For the week of February 6-10, I was asked to record radio devotions for KCMR, a Christian radio station out of Mason City, Iowa. You can find all their radio devotions here on Soundcloud.
This devotion aired on February 9, 2017, and is based on my sermon from January 22, 2017, on church unity.
Enjoy all five of this week’s devotions:
Monday, February 6, 2017
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Friday, February 10, 2017
This is Pastor Daniel Flucke from St. Peter Lutheran Church in Greene, with today’s KCMR Inspiration 97.9 daily devotion.
I want to talk to you today about three miracles of the Christian faith, three things that are at the heart of our faith.
First, there’s the miracle of creation, God shaping and forming the world out of nothing. Genesis 1, the first chapter of the Bible tells us that God makes a perfect creation, and declares that it is good.
Everything we believe starts with creation. We belong to God. We belong to the one who created us, who shaped and formed us, who breathed the breath of life into us. That’s pretty amazing!
So, first, creation.
The second, even more important miracle of our faith is the miracle of God coming to us. The church word for it is incarnation, God in the flesh. It’s the Christmas story of God being born in the person of Jesus Christ.
The same One who created the whole world chooses to be born into creation, chooses to come dwell with us. It’s hard to comprehend that God loved the world—this world, this messed up, broken reality full of sinful people like you and me—God loved it enough to come live in it.
God sees how broken this world is, sees you and I at our worst, and decides to come live with us. Incarnation is mind-blowingly awesome!
So, creation, incarnation, and third, the third miracle at the heart of our faith: the miracle of the church. It’s not that the church is perfect. We all know the church is divided, that it’s flawed.
Of course it’s not perfect, because it’s made of human beings! The miracle is that God works through the church. As flawed and broken as it sometimes seems, this is how God chooses to work.
It’s through the church, in all its different shapes and sizes, in all its different denominations, Catholics, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Evangelicals, Methodists, Baptists, through all of these, that God is working.
And of course, the church is the people, not the building or the institution, so the miracle is that God works through us, through me and you.
As a pastor, I know churches sometimes get caught up in bureaucratic details. Sometimes it seems like the church spends more time worrying about itself than about the world.
Sometimes, the church even gets in the way of God. Maybe you’ve been wounded by church, told you’re not good enough or that you don’t believe quite the right way. Maybe you’ve been told something keeps you from being welcome as part of Christ’s body.
Sometimes it’s the church that seems to be building walls to separate people, instead of joining them to Christ, pointing to God’s love. But the church is where God chooses to work. Instead of giving up on the church, or on any of us, God chooses to work through people.
If you’ve been hurt by the church, or if you’ve given up on it, please give it another try. This time, look for how God is at work, even through broken people and broken institutions.
As flawed as it is, the church is the body of Christ, and God is there, and you are welcome in the Body of Christ.
This has been Pastor Daniel Flucke from St. Peter Lutheran Church in Greene.
Enjoy all five of this week’s devotions:
Monday, February 6, 2017
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
Thursday, February 9, 2017
Friday, February 10, 2017