August 13, 2026

Today's Reading: Catechism: What is Confession?

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 31:1-13; 1 Corinthians 7:1-24

“…Our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.” (Small Catechism- Confession)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Lutheran Service Book says on page 292 (in red ink): “If you are not burdened with particular sins, do not trouble yourself or search for or invent other sins, thereby turning confession into a torture. Instead, mention one or two sins that you know and let that be enough.”

We’re big fans of the healing Jesus, the feeding Jesus—and these are super neat things, for sure—but this same Jesus is the dying Jesus, the blood-shedding Jesus, the merciful, forgiving, life-bringing Jesus. When it comes to this Jesus, the forgiveness of sin… well… that’s a little harder. If you’re blind, everyone knows it; you don’t have to level your pride or have your ego crushed. Sinners are prone to hide stuff… to cover it up. And it’s that covering up that prevents us from hearing the Word of God: “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—He then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” (Matthew 9:6)

We love the Jesus who feeds and heals, but when our Lord says that forgiveness is bestowed to us on account of Jesus through the pastor who gives the medicine of immortality—the forgiveness of sins that makes us alive again—that would mean admitting to another person that we’re not doing well, and it would mean that only Jesus can do something about what’s killing us.

We’re not perfect; we say THAT all the time. We haven’t kept the Ten Commandments, but it’s hard to say with St. Paul, “Wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24) We can confess sin—it’s that body-of-death part that’s true—but it’s the second part, receiving forgiveness, that’s so hard. Dead bodies must be given to; only God can do that. So we must ask: “What kind of God are we dealing with?” The God who’ll squash us like a bug? Or… is He the slow-to-anger and abounding-in-steadfast-love God? The God Who comes and dwells in the stinky mire of this fallen world to give us the cure for the sin that makes us blind, deaf, lame, and dead?” He’s exactly that God, as Luther writes: “Absolution is the Word of God spoken by the mouth of man. It is not the word of man, but of God Himself.” (AE 35:14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen

We pray: Grant us, O Lord, we pray, to trust in Thee with all our heart; seeing that, as Thou dost always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so Thou dost not forsake those who make their boast in Thy mercy made known chiefly in the forgiveness of our sin; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.

August 12, 2026

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 28:3-25

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 28:3-25; 1 Samuel 29:1-30:31; 1 Corinthians 6:1-20

“The Lord has done to you as He spoke by me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, David.’” (1 Samuel 28:17)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

In 16 years of shepherding God’s kids, I’ve heard and seen almost everything. The most disheartening thing, though, are the people who are… “doing fine.” The people who see the Divine Service, the preaching of the Word, and the faithful reception of The Sacraments as just one of the many things they ‘do’ to have a fine life. As difficulties come up, as they often do, in a fallen world, these dear souls consult Siri, ChatGPT, Google, or WebMD for answers. Some check horoscopes, tarot cards, or ask the Magic 8 Ball for guidance. By the time I see them again, they’ve usually exhausted all other avenues for comfort and are beaten down with anxiety, fear, and depression.

There was a king named Saul, who lived before the internet, newspapers, and apps… who looked for answers to the problems of this fallen world in acts of violence, power, and self-reliance. Saul had witnessed the death of the prophet Samuel, whom God had sent to guide him. David was in exile on account of fear for his life, and war loomed. Feeling isolated and alone, Saul sought advice from a witch.

How’d Saul get to this point? He spent his time looking for answers in every place but where God promised they’d be… then, when Saul inquired of the Lord, “the Lord did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets” (v.6). God had given Saul over to his hardened heart, to the schemes of the fallen world. So Saul disguised himself, visited the witch by night to conjure Samuel for advice. The witch feared for her life because Saul, under Samuel’s guidance, had banned witchcraft. She cries out in terror and recognizes Saul’s deceit.

Luther wrote: “Whatever you set your heart on and put your trust in is truly your god.” (Large Catechism, I: First Commandment.) Saul trusted every earthly thing, and when these false gods failed, Saul cried out— hearing only God’s silence and Samuel’s judgment. The Apology IV.45 explains, “Faith receives the mercy promised for Christ’s sake.” Though we are often unfaithful, trusting in temporal wisdom, strength, and power, our Eternal Lord—the Son of David and David’s Lord—stoops low to find us, takes the form of a servant to bear our sins to death. Thanks be to God who bestows the Holy Spirit, calls us by the Gospel, enlightens us with His Gifts, sanctifies and keeps us in the true faith.

In the Name + of Jesus

We pray: When darkness veils His lovely face, I rest on His unchanging grace; in every high and stormy gale my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the Solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand. Amen (LSB 575:2)

Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.

