Daily Devotion for 08 September 2026 (15th Tuesday after Pentecost)

0:00� Welcome to the Daily Devotions Podcast from Comfort and Faith. I am Corey J. Moller, a contributor here at Confident Faith, and I will be your reader today. This 16th Tuesday after Pentecost, the 8th of September. In the year of our Lord, 2026, in the time of the Church, there are no feasts, festivals, or commemorations on the calendar today. Our readings for today are Psalm 71, Psalm 69, 2nd Kings, 5 verses 9 through 27. Philippians chapter 1 verses 1 through 20, and paragraphs 269 through 279 of Article 5 of the apology

1:09of the Augsburg confession. We will close, as always, with the Lord's Prayer. Today's first reading from the Psalter is the 71st Psalm. O God in you, I have hoped. May I not be put to utter shame unto the age. In your righteousness, draw me out and deliver me. Incline your ear toward me and save me. Become for me a God who holds the shield over me. A fortified place to save me, because my solid stay and my refuge you are. O God, draw me out from the hand of a sinner, from the hand of one who acts beside the law and does injustice. Because you are my endurance, O Lord. The Lord is my hope from my youth. Upon you I was planted firm from the belly, from the womb of my mother, you are my shelter. In you is my himming continually. As important I became to the many, and you are a mighty helper.

2:14Let my mouth be filled with praise that I may him your glory, all the day or magnificence. Do not cast me off unto a season of old age, in the failing of my strength do not abandon me. Because my enemies have spoken to me, and those who watch my soul have taken counsel to one purpose saying, God is abandoned him, hunt him down and catch him, because there is not the one who draws out. O God, do not put yourself far from me. Let them be put to shame and let them fail who slander my soul. Let them clothe themselves with shame and disgrace, who seek the evils for me. But I will hope continually, and I will add upon all your praise. My mouth will declare your righteousness, all the day your salvation. Because I have not known the dealings, I will enter in the lordship of the Lord. O Lord, I will remember your righteousness alone. You have taught me, O God, from my youth,

3:16and until now I will announce your wondrous works. And unto old age in the estate of an elder. O God, do not abandon me, until I announce your arm to all the coming generation. Your lordship and your righteousness, O God, under the highest things. The great deeds which you have done. O God, who is like you. Because you have shown me many pressures and evils, and turning you have made me live. And from the depths of the earth you have led me up again, having multiplied your righteousness, and turning you have called me to your side. And from the depths you have led me up again. For I will make acknowledgement to you of your truth with an instrument of psalm. I will play to you, O God, on the lyre. O holy one of Israel, my lips will exalt when I play to you, and my soul which you have ransomed, and still my tongue all the day will rehearse your righteousness, when they are put to shame and turned in shame, who seek the evils for me.

4:18Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and will be forevermore. Amen. Today's second reading from the Psalter is the 69th Psalm. Save me, O God, because waters have entered as far as my soul. I was stuck fast in the silt of the deep, and there is no footing. I came into the depths of the sea, and as squall sank me. I grew weary crying out. My throat became horse. My eyes failed from drawing near upon my God. They that hate me for nothing have been multiplied beyond the hairs of my head. My enemies that pursue me down unjustly have been made mighty. Things which I did not snatch, I was then paying back. O God, you knew my folly, and my faults have not been hidden from you.

5:21May they that wait upon you not be put to shame upon me, O Lord the forces. May they that seek you not be turned in shame upon me, O God of Israel. Because for your sake I have borne a taunt, shame has covered my face. I became one made alien to my brothers, and a stranger to the sons of my mother. Because the jealous order of your house will eat me down, and the tauntings of those who taunt you have fallen upon me. And I bent my soul together in fasting, and it became a taunt to me. And I set my garment as a sack, and I became to them a byword. Against me the sitters in the gate were prating, and at me those who drank the wine were singing. But I, with my prayer toward you, O Lord, a season of good pleasure, O God, in the multitude of your mercy, Harkin, in the truth of your salvation, saved me from mud that I may not be stuck in. May I be drawn out from those who hate

6:24me, and from the depth of the waters. Let not a squall of water sink me, nor let a deep swallow me down, nor let a well hold together upon me its mouth. Harkin to me, O Lord, because your mercy is kind. According to the multitude of your compassion's, look upon me, because I am pressed swiftly Harkin to me. Give heed to my soul and rancimate, for the sake of my enemies draw me out. For you know my taunting and my shame and my disgrace, before you are all who press me. My soul expected taunting and hardship, and I awaited one to grieve with me, and he did not exist, and one to comfort me, and I did not find him. And they gave bile into my food, and for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drink. Let their table before them become a snare, and a recompense and a trapstick. Let their eyes be darkened so as not to see, and bend their back together continually.

