Should some lust or sharp temptation Fascinate my sinful mind, Draw me to Your cross and passion, And new courage I shall find. Or should Satan press me hard, Let me then be on my guard, Saying, “Christ for me was wounded,” That the tempter flee confounded.  Read More

Jesus, grant that balm and healing In Your holy wounds I find, Ev’ry hour that I am feeling Pains of body and of mind. Should some evil thought within Tempt my treach’rous heart to sin, Show the peril, and from sinning Keep me from its first beginning.  Read More

Hymn: “Jesus, Grant That Balm and Healing” (LSB #421) Our hymn was composed by the hymnwriter Johann Heermann. Johann’s hymns are always reflective of pain and suffering in the light of Jesus Christ who suffered for us and grants us healing through His suffering for us.  Read More

By Thy deep expiring groan, By the sad sepulchral stone, By the vault whose dark abode Held in vain the rising God, O, from earth to heav’n restored, Mighty, reascended Lord, Bending from Thy throne on high, Hear our penitential cry!  Read More

By Thine hour of dire despair, By Thine agony of prayer, By the cross, the nail, the thorn, Piercing spear, and torturing scorn, By the gloom that veiled the skies O’er the dreadful sacrifice, Listen to our humble sigh; Hear our penitential cry!   Read More

By Thy helpless infant years, By Thy life of want and tears, By Thy days of deep distress In the savage wilderness, By the dread, mysterious hour Of the_insulting tempter’s pow’r, Turn, O turn a fav’ring eye; Hear our penitential cry!  Read More

Savior, when in dust to Thee Low we bow the adoring knee; When, repentant, to the skies Scarce we lift our weeping eyes; O, by all Thy pains and woe Suffered once for us below, Bending from Thy throne on high, Hear our penitential cry!  Read More

As the season of Lent begins anew, we turn to a series of hymns that we have not visited since this time last year. I’ve heard a lot of mixed reactions concerning this section in the hymnal. Some of you really love these hymns. Others think they are all slow dirges that are boring you to death. What Pastor Belt and I hope to accomplish through this daily devotional is to deepen the appreciation of all groups for the beauty of our Lenten hymnody.  Read More

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1 and quoted by our Lord Jesus in Matthew 27:46, Mark 15:34. Suffering and trusting in God would appear to be like oil and water—they don’t mix. But the blood of Jesus here in the verse quoted above attest otherwise.  Read More

“[Jesus said] ‘Are you able to drink the cup that I drink or to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ And they said to him: ‘We are able.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism that I am baptized with you will be baptized.” Mark 10:38-39  Read More

What time does your day begin? Are you an early riser? Or does being a night owl cause you to rise a bit slower in the morning? In college, a friend of mine would joke, “If you are going to hoot with the owls, you better be ready to soar with the eagles.” That encapsulated well the schedule it felt on some days in college as we burned the candle on both ends.  Read More

“And the rich man said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house—for I have five brothers—so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’  Read More