LHM Daily Devotion - August 30, 2017 "Showing What You Are Made Of"

Once upon a time, a golfer played the sport with a few clubs and a ball.

Daily Devotions from Lutheran Hour Ministries

By Pastor Ken Klaus, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour

"Showing What You Are Made Of"

August 30, 2017

And being found in human form, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

~ Philippians 2:8 (ESV)

Once upon a time, a golfer played the sport with a few clubs and a ball.

Of course, that was then and this is now. Today, technology has given the golf community all kinds of "helps," which have transformed the game. Among those many helps is a device which measures distance from the golfer to the hole. That device is perfectly legal and just about every pro golfer uses a distance finder.

As I said, the distance finder is legal, but the distance finder with slope function is not. (For those of you who, like me, are not golfers, this slope function does some pretty serious calculations to make the golf game much easier.)

Now all of this information came into play at this year's United States Amateur Championship. The fellow in the lead was Christopher Crawford. It looked as if he was going to be a winner. That was when he noticed his caddy, a replacement for his normal assistant who had the flu, was using a distance finder with slope function. Nobody noticed except Crawford.

The devil whispered in his ear, "If you don't say anything, you will never be caught." In less time than it takes to write this devotion, Crawford came forward and made his confession. Instantaneously, he went from leader to disqualified.

My father used to say, "You can tell a lot about a man by what he does when he's sure nobody is looking." That certainly is true in regard to Christopher Crawford who has shown he is made out of special stuff, honest stuff -- the stuff which is admirable.

Oh, it's also true for your Savior.

Nobody knows how frustrating it must have been for Jesus to have disciples who never understood Him, a church which opposed Him, Pharisees who hated Him, a government which denied Him justice. How frightening it must have been to know, although You were innocent, You would carry the sins of the entire world. How depressing it must have been to know Your life would end up on a cross.

Nobody could be overly critical if Jesus had one day gone into the wilderness to pray and decided to keep on walking. Yes, Jesus could have done that, but He didn't.

Instead of running away, Scripture tells us our Savior "humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

Jesus' obedience shows who He is: God's Son, our Savior and Redeemer.

THE PRAYER: Dear Lord, grant that I may rejoice in the Savior who was faithful unto death, even death on a cross. May I also show my faithfulness in the way I lead my life. May it glorify Jesus and be used by the Holy Spirit to touch others with the saving Gospel. This I ask in the Redeemer's Name. Amen.

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