St John Lutheran Church & School

St John Lutheran Church & School St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church and School is a place to worship God, follow Jesus, love people, and serve our neighborhood and community. (Psalm 55:22)

"Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken."

09/07/2026

"Believing Our Forgiveness"
September 8, 2026
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.” But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. (Genesis 50:15-21)

This is one of the saddest passages in the Bible. Joseph’s brothers have been living in Egypt under Joseph’s protection for 17 years now. As the de facto ruler of Egypt, he’s provided them with houses, land, food, and everything they need. And yet, they can’t forget that long ago they sinned against Joseph by selling him as a slave into Egypt. They fear that now, Joseph will finally take his revenge.

It isn’t Joseph’s fault! Joseph has made it clear that he forgives them. But people tend to judge the hearts of others by what they know of themselves. The brothers can’t believe because they know that they themselves would never behave that generously. And so they hold on to their disbelief and fear through 17 years of silent worry.

They aren’t the only ones to behave like this. How many of us do the same thing with God? We know we deserve punishment. And we know, also, that we aren’t good at forgiving others who treat us badly. So when Jesus says to us, “Your sins are forgiven. I love you, and you are Mine”—well, it’s hard for us to believe Him. How could such a wonderful thing be true?

But it is. It doesn’t matter how terrible we’ve been or what evil we’ve come out of—Jesus really does want us, really does forgive us and love us and take delight in us. And He wants us to believe that, and not spend years or decades worrying. So whenever we doubt, Jesus says to us, “Look at My death, where I nailed the record of your sins to the cross and destroyed it forever” (see Colossians 2:13-14). Look at My resurrection, when I left death behind Me so that I could give you everlasting life and love with Me forever. You are Mine. “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands” (Isaiah 49:15-16a).

WE PRAY: Dear Savior, help me when I doubt Your forgiveness! Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Reflection Questions:

Is this kind of doubt a problem for you? When is it the most troubling?
What has Jesus done to reassure you of His forgiveness? Name as many different things as you can.
What practical things could you do to soak yourself in the good news of God’s forgiveness?

09/07/2026

"So Far"
September 7, 2026
He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:10-12)
Do you ever want to get away from it all? Travel and tour agencies, airlines and tourist destinations advertise plans to help you get away. People hope to escape, at least for a while, from the ordinary worries and trouble of daily life. How far is far enough to get away? Some things we can never escape on our own. No airline or travel agency can separate us from our transgressions, no matter how desperate we are to get away from the wrong that we do.
If God chose to deal with us according to our sins, the result for us would be death and eternal condemnation in hell. We would be separated from God and from all hope forever. We do not like to talk about that. We do not even like to think about it. Yet the psalmist proclaims good news. In His steadfast love, God does not deal with us according to our sins. He does not repay us according to our iniquities. Instead, God chose to deal with His own beloved Son according to our sins. He chose to repay His own Son according to our iniquities. As the prophet Isaiah foretold concerning the Savior: “He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed … and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:5, 6b).
Jesus was nailed to the cross and took the terrible burden of our sin onto Himself. The Savior did not try to get away. He did not come to earth to escape from the cross. The innocent Son of God came to live among us for that purpose, to atone for the sins of the world. Through the forgiveness won for us by His death and resurrection, our sins are separated from us by an immeasurable distance, as high as the heavens are above the earth. Our sins are removed from us as far as the east is from the west, points of the compass that never meet. Daily we repent of our sins and receive God’s forgiveness. Our sins are forever removed from His sight. We do not need to “get away from it all.” It is our sins that are taken away. And how far is that? As far as the heavens are above the earth, as far as the east is from the west, as far as the cross is from the empty tomb—and that is far enough.
WE PRAY: Heavenly Father, deal with me according to Your steadfast love and mercy, and forgive my sins. Amen.
This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Carol Geisler.
Reflection Questions:
1. Where did you go on the last really great vacation you took? What did you like most about it?
2. How does God give us the chance to get away from our sins, once and for all?
3. Does having a daily routine of repenting of your sins seem like a good idea?

09/06/2026

"Forgive Our Sins as We Forgive"
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 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.

09/06/2026

HYMN OF THE DAY
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 18A)
Sept. 6, 2026

"My Soul, Now Praise Your Maker" (LSB 820)

1. My soul, now praise your Maker!
Let all within me bless His name
Who makes you full partaker
Of mercies more than you dare claim.
Forget Him not whose meekness
Still bears with all your sin,
Who heals your ev’ry weakness,
Renews your life within;
Whose grace and care are endless
And saved you through the past;
Who leaves no suff’rer friendless
But rights the wronged at last.

2. He offers all His treasure
Of justice, truth, and righteousness,
His love beyond all measure,
His yearning pity o’er distress;
Nor treats us as we merit
But sets His anger by.
The poor and contrite spirit
Finds His compassion nigh;
And high as heav’n above us,
As dawn from close of day,
So far, since He has loved us,
He puts our sins away.

3. For as a tender father
Has pity on his children here,
God in His arms will gather
All who are His in childlike fear.
He knows how frail our powers,
Who but from dust are made.
We flourish like the flowers,
And even so we fade;
The wind but through them passes,
And all their bloom is o’er.
We wither like the grasses;
Our place knows us no more.