August 11, 2026

Today's Reading: Romans 9:30-10:4 or 1 Corinthians 12:1-11

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 26:1-25; 1 Samuel 27:1-28:2; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” (Romans 10:4)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

When I converted to Lutheranism in 2005, I was amazed by the clarity of confession and the certainty of the Lutherans I met. Though I had grown up in and around the church, I didn’t understand much of what was being said; however, every time my pastor preached the stern law which crushed me and the sweetest gospel to comfort me, it overwhelmed me with joy. I understood for the first time that because Christ forgives me, I lack nothing. Tough theological questions and discussions eventually came, but one thing remained steadfastly true through it all: Christ kept me in His Divine service to receive His Gifts with exceeding joy. Justification rests in Christ alone, who gives it freely by His work, His merit.

Try telling that to the people of Paul's day… try telling many in our own day, try convincing yourself of this when you’re drowning in sin. Paul wrestled with a profound mystery… righteousness… justification… just what is it? Where can it be found? Paul narrows it down to just two places. People either believe it comes by what a person does, thinks, acts, and says, OR it comes by faith in the only One, Jesus, Who actually did, thought, acted, and said EVERYTHING perfectly for us.

Paul knew that the law wasn’t the problem; the law is good, just, and holy. The problem was that many misused it for self-justification instead of its proper use of exposing sin and killing the sinner. Article 4 of the Apology clearly states: “The Law always accuses. Therefore it does not justify, because the conscience terrified by the Law flees from the judgment of God. Faith, however, comforts and saves.” (Apology IV) The law… drives us to Christ. St. Paul taught that the Gentiles had received the righteousness of God through the preaching of the Gospel, which meant that righteousness is received and imputed to us through faith in Christ. That is a great offense to the self-righteous. The stumbling block is Christ — because He overturns all self-reliance. He fulfills the law for us. The Gospel is offensive because it freely gives what we cannot produce: forgiveness, peace with God and neighbor. Jesus alone bears the curse the Law pronounces. (Gal. 3:13) The Law is not a sentence of death, but God lovingly revealing our desperate need for Jesus. Luther writes: “The Law says, ‘Do this,’ and it is never done. The Gospel says, ‘Believe this,’ and everything is done already.” (Luther’s Works, Vol. 26, p. 5.)

In the Name + of Jesus.

Let us pray: Seek Him alone, Who did atone, Who did your souls deliver. O seek Him first, all you who thirst for grace that fails you never. In every need seek Him indeed; to every heart he will impart His blessings without measure. (LSB 557:3)

Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.

August 10, 2026

Today's Reading: Jeremiah 8:4-12 or Jeremiah 7:1-11

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 25:23-44; 1 Corinthians 4:1-21

“I have paid attention and listened…” (Jeremiah 8:6a)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

When I was little, I learned to hammer nails into boards. Part of that process, unfortunately, included smashing my thumb with the hammer. The wise counsel of adults was to: “Stop hitting your thumb with the hammer, and it won’t hurt.” It was true! I hit my thumb less nowadays, but there’s more to the story. Admitting that I needed help, taking direction, following direction, and being comforted WHEN I hit my thumb was the path of greatest comfort.

It was the same in Jeremiah’s day. God asks, “When men fall, do they not rise again?” (Jeremiah 8:4). We expect people to get up when they fall. Judah didn’t. They fell into great sin. They tried to hide their sin and struggle until eventually, it was easier to pretend everything was fine. They convinced themselves that piety and positive feelings covered their sin. People around them kept saying, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace (v. 11). They spoke lies until they believed them. Even worse, the prophets and priests — those who were supposed to speak God’s truth — twisted His Word to excuse sin rather than lead people to repentance. They followed the wisdom of the world, believing it would heal the wounds their sin had caused. It didn’t heal anything; it never does… it only kept them trapped in their deception and misery.

Yahweh sent Jeremiah to assure the people that God wasn’t angry because they were sinners: “I have paid attention and listened…”— Yahweh knew what they were up to, AND He was heartbroken because they believed their sin wasn’t that bad, that “God doesn’t really mean what He said.” Like Judah — we pretend we’re healthy when we’re actually dead. God pays attention and listens. His word, through Jeremiah, crushed them, roused them; the word was sent to wake the dead in sin from their sleep.

