{"id":100,"date":"2008-02-11T00:01:17","date_gmt":"2008-02-10T23:01:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/?p=100"},"modified":"2008-02-11T00:18:29","modified_gmt":"2008-02-10T23:18:29","slug":"lent-devotions-2008-monday-11th-february","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/2008\/02\/11\/lent-devotions-2008-monday-11th-february\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent Devotions 2008: Monday 11th February"},"content":{"rendered":"

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.<\/em> Ephesians 5:2<\/p>\n

In this season of reflection and preparation it is fitting that we direct our thoughts and meditations on love and sacrifice in our relation to God and our fellow man.\u00a0 We all know that \u201cGod so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have Everlasting Life.\u201d (John 3:16)\u00a0 God loved us so much that He gave His Only Son for us, when we were yet sinners, before we were even born.\u00a0 His son, Jesus Christ, willingly sacrificed Himself for us, a sacrifice beautifully and powerfully described by Martin Luther in his explanation of the Second Article of the Apostles Creed:<\/p>\n

\u201cJesus Christ has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature,
\nPurchased and won me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil;
\nNot with gold or silver, but with His holy precious blood,
\nAnd with His innocent suffering and death, that I may be His own\u201d<\/p>\n

What an unspeakable gift!<\/p>\n

In this passage the apostle Paul exhorts the Christians at Ephesus to imitate Christ, to love others sacrificially.\u00a0 But what is meant by sacrifice?\u00a0 St. Augustine, writing in \u2018The City of God\u2019, provided an insight into the spiritual sacrifices of the believer: \u201cA true sacrifice is every work which is done in order that we may through holy fellowship inhere in God, and to the same end have regard for our neighbour.\u201d<\/p>\n

True sacrifices consist in love of God and our neighbour.<\/p>\n

Lord Heavenly Father, thank You for sending us Your Son Jesus Christ as the True Sacrifice for all mankind. May this wisdom help us to sacrifice for our neighbours today. Amen.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Ephesians 5:2 In this season of reflection and preparation it is fitting that we direct our thoughts and meditations on love and sacrifice in our relation to God and our fellow man.\u00a0 We all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lent-devotions-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christlutheranchurch.org.uk\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}