Daily Devotion for 14 September 2026 (16th Monday after Pentecost)

0:00Welcome to the Daily Devotions Podcast from Confident Faith. I am Corey J. Moller, a contributor here at Confident Faith and I will be your reader today. This 17th Monday after Pentecost, the 14th 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 38. 2 Chronicles chapter 33 verses 1 through 24, Colossians starting with chapter 1 verse 24,

1:01and reading through chapter 2 verse 7, and paragraph 60 through 67 of Article 11 of the apology of the Augsburg confession. We will close, as always, with the Lord's Prayer. Today's reading from the Psalter is the 38th Psalm. O Lord, do not convict me in Your wrath, nor discipline me in Your anger. For Your arrows have been stuck fast in me, and You have planted Your hand firmly upon me. There is no healing in my flesh from the face of Your anger. There is no peace for my bones from the face of my sins. For my lawless deeds have risen over my head. Like a heavy load they have been made heavy upon me. My wheels have grown foul and have putrified from the face of my folly. I have been worn with hardship and bent down to the end. The whole day I went about of gloomy countenance. For my loins have been filled with mockeries, and there is no healing in my flesh.

2:05I have been maltreated and brought low exceedingly. I was howling from the groaning of my heart. O Lord, before You is all my desire, and my groaning is not been hidden from You. My heart has been thrown into turmoil. My strength has abandoned me, and the light of my eyes even it itself is not with me. My friends and my neighbors drew near, and took their stand opposite me. And those nearest me stood far off, and those who seek my soul used force, and those who seek evils from me spoke vanities, and they rehearsed guiles the whole day. But I, as if death was not hearing. And as if mute, not opening my mouth. And I became as a man who does not hear, and has no reproofs in his mouth. For upon You, O Lord, I have hoped, You will harken O Lord, my God. For I said, less ever my enemies rejoice over me. And in the shaking of my feet they spoke big words upon me.

3:07For I am ready for scourges, and my pain is before me continually. For my lawlessness I myself will announce, and I will take thought over my sin. But my enemies live, and have been made mighty beyond me, and they have been multiplied who hate me unjustly. Those who repay evils in return for goods were slandering me, since I was pursuing righteousness. And they cast me away the beloved as a loathed corpse. Do not abandon me, O Lord, by God do not stand far away from me. If he toward my help, O Lord of my salvation. 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 Chronicles, and we will be reading

4:08the 33rd chapter, verses 1 through 25. Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil before the Lord, arising from all the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had utterly destroyed from before the sons of Israel. And he turned and built the high places that his father has a chias and pulled down, and erected steeles to the sheba Alim, and made grows and it obeisances to all the hosts of the sky, and was subject to them. And he built towers in the Lord's house, of which the Lord had said, in Jerusalem shall my name be forever. And he built altars to all the hosts of the sky, in the two courts of the Lord's house. He too passed his children through fire, in Guy Benay-e-Nam. And he acted as a diviner and practiced or nithomancy, and sorcery and acted as ventriloquists and enchanters. He multiplied doing evil before the Lord in order to provoke him, and he installed what

5:12was carved and what was smelted, an image that he had made in the Lord's house, of which God had said to David and to Solomon his son. In this house in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. And I will not add to Shaky Israel's foot from the land that I gave to their fathers. If only they are careful to do all that I have commanded them, according to all the law, and the ordinances and the judgments by Moses's hand. And Manasseh led astray Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to do what was evil beyond all the nations, whom the Lord had removed from before the sons of Israel. And the Lord spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they gave no heed. And the Lord led against them the commanders of the force of the King of Assur. And they took Manasseh in manacles and bound him with fetters and brought him to Babylon. And when he was in distress he sought the face of the Lord his God. And he was humbled exceedingly from before the God of his fathers.