We’re all fallen; we cannot rise by our own strength. Jeremiah points them to the promise of Christ — Who, for our sake, willingly took our sin and death and rose again. Christ bore our shame, took our judgment, and still reaches out His nail-pierced hands to forgive and restore you. Being a Christian isn’t about keeping the stiff upper lip or exercising stoicism; Adam and Eve tried this with fig leaves, and it didn’t work. We rest assured that God knows everything about us, He pays attention and listens — and still wants you, seeks you, and loves you. He clothes you in Christ’s righteousness that covers every sin in Baptism, He gives you what you’ve neither earned nor deserved, and He’s overjoyed to do so.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Let us pray: Almighty God, we have sinned against You in what we know and what we do not know. For the sake of Your Son, forgive us all our sin and grant us to serve You and our neighbor. Amen.

Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.

August 9, 2026

Today's Reading: Luke 19:41-48

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 25:1-22; 1 Corinthians 3:1-23

“Would that you… had known on this day the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:42)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus sees His beloved city and her people carrying on in great busyness and happiness in preparation for the Passover celebration… so why does Jesus weep? Why the turning over of the money changers' tables? Because the people thought that maintaining longstanding traditions since the first Passover and making money was what made for peace. Was Jesus there just to kill the vibe of Passover, or to dampen the mood of the millions gathered in Jerusalem? Not in the least… although it kinda sounds like it when he drops the hammer of foretelling them that in 70 AD, His whole city would be leveled.

Jesus is fully God, He is fully man; This God/man shows sorrow (His weeping), and He exhibits controlled wrath (casting the merchants out by His word), but it is His mercy that should not be overlooked. Martin Luther writes: “He who is true God weeps with true tears. He laments not for Himself but for those who would not have Him.” (AE 75:417) Jesus weeps for His people… His beloved… because of their unbelief, hardness of heart, and their spiritual blindness. They, and all sinners, believed that their riches, their busy lives, and their works made for peace. Jesus, in great love and mercy, enters the temple, made with hands, and kicks the ones who bought and sold out with His word, showing us that He’d come to us… how the strong man would be bound and cast out. Jesus is the ‘thing’ that makes for peace… the time for peace was then, and peace would be won in the most terrible and wonderful manner, and still He came to dwell with His people through His Word. Even as He weeps, His cross is fully in view where He will be the true temple that will be torn down and built up again after three days… and that cleansing He provides will involve more than the turning over of tables and the casting out of merchants… it will be the event that overturns the world and casts out the enemies of sin, death and the Devil forever; the ‘thing’ that makes for peace with God and our neighbor right here on earth. Jesus laments over unbelief and dies for unbelievers, making His dwelling among us in the Church, the bride, He died to save.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“O Christ, cleanse the temple of our hearts. Let Your Word dwell richly within us. And grant that we may know, even now, the things that make for our peace — You, our Savior and our God.”

Rev. Adam DeGroot, pastor of Calvary Lutheran Church in Rio Rancho, NM.

August 8, 2026

Today's Reading: Introit for Trinity 10 - Psalm 55:1, 4-5, 16; antiphon: Psalm 55:16a, 17b, 18a, 22a

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 24:1-22; 1 Corinthians 1:26-2:16

“Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my plea for mercy!” (Psalm 55:1)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Lord desires that we call upon Him in the day of trouble. That is what we learn in the opening to the Lord’s Prayer. We pray not to some big, scary God up there in the heavens who has not revealed Himself to us. If that were the case, we would not begin our prayer, “Our Father…”

God is our Father, which means, of course, that we are His children. And as His children, He, as our heavenly Father, desires only what is good and beneficial to us. Sometimes what is good for us is chastisement and correction, which, while in the midst of it, never feels good, but in truth always is.

Other times, what is for our good is protection and release from every form of evil that would do us temporal and eternal harm. This is what we pray for in the final Petition of the Lord’s Prayer. It is pretty amazing that Jesus summarizes so succinctly what we find all over the place in the Psalms!

Pray to your dear Father all that which troubles your conscience and your mind. Cast your burdens upon the stripped and beaten shoulders of Christ your Lord, who has already taken them all to the cross and bore them unto His death— knowing that in the hollowness of the empty tomb, He has the victory over all of these things and has placed them inside His own grave to be buried forever!

The fallenness of this broken world will not cease to assail you. Your own sinful flesh will lead you down paths not helpful, but hurtful. Satan will fight tooth and nail to rob away the proclamation of the Gospel and the forgiveness of sins that Christ has already won for you. … That is why your Lord has granted to you the Gift of prayer, that you might seek refuge under the shadow of His wing, knowing that nothing can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

God, your Heavenly Father, hears your pleas for mercy and redeems your soul in safety. The verdict has already been declared as Christ called out from the cross, “It is finished!” And so know for certain that in the midst of sin and strife and death and temptation, He will sustain you through the Gifts of the cross given you in His Church!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, forsake me not! Your gracious presence lend me; Lord, lead Your helpless child; Your Holy Spirit send me That I my course may run. O be my light, my lot, My staff, my rock, my shield– O God forsake me not! (LSB 731:1)

Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.

