2021 Daily Devotion - Day 382

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One of my favorite stories comes from Pastor Leith Anderson, which I also have recorded in my book, "Tales for the Pulpit":

In a Danish village there was a Lutheran Church where each Sunday, the people would walk into the church by way of the center aisle. At the front of the church, there was a break between the pews and a blank white wall. Every Sunday, the people of the church would walk down the center aisle to the front of the church and genuflect at the blank wall. A man visiting the church did not understand what the people were doing; when he asked them, they said that they had always done this. Upon further investigation, he learned that hundreds of years before, there had been a painting of the Virgin Mary on that wall. At the time of the Protestant Reformation when the church became Lutheran, they had painted over the display of the Virgin Mary. But since the people had always bowed before the Virgin Mary, they just kept on bowing even though there was nothing there.

There are many people in church who simply go through the routine Sunday after Sunday. They know all the prayers by heart and could go through the entire service without ever opening the hymnal. For some, this is all it has ever been. They do it because they have always done it that way. But God wants us to move beyond the routine. He wants the Gospel to become so real that we confess with our own lips Jesus is our Lord and Savior. God wants His love to no longer be routine, but to be very real in our lives.

Romans 10:9
Because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Pray with me:
Heavenly Father, it is not unusual for us to make our relationship with You routine – so much so, as we get stuck in religion. Remind us again and again. Faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is what saves us and not good works or religious practices. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Yours because of Him,
Pastor John R. Steward
Senior Pastor
Mount of Olives Church
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