4. His grace remains forever,
And children’s children yet shall prove
That God forsakes them never
Who in true fear shall seek His love.
In heav’n is fixed His dwelling,
His rule is over all;
O hosts with might excelling,
With praise before Him fall.
Praise Him forever reigning,
All you who hear His Word—
Our life and all sustaining.
My soul, O praise the Lord!

09/05/2026

"Christ to Appear Again"
September 5, 2026
Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him [Paul]. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. … [Paul said] “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands all people everywhere to repent, because He has fixed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a Man whom He has appointed; and of this He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead.” Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, “We will hear you again about this.” (Acts 17:18, 30-32)

No doubt the apostle Paul had many scoffers in Athens over his conversations about Jesus, sin, God’s mercy and grace, and especially the resurrection. Now while Christians may be labeled as closed-minded to believe something like the resurrection, it is really God’s Holy Spirit who opens our minds to embrace the Good News of Jesus Christ—and that includes His bodily resurrection.

The book of Job gives us one of the most popular texts on the subject of resurrection. Job said it well: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth … yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25, 26b-27a).

Jesus also spoke of the resurrection to the Jews who were seeking to kill Him: “For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom He will. … Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:21, 28-29).

Statements like these—and there are many others in the Bible—led the church long ago to say, “I believe in the resurrection of the body,” thus rejecting those who teach otherwise or deny what the Bible says. And by the way, the Bible does not teach reincarnation either. Hebrews 9:27-28 says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.”

What a great future awaits you and me when we embrace the words of the Savior who lives and in whom we shall live. Hebrews 13:14 says, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” With the Holy Spirit keeping our devotion wrapped around Jesus’ words of life, let us together and with great confidence, move into the wonderful future that God has prepared for those who love Him.

WE PRAY: O Holy Spirit, give us hearts of faith, trusting in Jesus and the power of His resurrection. Amen.

Based on “An Open Mind for the Future,” a sermon by Rev. Dr. Dale Meyer, Speaker Emeritus of The Lutheran Hour

Reflection Questions:

Why is talking to people about Jesus’ resurrection such a challenge?
The men in Athens who questioned Paul about Jesus and the resurrection were leading thinkers of their day. How did Paul stay on pointin his conversation with them?
Why is prayer always a good place to begin before sharing our faith?

09/04/2026

"Come and See"
September 4, 2026
This devotion pairs with this weekend’s Lutheran Hour sermon, which can be found at lhm.org.
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 doubt 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 He 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 into the waters of God and explore the mountains of God? It probably wouldn’t just be 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 for 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 the writers and the behind-the-scene 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, and into the household of faith, into life with God—real life, and to become the sort of friends who are willing to say to the skeptical and to 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:
1. What helps you sort out what’s real and what’s fake?
2. Who are the people who’ve helped you see Jesus more clearly?
3. Who may need to see Jesus in you? How are you showing them?

09/03/2026

"Childish"
September 3, 2026
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"
September 2, 2026
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:
1. Have you ever had to choose between God’s will and that of an authority?
2. If so, how did it go?
3. In what ways did Jesus acknowledge human authority? In what ways did He put God first?

09/01/2026

"Watching Out for Our Brothers and Sisters"
September 1, 2026
[The Lord said,] “So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, you shall give them warning from Me. If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.” (Ezekiel 33:7-9)

This is one passage of the Bible that I really don’t like. Not because there’s anything wrong about it! I don’t like it because it scares me—because it asks me to do something really hard, to confront someone else about a serious mess in their life. And I hate doing that. I mean, they’re almost certain to get angry with me, and I don’t know how that’s going to affect our relationship going forward. And so I wish I could chicken out.

But I can’t. Because the Lord has made every Christian a watchman of sorts for other Christians around us. Not that we’re required to keep tabs on every single minor thing they do wrong! But when we see some major sin that has the potential to pull them away from Jesus, and it looks like they aren’t doing a thing to avoid that danger, well … we have to say something. If we love them, we have to speak up.

I’m glad Jesus has given us the Holy Spirit to help us in times like those. Otherwise I’d never find the courage to say or do a single thing. But the Spirit can give us the right words to say (see Matthew 10:19-20), and help us to say those words in love.

And it is love that motivates us when we have to do this very painful thing—not outrage, not a desire to protect the reputation of the family or the church, not even a desire to meddle in someone else’s private affairs. It’s the love of Jesus living in us, reaching out to protect and save, just as He did when He went to the cross for us—taking all our sin and shame upon Himself. He did that so that we could be set free from all of it—so that we could experience the wonderful freedom of the children of God (see Galatians 5:13-14). And now that Jesus has risen from the dead, He gives us life, peace, and forgiveness. And that forgiveness is for all of us, no matter what sin we’ve fallen into. Jesus wants us home and reconciled to God. And He wants all of us—including our brothers and sisters who might be going astray.

WE PRAY: Dear Lord, it’s super hard to talk to people about something so personal as sin. When You want me to do that, please give me Your courage, humility, and love, and speak through me. Amen.

This Daily Devotion was written by Dr. Kari Vo.

Reflection Questions:

Why is it an act of love to speak to a fellow Christian about some dangerous sin they’re involved in?
Have you ever had to do this? Where did you find the courage?
Has anyone ever done this for you? What feelings did you have about it, and why?

09/01/2026

We invite you to memorize 2 Samuel 7:22 with us this week.

Memorizing Scripture is a valuable practice for Christians, even in a digital age. Join us each week as we hide God's Word in our hearts.

Learn more at lcms.org/memoryverse.

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