7:25Pour out upon them your wrath, and may the rage of your wrath overtake them. Let their farmstead become a desert, and in their tent dwellings let there be no one dwelling, because whom you struck, they pursued, and upon the pain of my wounds they added. Add lawlessness upon their lawlessness, and let them not enter in your righteousness. Let them be wiped out from a book of the living, and with the just let them not be written. A baker and a man in pain I am, and the salvation of your face has taken hold of me. I will praise the name of God with an ode. I will magnify him in praise, and it will please God beyond a young calf, putting forth horns and hoofs, like beggars see and be glad. Seek out God, and you shall live, because the Lord has harkened to the poor laborers, and His shackled ones he has not made nothing. Let the heavens and the earth praise him, see and all the creeping things in them, because God will save Zion, and the cities of Judah shall be

8:28built, and they shall dwell there and inherit it, and the seed of his slave shall hold it, and they that love his name shall dwell in it. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forevermore. Amen. Today's Old Testament reading comes from the book of 2 Kings, and we will be reading the 5th chapter, verses 9-27.

9:31Case and recover the leprosy are not abana and parfar rivers of Damascus, better than the Jordan and all the waters of Israel. Going shall I not wash in them and be cleansed, and he turned and went away in a rage, and his servants approached and said to him, the prophets spoke a great word to you, shall you not do it, even because he said to you, wash, and you will be cleansed. And Nimon went down and immersed himself in the Jordan seven times, according to the word of Elisha, and his flesh returned like the flesh of a small child, and he was cleansed. And he returned to Elisha, he and all his camp, and he came and stood and said, behold, indeed I know that there is no God in all the earth but only in Israel, and now accept the blessing from your slave. And Elisha said, the Lord lives before whom I stand, if I will accept it. And he urged him to accept, but he refused. And Nimon said, and if not, do let there be given to

10:33your slave a load of a pair of mules, and you shall give me from the red earth, for your slave will no longer make whole burnt offering and sacrifice to other gods except to the Lord alone. And the Lord will have mercy on your slave when my master enters into Rhemon's house to do obeisance to him, and he will rest on my arm, and I will do obeisance in Rhemon's house when he does obeisance in Rhemon's house, and then the Lord will have mercy on your slave in this matter. And Elisha said to Nimon, go in peace. And he went away from him for de'brata of the land. And Gesey the lad of Elisha said, behold my master spared Nimon this Syrian by not accepting from his hand what he brought. The Lord lives for I will surely run after him and get something from him. And Gesey hurried after Nimon, and Nimon saw him running after him, and he turned around from the chariot to meet him, and he said, peace, my master sent me saying, behold now there came to

11:36me two lads from out of frame, from the sons of the prophets, to give them a talent of silver in two changes of robes. And Nimon said, accept two talents of silver, and he accepted it in two bags, with two changes of robes, and put them on two of his lads, and they carried them in front of him. And they came into the darkness, and he took from their hands and stored the things in a house, and he dismissed the men. And he went in and stood nearby his master, and Elisha said to him, where have you come from Gesey? And Gesey said, your slave is not gone here or there. And Elisha said to him, did my heart not go with you when the man turned around from the chariot to meet you? Even now you accepted the silver, even now you accepted the clothing, and shall you receive by him gardens and olive orchards and vineyards and sheep and cattle, and male servants and female servants. And the leprosy of Nimon shall cling to you and to your offspring forever.

