All Saints Lutheran Church - Edmonton, AB

09/07/2026

The Book of Nature can open your mind to the possibility that God is real. The Book of Scripture, the Bible, goes further, like a friend who’s been there.

Listen to "Come and See" by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, available now at lhm.org/lutheranhour, on our Connected by LHM app, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

09/07/2026

“Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive”

Sunday, September 6, 2026

“‘Forgive our sins as we forgive,’ You taught us, Lord, to pray; But You alone can grant us grace To live the words we say.

“In blazing light Your cross reveals The truth we dimly knew: What trivial debts are owed to us, How great our debt to You!”

“Forgive our sins as we forgive.” That is a very serious petition. Do we really want God to forgive us as we forgive others? Yet Jesus taught us to pray in just that way. The precious words of His prayer are imprinted on our hearts: “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). It is a petition of such importance that Jesus underlines that lesson on prayer with additional teaching: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

When we focus our attention on what we perceive as the unrepentant attitudes and sins of others, we lose all interest in repenting of our own sins. As we watch, shocked and horrified at another’s sins, we imagine that nothing we have done could be quite so bad. Surely what others do is far worse than anything we might even think of doing. When we carefully adjust the mirror of God’s Law to get a good look at others and their transgressions, it becomes very difficult to see our own sins reflected in His Law. Our failure to forgive others is a clear sign of another failure on our part, our refusal to repent of our own sins.

As our hymn declares, in the blazing light of Jesus’ cross the truth is revealed. Jesus kept God’s Law perfectly, obedient to His Heavenly Father to the point of death on a cross. The sinless Son of God suffered and died for the sins of all people—for our own sins and for the sins of those we refuse to forgive. God judged and condemned the sins of all people in the body of His Son and through Christ’s death, God reconciled the world to Himself. He does not count our sins against us (see 2 Corinthians 5:19). Jesus Himself embodied the petition of forgiveness that He taught in His prayer. As our Savior hung on the cross, He asked His Heavenly Father to forgive those who crucified Him. Now our Savior commands us to express that kind of forgiveness in our lives. We seek in the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive as we have been forgiven, and our prayers and our forgiveness reflect our Savior’s mercy: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”

WE PRAY: Jesus, teach me to forgive others as You have forgiven me. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler. It is based on the hymn, “Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive,” which is number 843 in the Lutheran Service Book.

Reflection Questions:

How is forgiving others different than forgiving ourselves?

How does our resistance to forgive others indicate, yet again, our own sinfulness?

With the Holy Spirit’s help, we can become more willing to forgive. He will do this for you if you ask Him.

09/07/2026

Jesus Christ is perfect God and perfect man. Thanks be to God! Hear Christ for you at kfuo.org.

09/07/2026

In the Parable of the Lost Sheep, we see the value God the Father places on each of the members of His flock. All human beings are a part of His flock, and He cannot bear the thought of one sheep being separated from Him. We rest in this assurance, trusting that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in our lives of faith, bringing us closer to our Good Shepherd.

09/05/2026

Come and See

Friday, September 4, 2026

This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.

TEXT: Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:45-46)

With so many artificial intelligence-generated images out there, it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s fake. Recently, a co-worker showed me an image we were planning to use for a project. My first thought when I saw it was, “That’s so AI.” I didn’t want a fabricated image for this project. I wanted something real. And even though the image had come from a credible source, and was purported not to be AI-generated, I was skeptical. It seemed too good to be true. It was a picture-perfect landscape, sun rays glistening over a snow-capped mountain behind a glassy, turquoise, tropical-looking lagoon. I did some digging and found that the image had a photographer credited, so that was promising. But still, something in me couldn’t believe what I was seeing (or wouldn’t believe it). What pushed me over the threshold was when I showed the image to a friend. She looked at it and said, “I’ve been there. Yes, it’s a real place,” she told me. She had dipped her toes in those turquoise waters and skied the snowy slopes in the background. I was converted. Not only do I believe it’s a real place. Now I want to go and see it!

There are many things about Jesus that may seem too good to be true—that He is the Word of God made human, the Word who created you and delights in you—that He has come to dispel the darkness of sin and death and the devil—that whoever trusts in Him will not be lost forever in the darkness because the darkness wasn’t able to hold Jesus down in death, because He rose from the dead and promises to raise you from the dead and to make everything beautiful in its time—does it sometimes sound too good to be true? If so, what would it take to convert you, or re-convert you, to bring you over the threshold from doubt to faith, from skepticism to wonder and desire to dip your toes in God’s life, to jump in the waters of God and explore the mountains of God? It probably wouldn’t be just one thing, but many things—influences, small nudges, bits of evidence. But in another sense, those many things are just one thing: witness. We need a witness. We need witnesses, like my friend, people who’ve been there, who’ve experienced the beauty themselves and invite us to come (or come back) and see.

As we begin a new season of The Lutheran Hour, that’s what I hope we can do for you in these devotions, broadcasts, podcasts, videos, online courses, booklets and books we offer. I pray that the speakers and writers and behind-the-scenes workers in this ministry can be something like a friend for you who’s been there, to help you sort out what’s fake, to re-experience the power of Jesus and His Word in the Bible to bring us all over the threshold, into the household of faith, into life with God—real life, and to become the sort of friends willing to say to the skeptical and the distant, “You come, too.”