August 7, 2026

Today's Reading: 1 Samuel 21:1-9

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 21:1-9

“So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of Presence…” (1 Samuel 21:6a)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Holy things for unholy people. That’s what happens in our text for today.

If you remember, David is on the run. Saul doesn’t like the man; he never has since that whole Goliath thing when the crowds gave David the king’s welcome. He already tried to pin David to the wall with his spear, then seemed to come to his senses by giving one of his daughters in marriage to him, then went a little crazy again and tried to devise a plot for Jonathan and his servants to murder him.

David evades the assassins (with the help of Saul’s son and daughter) and heads for the hills. Which brings him eventually to Nob, where the tabernacle sits, and before the High Priest Ahimelech. There are a lot of moving pieces by now, and I’m not too sure Ahimelech was all that keen on helping David out, at least not initially. But by the end of it all, David receives five loaves of the Bread of Presence.

This bread was only meant for the priests. Twelve loaves were made weekly and laid before the Lord in the tabernacle. On the Sabbath, the holy priests (made holy only by the designation of God) would consume the old bread and present the new. …David was no priest. He was not consecrated as holy, and yet Ahimelech superseded the Levitical Law for the sake of David’s well-being.

Fast forward 1,000+ years, and Jesus uses this very example to help show that man is not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is made for man. Meaning, God desires to give His good Gifts to His people despite the fact that we are unworthy to receive them. And that’s the whole thing about God: He is always the one at work, always the one making us worthy, always the one giving of Himself for our good.

Receiving the Gifts of God is not about cleaning yourself up first in order to make yourself worthy to receive His Gifts. If that were the case, they wouldn’t be Gifts, and they wouldn’t be given; they would be wages earned. But we can never earn the things of God, can never make ourselves worthy enough or holy enough. But Christ has already done that for us, for you. He, through His holy, bitter suffering and precious death, has done it all, which is what makes you worthy to receive His good Gifts of life and salvation through Word and Sacrament.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

My Lord, You here have led me To this most holy place And with Yourself have fed me The treasures of Your grace; For You have freely given What earth could never buy, The bread of life from heaven, That now I shall not die. (LSB 642:2)

Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.

August 6, 2026

Today's Reading: Catechism: The Sacrament of Holy Baptism - 4

Daily Lectionary: 1 Samuel 20:1-23; Acts 28:16-31

“We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Baptism isn’t a one-time thing. I mean, it is…. After all, we do confess in the Creed that we believe in one Baptism for the remission of sins. But what I mean is that Baptism, your Baptism, isn’t just the physical event that happened however long ago. Grammatically speaking, then, we should speak about it in the Perfect tense instead of the Past tense. Past tense means that the event is done and over with no continual ramifications into the present or future. Perfect tense, instead, is an accomplished act in the past with continuous consequences into the future. … That is why it is also best to say, “I am baptized,” instead of, “I was baptized.”

And, of course, we get all of this from Scripture. Paul, in Romans, is one of the prominent places. We continually, daily, go back to our Baptism. We do this for reassurance against the crafts and assaults of the devil. But we also do this so that Old Man Adam can be drowned again and again and again. For although Old Adam was drowned on the day that you were baptized and is still drowned each and every new day of your life, he is a terribly strong swimmer. He is going to pop his head above the waves constantly, and as the New Adam baptized into Christ, it is our duty to yank him down into the depths again, holding him there until he stops struggling for the service.

But this “Perfect” tense is also why we can so confidently, in the face of struggles, strife, sin, Satan, and the cemetery, know for certain that our identity is not found in our sin or in the fact that we will die because of it one day. Our identity isn’t in anything that Satan wishes us to identify with; it isn’t found in the fallen world or the fallen flesh. No, our identity is found in Christ!

Why? Because we were buried with Him through Baptism into His death. We have been made one with the One who has already paid the price for all of our sin and has prepared his final resting place to be the final resting place of our Old Adam. And then, so too, are we raised from the dead through the glory of the Father. New Adam, today and every day. New Adam for eternity.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

I bind this day to me forever, By pow’r of faith, Christ’s incarnation, His Baptism in the Jordan River, His cross of death for my salvation, His bursting from the spiced tomb, His riding up the heav’nly way, His coming at the day of doom, I bind unto myself today. (LSB 604:2)

Rev. Eli Lietzau, pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, CO.