When God feels far away, remember that your head is still wet. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 74 Q. Should infants, too, be baptized? A. Yes. Infants as well as adults are in God’s covenant and are his people. They, no less than adults, are promised the forgiveness of sin through Christ’s blood and the Holy Spirit who produces faith. Therefore, by baptism, the mark of the covenant, infants should be received into the Christian church and should be distinguished from the children of unbelievers. This was done in the Old Testament by circumcision, which was replaced in the New Testament by baptism. Summary We quickly recognize the opening line of David's psalm as the anguished words that Jesus spoke from the cross. We've all, like David, felt distant from and even ignored by God, but none of us have come close to experiencing the total separation from God that Jesus did as he repeated these words. What a lesson for us that in the most desperate hour of His life, Jesus relied on scriptures He had studied and memorized! Even though David expresses his frustration - anger even - that although he crying out to God but not hearing anything back, David knows that God is still there, just as He had been for those who came before David. They trusted in God, and God delivered them, so David knew that even though God seemed far away at the moment, that He was still there and would remain faithful. David's words in v7-8 foreshadow what Jesus experienced on the cross, despised and rejected, surrounded by mockers. Keep this in mind as you navigate a world that's increasingly hostile to the truth, that whatever insults you endure pale in comparison to what Christ endured for you. Even in the present darkness, David maintained his faith because he knew his life was in God's hands, just as it had always been from the moment he was conceived (Psalm 51:5). David didn't just become a man after God's own heart the moment that Samuel had him brought out of the fields to be anointed king. No, David, just like you, was a child of God, chosen by the King of kings, even before the universe was created (Ephesians 1:4). Dig Deeper It's easy to confuse who is making the promises as the sacrament of baptism is being applied. After all, the minister has several questions for the person being baptized, or in the case of a young child, the parents. And in the case of parents presenting their children for baptism, not only must the parents promise to do all they can to ensure their child will come to know Jesus as Savior, but even the congregation is asked to rise and make the same commitment. But don't ever forget that these promises are made in response to the promise God has made first. Baptism is a celebration and recognition of God's covenant promises to His children. We take great comfort - especially in Reformed churches - in God's sovereign election of those who will receive salvation. Knowing that an unchanging God chose us before the world was created assures us that He will never ever let us go. Since God in His Word so often extends His covenantal offer of salvation to not just particular people, but also their children, it only makes sense that we ought to extend the sign of these promises to our covenant children. Not all Christians agree with this, and since the Bible doesn't overtly specify when in a Christian's life baptism ought to be applied, we must respect our Baptist friends who stand on scripture alone, yet come to a different conclusion. But what a comfort it is to read Psalm 22, and know that even when God seems so far away, you can rest secure knowing that you were His child from the very beginning and always will be. Even though the water placed on you has long since dried up, and you may not even remember your own baptism, never forget that in God's eyes, your head head will always be wet, covered in His covenantal promises. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father is enthroned as the Holy One; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you, as a baptized child of God, will trust in the Lord, which God made you do even from the earliest age (v9); ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Luke 7

Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 100 Q.

Baptism symbolizes you've been washed with the costliest of all detergents. Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 70 Q. What does it mean to be washed with Christ’s blood and Spirit? A. To be washed with Christ’s blood means that God, by grace, has forgiven my sins because of Christ’s blood poured out for me in his sacrifice on the cross. To be washed with Christ’s Spirit means that the Holy Spirit has renewed me and set me apart to be a member of Christ so that more and more I become dead to sin and increasingly live a holy and blameless life. Summary In his letter to the church in Ephesus Paul writes of the redemption we have through the blood of Christ. Redemption is deliverance through a price or ransom that is paid. The redemption to which Paul is speaking is the deliverance from the guilt of sin which has been paid by the blood of Christ shed for us on the cross. Redemption is not free; there is a price that must be paid. That price has been paid by Jesus and is offered freely to those who believe in Him for salvation. Dig Deeper When Katie and I were first married, she worked for a ministry out of Sioux Falls, SD named LifeLight. LifeLight’s claim to fame is being the largest outdoor free Christian music festival. Being a free music festival there was no required entrance fee, however that does not mean that there were no costs. As you can imagine, it can be quite expensive to hire some of the best Christian bands in the world to come sing at the festival, plus all the other costs (electricity, water, etc.) that come with hosting a festival. And while entry was free, these costs still had to be paid. LifeLight ran on donations. While many enjoyed a free experience, others would donate above and beyond to make sure there was enough to cover the festival. Essentially, some people gave more than the value they received in order that others could come for free and hear the gospel proclaimed. In this case, some paid for the many. When it comes to redemption it is not some, but the one who has paid for all. The people of God receive this gift via the grace of God seen in the blood of Christ poured out for us in his sacrifice on the cross. In baptism, we are reminded of Christ’s death on our behalf. This sacrament points to the redemption found in Christ and the price paid for our deliverance. Recognizing the price that has been paid on your behalf, live as one who has been forgiven, turning away from the vices of this world and living a life full of gratitude for the gift of grace found in Christ. AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who lavishes grace and forgiveness of sin upon us, His children; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that you will understand more and more the cost of your salvation so that more and more your life will reflect the necessary gratitude for such a gift; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Philemon

We're not even 10% of the way into God's law, and already the load is crushing.

ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Hebrews 10

If you think the Bible is boring, you haven't read Ezekiel 37! Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 53 Q. What do you believe concerning “the Holy Spirit”? A. First, he, as well as the Father and the Son, is eternal God. Second, he has been given to me personally, so that, by true faith, he makes me share in Christ and all his blessings, comforts me, and remains with me forever. Summary The Old Testament book of Ezekiel can be one of the hardest to understand in the whole Bible. Ezekiel paints fantastic word pictures and describes often unimaginable scenes of God's glory that are not only hard to picture but sometimes even harder to interpret. But this episode we read today is one of Ezekiel's most famous, and although it presents a striking story of dry, dead bones morphing back into living beings, this story isn't difficult to interpret (it helps that Ezekiel tells us exactly what it means in the following verses). The bones represent God's people, who described themselves as dried up and hopeless. What's amazing is that God uses the same tool to save them that He uses on you: He sends them a preacher to prophesy, a word we often associate with predicting the future, but which actually means to proclaim God's Word on His behalf. Ezekiel's preaching has an immediate effect. Imagine what the 'rattling' sounded like as bones reconnected to each other in exactly the right sequence, and what it looked like as they were then suddenly yet incrementally fleshed out into full bodies! But as powerful as preaching is, it has a big limitation. It can reassemble broken bones, build up muscle and tendon, and cover it all with a thick skin, but it can not restore life to that which is dead. Ezekiel had witnessed a true miracle in that dry bones were transformed into healthy bodies; healthy, but still dead. But God still had use for the tool He'd given to Ezekiel, and He called Him to use it one more time. Preach, God said, but this time not to the bones, but rather to the breath. Whose breath, Ezekiel must have wondered! Certainly not the bodies laying before him, for "there was no breath in them (v8)." Here's where it helps to have read lots of the Bible. You probably remember reading that as soon as God finished forming Adam from the dust of the ground, He put His own breath into Him, and he became a living being (Gen. 2:7). Both in Hebrew (the language Ezekiel was written in) and in Greek (the language of the New Testament), the word for breath / wind is the same exact word as is used for spirit. God makes it clear who the breath Ezekiel summoned belonged to in v14 - I will open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you and you will live... Dig Deeper We spent the opening months of this year being reminded that we were born dead in sin, as dry and lifeless as the bones God brought Ezekiel to. The primary tool God has used to reanimate you is preaching - certainly on the Lord's Day from the pulpit, but also from teachers, elders and parents as they shared the Bible with you in various ways. The story of the dry bones is an excellent example of why you need even more preaching if you want to be healthy and strong. But all the preaching in the world is in vain without the blessing of the Holy Spirit, who turns hearts of stone into hearts of flesh that accept God's Word through faith. Don't miss the command God gave to Ezekiel to "preach to the Breath." You can do that by praying that the Holy Spirit will strengthen your faith and breath into the sin-slain people around you that they may live (v9). AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, the creator of life who sends out preachers to restore life; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Prophesy to the breath... pray that the Holy Spirit will further enliven you and bring new life to the spiritually dead around you. ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Romans 2

In the second part of Q&A 27 and our passage today from Matthew 10, Jesus appeals to providence to assure If you trust in your heavenly Father, the promises you read in Matthew 10 and Q&A 27 reveal that His

Jesus began teaching us how to pray 1,000 years before He was born! Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 128 Q. What does your conclusion to this prayer mean? A. “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” means, We have made all these requests of you because, as our all-powerful king, you not only want to, but are able to give us all that is good; and because your holy name, and not we ourselves, should receive all the praise, forever. Summary It's so easy to short circuit our prayers by bypassing the first two steps Jesus taught us - acknowledging who God is and then aligning our lives with His will - and jumping right to the matter that likely drove us to pray in the first place: asking God for what we need. One thing that seems to be missing from this AAA prayer pattern is any sort of thanksgiving or even confession of sin. It's not that those components aren't important; they're critical! But King David here demonstrates that when we acknowledge and align well, the elements of thanksgiving and confession will naturally be included. As David extols God's attributes, he quickly concludes that since "everything in heaven and earth is yours (v11)," and that "wealth and honor come from you... you give strength to all (v12)," then it's fitting to "give you thanks, and praise your glorious name (v13)." Dig Deeper It might surprise you when you go to read the Lord's Prayer in the accounts where Jesus first taught it, which are recorded in Matthew 6 and Luke 11. It seems like a big chunk of what we've come to call the Lord's Prayer isn't even mentioned by Jesus! The words "For yours is the kingdom, the power, and the glory" are missing from the gospels. What's going on here? Is this the result of some big conspiracy to add words to the Bible that were never there in the first place? Of course not. Jesus did speak these words, just not in the instances where he taught His disciples (that's us) to pray. This past year, we've been unpacking our only comfort, that we belong body and soul, in life and in death, to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ. Our journey has taken us through 259 (we'll finish up at 260 tomorrow!) passages. We've read from at least 47 different books of the Bible, spending just slightly more time in the New Testament than what we did in the Old Testament. Of course all of these words we've read are the words of God Himself. The comfort Jesus speaks to you comes through the entire Bible, not just in the red letters of the gospels! Remember, in teaching you this prayer, Jesus isn't commanding you to simply mutter the same words over and over as if they're a magic spell. Rather, He taught a pattern in which your prayers should ordinarily conform to. So it's fitting that we end the prayer Jesus taught us in the gospels with the words He spoke through His Holy Spirit in inspiring David to pray 1,000 years before Jesus came to Earth: Yours, LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor... Yours, LORD is the kingdom; you are exalted over all (v11). AAA Prayer (About) ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Praise be to you, LORD, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting; ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Since wealth and honor comes from God, and He is the ruler of all things, pray that you will use the blessings He's given you in a way that honors and glorifies Him; ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: Read the New Testament in a year, a chapter a day - Revelation 21

Read / Listen Listen to passage & devotional: Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 101 Q.

communion, know that you are spiritually in the very presence of Jesus Christ, and that you are being joined