12:36And he went out from his presence leprosy as if snow. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Today's New Testament reading comes from the Book of Philippians, and we will be reading the first chapter, verses 1 through 20. Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God and all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. It is right for me to feel this way about you all, because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the

13:40defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus, and it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole Imperial Guard, and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ, and most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear. Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking to afflict me in

14:41my imprisonment. What then, only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always, Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Today's reading from the Book of Concord comes from the apology of the Augsburg confession, and we will be reading Article 5, paragraphs 269 through 279. Nor do we immediately conclude that the Roman Church agrees with everything that the Pope or cartons or bishops or some of the theologians or monks approve. For it is clear that most

15:45Pontiffs consider their own authority of greater concern than Christ's gospel. It has been determined that most of them are openly mere searchers for pleasure. Clearly, theologians have mingled more of philosophy with Christian doctrine than was necessary. Their influence should not appear so great that it will be unlawful to disagree with their arguments, because at the same time many clear errors are found among them. One of these maintains that from purely natural powers, we are able to love God above all things. This preaching, although it is clearly false, has produced many other errors. For the scriptures, the Holy Fathers, and the judgments of all the godly everywhere respond. Therefore, popes or some theologians and monks in the church have taught us to seek the forgiveness of sins, grace, and righteousness through our own works, and to invent new forms of worship, which have clouded over Christ's office and have made out of Christ not the atoning sacrifice and justify her, but only a legislator. Yet the knowledge of Christ

16:46has always remained with some godly persons. Scripture furthermore has predicted that the righteousness of faith would be clouded over by human traditions and the teaching of works in this way. Paul often complains about this, see Galatians 4.9.5.7. Colossians 2.8.16.19.1 Timothy 4.2. etc. There were even during his time those who, instead of the righteousness of faith, taught that people were reconciled to God and justified by their own works and own acts of worship, and not through faith for Christ's sake. People judged by nature that God should be appeased by works, nor does reason see a righteousness other than the righteousness of the law, understood in a civil sense. So there have always been some who have taught this earthly righteousness alone to the exclusion of the righteousness of faith. Such teachers will always exist. The same thing happened among the people of Israel. The majority of the people thought that they merited the forgiveness of sins by

17:49their works. Therefore they piled up sacrifices and acts of worship. On the contrary, the prophets and condemnation of this opinion taught the righteousness of faith. What happened among the people of Israel are illustrations of those things that were to happen in the church. Therefore, let the multitude of the adversaries who condemn our doctrine not disturb Godly minds. For the adversary's spirit can easily be judged, because in some articles they have condemned truth that is so clear and apparent that their godlessness appears openly. The bull of Leo X condemned a very necessary article, which all Christians should hold and believe. It stated that we should trust that we have been forgiven not because of our sorrow, but because of Christ's word, whatever you bind, Matthew 1619. And now in this assembly, the authors of the computation have clearly condemned the following. A. Faith is a part of repentance. B. We obtain forgiveness of sins by faith.

18:51C. And by faith we overcome the terrors of sin, so the conscience is sued. Who does not see that this article that by faith we obtain the forgiveness of sins is most true, most certain, and especially necessary to all Christians? Who to all posterity, hearing that such a doctrine has been condemned, will judge that the authors of it had any knowledge of Christ. It is possible to make a guess about their spirit based on that inexpressible cruelty, which it is agreed they exercised among many good people up to this point. We receive news in this gathering about a certain reverend father of the imperial senate. When opinions were stated about our confession, he saw nothing more useful to say to the council then, to write back with blood. To what we wrote in ink, could Filaris say anything more cruel? Some princes also have judged this expression unworthy to be spoken in such a meeting. Even though the adversaries claim the name of the church for themselves, we know that Christ's church is with those who teach Christ's gospel,

19:54not with those who defend wicked opinions contrary to the gospel. As the Lord says, my sheep hear my voice, John 1027, and Augustine says, the question is, where is the church? What therefore are we to do? Are we to seek it in our own words or in the words of its head? Our Lord Jesus Christ, I think that we ought to seek it in the words of Him who is truth and who knows His own body best. In this way, the judgments of our adversaries will not disturb us since they defend human opinions contrary to the gospel, contrary to the authority of the Holy Fathers who have written in the church and contrary to the testimonies of godly minds. This concludes our reading from the book of Concord. I now invite all of you to join me in reciting the Lord's Prayer, one of the most ancient prayers of the church. I do encourage you to say it aloud if you are somewhere it would be reasonable to do so,

20:55but praying it silently is, of course, also fine. The Lord knows what is in your heart. Lord, remember us in your kingdom and teach us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen. Go in peace and grace to serve our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in whatever calling has been given you, or tasks set before you. Until tomorrow, God be with you.