Yeast
Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough.” Luke 13:20-21
When I was kid, I’d watch my mom make bread by hand. Mom would mix the Fleishmann’s ® yeast with water. That yeast didn’t look very impressive and appeared to be just cloudy water. But the yeast had a strange power built into it as it worked in the dough from the inside out. The dough would rise and we’d have bread. Every time!
Thank God that his word has a special power to permeate and get into stone cold hearts 
like yours and mine. We were not born better candidates to become Christians than anyone else. We were born with zero spiritual powers to come to Christ. It was the grace of God and the yeast of God’s word that changed us into something we were not. The yeast of God’s word doesn’t appear to be very impressive either. But there is divine power in that word to make our faith grow just as there is power in the yeast to make the bread dough rise.
Just as yeast makes bread dough rise slowly and quietly without any snap, crackle and pop, our faith also grows slowly and quietly. But like yeast permeating and then changing dough, the word changed us. Now we have new values, new goals, a new reason to live, and a living hope compared to when we were just a “lump of dough” and didn’t know Christ by faith. Spread this yeast in your community and neighborhood and watch the yeast change the people you love in the way it changed you.
Prayer: Jesus, continue to work the yeast of your word in my heart that I may grow to love and serve you more. Please also then use me to share your word with those I come in contact with, that your word may continue to spread. Amen
World Missions: India
Imagine a place where religion seems to be everywhere, but hope is nowhere to be found. India is such a place. But as our synod’s president experienced on his first trip to a foreign mission field – even in a place like this the gospel has power.
Tell It on the Mountains
“…though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you. Isaiah 54:10
This is my confirmation verse. At the time, I was living in the Midwest and my concept of mountains was those upside-down V’s that primary school students use to depict mountains in their drawings. Since then, I’ve seen God’s majestic mountains—fold after fold, hill after hill, and peak after peak. I’ve seen mountains blasted away to make room for roads and development. Yet, no mortal could shake a mountain. It is humanly impossible.
God, however, can shake and move the mountains he created. Think of how the mountain shook when God gave us his law. Think of earthquakes that ripple and change the earth’s geography. Our almighty Creator is entirely capable of shaking the mountains and removing the hills for his good purpose.
Yet, our almighty God says that his unfailing love for us will not be shaken. This is his mercy, his grace, his undeserved love for everyone. He saw our helplessness and sent his Son to live and die for us. We have done nothing to deserve his mercy. God sees our misdeeds and our missed deeds, yet he gives us his unfailing love—a gift—free!
God also promises us peace. God’s covenant of peace is one-sided. He did it all. This is the peace that passes all our understanding—that because of Jesus, we are at peace with God Even now he is preparing a home for us in heaven.
All these promises are from the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. He is our sure hope for now and eternity.
Dear LORD, don’t let us keep this good news of your unfailing love and your covenant of peace to ourselves, but let us “Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills, and everywhere, that God sent us salvation in Jesus Christ, our LORD.” Amen.
by Ruth Schossow, Grand Canyon Circuit
Once in royal David’s City
Once n royal David’s city stood a lowly cattle shed,
Where a mother laid her baby in a manger for his bed;
Mary was that mother mild,
Jesus Christ her little child.
He came sown to earth from heaven, who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable, and his cradle was a stall;
With the poor and mean and low
lived our Savior long ago.
But our eyes in truth should see him through his own redeeming love,
For that child so dear and gentle, is our Lord in heaven above,
As he leads his children on
to the place where he is gone.
Not in that poor lowly stable with the oxen standing by
Shall we see him, but in heaven, set at God’s right hand on high.
Then like stars his children, crowned,
all in white, his praise will sound!
By: Cecil Frances Alexander
Where Shepherds Lately Knelt
Where shepherds lately knelt and kept the angel’s word,
I come in half-belief, a pilgrim strangely stirred;
But there is room and welcome there for me,
But there is room and welcome there for me.
In that unlikely place I find him as they said:
Sweet newborn Babe, how frail! And in a manger bed,
A still small voice to cry one day for me,
A still small voice to cry one day for me.
How should I not have known Isaiah would be there,
His prophecies fulfilled? With pounding heart I stare:
A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me,
A child, a son, the Prince of Peace for me.
Can I, will I forget how Love was born, and burned
It’s way into my heart unasked, unforced, unearned,
To die, to live, and not alone for me,
To die, to live, and not alone for me.
God Provided a Savior – Born of a Woman
So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ~ Ruth 4:13
God could have delivered the wondrous Christmas gift of his Son in whatever manner he decided. From eternity, though, God chose to send Jesus to earth as a helpless baby—in a cold barn—in the little town of Bethlehem. What’s more, God handpicked a young virgin of humble background to be the Savior’s mother.
The book of Ruth in the Old Testament reminds us that the happenings of this first Christmas didn’t occur by chance. More than a millennium before the miracle at Bethlehem, God’s hand was already at work there.
God had big plans for Ruth—to be an ancestor of Christ. God initiated his plan for Ruth by bringing a famine to Bethlehem. This caused a woman named Naomi and her family to move from Bethlehem to Moab. While there, one of Naomi’s sons married the foreigner Ruth. Then Naomi’s husband and sons died in Moab. Saddened, Naomi decided to return to her home city of Bethlehem. Ruth insisted that she would leave her native land to go to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law. She said, “Where you go I will go. . . . Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16).
Ruth went with Naomi to Bethlehem. There she married Boaz. They became the great-grandparents of King David. A thousand years later, in the same town of Bethlehem, God’s eternal plan of redemption continued when his eternal Son condescended to leave his throne above to be born in a manger below. In a once-in-all-history event, the Holy Spirit conceived in Mary’s womb the Savior of the world.
In Bethlehem we view God’s grace in action. Mary’s son is born. God’s Son is born. Our Savior is born. Glory to God in the highest!
Prayer: Dear God, you were faithful to fulfill your plan of sending a Savior to us. I praise you for Jesus who was born in lowliness that I might be exalted with the riches of your amazing love. Amen.
Today’s Devotion is brought to you by WELS and www.WhatAboutJesus.com
Women of Faith: Elizabeth
Author: Philip L. Kieselhorst
Elizabeth was childless. For many years she and her husband, Zechariah, carried this burden in their prayers to the Lord. They waited on the Lord together. They hoped in the Lord together. But for reasons they did not yet understand, it was not to be. Well along in years, the hope of having a child had faded in their hearts until it had disappeared entirely. It was no longer possible. But on an extraordinary autumn day, Elizabeth and her husband learned that nothing is impossible for God.
Elizabeth waited with the crowd as her husband burned incense in the Holy Place. This was a special honor for Zechariah. When he reappeared before the crowd, however, they realized that it had been special for him in a far greater way: “They realized he had seen a vision in the temple” (Luke 1:22).
Can you imagine Elizabeth’s reaction when Zechariah finally explained in writing what the angel told him? We don’t have to imagine Zechariah’s reaction. It’s impossible!
But God’s messenger said that it’s not only possible, but also that his words “will come true at their proper time” (Luke 1:20). How could this be? Gabriel later explained to another shocked woman named Mary: “Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God” (Luke 1:36,37).
The Lord showed great favor to Elizabeth in granting her a son. The many tears of sorrow shed by Elizabeth were now replaced by tears of joy as she prepared to hold her newborn son in her arms. Still, the Lord had a far greater act of grace in store for her.
Even before John was born, Elizabeth received a visit from Mary. “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Luke 1:41)…
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Womane of faith: Mary’s Song
And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
even as he said to our fathers.”
Luke 1:46-55