WE PRAY: Dear Father, thank You for sending Jesus to be Your Witness, and to make us His. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Rev. Dr. Michael Zeigler, Speaker of The Lutheran Hour.

Reflection Questions:

What helps you sort out what’s real and what’s fake?

Who are the people who’ve helped you see Jesus more clearly?

Who may need to see Jesus in you? How are you showing them?

09/05/2026

09/03/2026

Childish

Thursday, September 3, 2026

TEXT: At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to Him a child, He put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever receives one such child in My Name receives Me, but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” (Matthew 18:1-6)

Jesus’ words here are a comfort to me. All too often I am aware that I am behaving like a little child—dependent, frightened, needing help from someone greater than I am. And our world does not approve of that attitude, especially in adults.

But Jesus does! Jesus calls us to depend on Him—to throw away every reason we have for trusting in ourselves, whether that be education, power, status, or anything else—and instead, to lean wholly on Him. He is happiest when we behave like tired children in the backseat of a car their parents are driving home. What do these children normally do? Do they stay awake, anxiously monitoring their parents’ driving? Of course not! They fall asleep, nodding in their car seats—until the moment their parents lift them out of the car and carry them up to bed.

This is what Jesus wants for us—a trust that is willing to let Jesus handle all of our problems, even the silliest, even the most embarrassing. When we bring all of our problems to Him, even the smallest, we are honoring Him, because that means we trust Him to care about us and not turn us away. The Lord honors that kind of child-like faith. And we are likely to see Him do wonders we did not expect—because we matter to Him, and anything that troubles us is important in His eyes.

This is love, that God would put Himself out to care for us in even the tiniest of ways, as a good parent cares for a child. Such parents will give their lives for their children if that is necessary, and that is exactly what Jesus did for us, dying on that cross to rescue us from the power of sin, death, and the devil. But now that Jesus has completed that work and risen from the dead, He is not done taking care of us! He watches over us every single day, as carefully as you would do for a toddler of your own. We are that loved and that cared for. And so we can trust and lean on Him, even when suffering comes, even when we don’t understand what is happening in our lives and why God is allowing it. Because dependency on Jesus is what we were made for.

WE PRAY: Dear Jesus, teach me to trust You with the things I hesitate to pray about—the things that seem too small or too silly. Help me rely on You for everything, big and small. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Reflection Questions:

Generally speaking, our world insists that we should “grow up” and handle our problems ourselves. How do others react if we show others that we are needy and dependent instead?

How does Jesus react if we tell Him the truth about ourselves?

Is there a small slightly embarrassing need or truth about yourself you could share with Jesus as you learn to trust Him more?

09/02/2026

Fulfilling the Law

Wednesday, September 2, 2026

TEXT: Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment. For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, …. For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed. Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the Law. For the Commandments … are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law. (Romans 13:1-3, 6-10)

This is one of the hardest passages in the Bible for people who want to do right by God and the government both. It’s been a hard passage ever since Paul’s own time, when he was beheaded by the authority of the emperor Nero. It’s easy to see why we have to pay taxes and obey a good government that is doing what God intends it to do; but what happens when we live under a Nero, a Pol Pot, a Hi**er? What happens when government goes bad?

That’s where Paul’s final verses come into play: “Pay to all what is owed to them … Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law.” Or as Jesus said it, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Mark 12:17b, NIV).

There are things that rightly belong to government, even a bad government; you’ve probably heard “Salute the uniform if you can’t salute the person wearing it.” But when government comes into conflict with God, Peter had it right: “We must obey God rather than human beings!” (Acts 5:29, NIV) Jesus Himself did this, when He allowed Himself to be arrested by government authorities who had no intention of giving Him a fair trial. But though He handed Himself over, He did not hand over the lives of His disciples, because “Love does no wrong to a neighbor.” Jesus put their lives—and ours—above His own; He rendered to the authorities all the respect and obedience due them, but He gave God what was God’s—His fullest obedience, His life, and our rescue.

“Love is the fulfilling of the Law,” says the Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul. When we have to navigate difficult times (as my husband did when his life was in danger from the Communist authorities), we can look to our Savior Jesus for help following His example of love. He died and rose for us so that we might be God’s own children, joyfully giving Him what is His—our lives, our obedience, and our very selves.

WE PRAY: Lord, when I’m not sure what to do, show me Your way. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Reflection Questions:

Have you ever had to choose between God’s will and that of an authority?

If so, how did it go?

In what ways did Jesus acknowledge human authority? In what ways did He put God first?

09/02/2026

Today the church remembers Hannah.

Hannah was the favored wife of Elkanah and the devout mother of the prophet Samuel. He was born to her after years of bitter barrenness (1 Samuel 1:6-8) and fervent prayers for a son (1 Samuel 1:9-18). After she weaned her son, Hannah expressed her gratitude by returning him for service in the house of the Lord at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:24-28). Her prayer (psalm) of thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1-10) begins with the words “My heart exults in the LORD; my strength is exalted in the LORD.” This song foreshadows the Magnificat, the Song of Mary centuries later (Luke 1:46-55). The name “Hannah” derives from the Hebrew word for “grace.” She is remembered and honored for joyfully having kept the vow she. Made before her son’s birth and offering him for lifelong service to God.

“Treasury of Daily Prayer,” ©2008 CPH