January 18 (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Christmas Gifts

Image Source = Kelvin Kay

The Presence of God

JANUARY 18, 2024

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Ezekiel 40:1-4; 43:1-12

Psalm 130 (Morning)

Psalms 32 and 139 (Evening)

Romans 8:18-39

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For I am certain of this:  neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nothing in existence and nothing still to come, nor any power, nor the heights nor the depths, nor any created thing whatever, will be able to come between us and the love of God, known to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

–Romans 8:38-39, The New Jerusalem Bible

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I recall that, when I was very young, I heard my father speak of the presence of God.  At the time my age had only one digit and my Piagetan stage of cognitive development reflected literal, concrete thinking.  So I wondered where the presents of God were.  They might come in boxes wrapped in shiny paper, I thought.

The “Presence of God” figures prominently in the readings from Ezekiel.  The people have sinned yet the divine Presence will return to the site of the Temple at Jerusalem, the text says.  And we read in Romans 8:18-39 that God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, intercedes for us.  Furthermore, nothing can separate us from the love of God.

We are always in the presence of God, who is everywhere.  Yet many of us do not live accordingly.  And others of us need to live accordingly more often than we do.  (I count myself among the latter.)  Being aware  of being in the presence of God and responding to it positively is the best definition of prayer I can muster.  Such a response is far better than any number of gifts in boxes wrapped in shiny paper.

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

MARCH 25, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD

THE FIFTH SUNDAY IN LENT, YEAR B

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/the-presence-of-god-2/

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