6:15And he prayed to him and he heard him. And he heard his cry and brought him back to Jerusalem to his kingdom. And Manasseh knew that the Lord he is God. And afterward he built a wall outside the city of David, from the southwest by Gion in the Wadi. And when people exit the roundabout gate, even onto Oflah, and he heightened it significantly. And he appointed commanders of the force in all the walled cities in Judah. And he removed the foreign gods and the carved item from the Lord's house. And all the altars that he had built on the mountain of the Lord's house and in Jerusalem and outside the city. And he restored the Lord's altar and sacrificed on it a sacrifice of deliverance and of praise. And he said that Judah should be subject to the Lord God of Israel. The people, however, were still in the high places. The Lord, however, was their God. And the rest of the histories of Manasseh and his prayer to God, and the words of the Sears when they spoke to him in the name of the Lord God of Israel, behold they are in

7:18the accounts of his prayer and how he listened to them and all his sins and his acts of apostasy and the places on which he built the high places and set up their grows and carved images before he repented. Behold, they are written in the accounts of the Sears. And Manasseh slept with his fathers and they buried him in the orchard of his house and his son, Aemon, became king in his stead. Aemon became king at twenty-two years old and reigned two years in Jerusalem. And he did what was evil before the Lord as Manasseh his father had done. And Aemon would sacrifice to all the idols his father Manasseh had made and he was subject to them and he was not humbled before the Lord as his father Manasseh had been humbled because his son Aemon increased error and his servants plotted against him and struck him in his house. And the people of the land struck those who had plotted against King Aemon and the people of the land made Josiahs his son king in his stead.

8:21This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Today's New Testament reading comes from the book of Colossians and we will be reading from verse twenty-four of the first chapter through verse seven of the second chapter. Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body that is the church of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you to make the word of God fully known, the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. To them God chose to make known how great among the nations are the riches of the glory of this mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we proclaim warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ, for this I toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully

9:24works within me. For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Leodicia and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged being it together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery which is Christ in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments, for though I am absent in body yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. Therefore as you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith just as you were taught abounding in thanksgiving. This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

10:26Today's reading from the book of Concord comes from the apology of the Augsburg confession and we will be reading Article 11, paragraph 60 through 67. Concerning the time certainly most people in our churches frequently use the sacraments, absolution and the Lord's supper during the year. Those who teach about the worth and fruit of the sacraments speak in a way that invites the people to use the sacraments frequently. There are many writings by our theologians about this subject that the adversaries if they are good men will undoubtedly approve and praise. Excommunication is also pronounced against the openly wicked and the haters of the sacraments. These things are done both according to the gospel and according to the old canons. A fixed time for confession is not prescribed because all are not ready in the same way at the same time. Yes, if all were to come at the same time they could not be heard and instructed in order. The old canons and fathers do not appoint a fixed time.

11:27The cannon speaks only in this way. If any enter the church and be found never to commune, let them be taught that. If they do not commune, they come to repentance. If they commune, if they wish to be regarded as Christians, let them not be thrown out. If they fail to do so, let them be excommunicated. Paul says that those who eat unworthily eat judgment to themselves, 1 Corinthians 11 9, so the pastors do not force those who are not qualified to use the sacraments. Concerning the enumeration of sins in confession, people are taught in such a way as not to trap their consciences. It is helpful to familiarize and experience people to name some things in order that they may be more readily taught. We are now discussing what is necessary according to divine law. Therefore the adversary should not quote for us the regulation of Nesutriusque which we already know, but they should show from the divine law that complete naming of sins is

12:28necessary for obtaining their forgiveness. The entire church, throughout all Europe, knows what sort of snares this point of the regulation, has cast upon consciences by commanding that all sins be confessed. The matter was only made worse by the Summess, who collected the circumstances of the sins and added their own ideas, what mazes there were, how great a torture for the best minds, the immoral and ungodly were in no way moved by these instruments of terror. Afterwards what tragedies did the questions about one's own priest stir up among the pastors and brethren, who then were by no means brethren when they were worrying about jurisdiction of confessions. We believe that, according to divine law, a complete listing of sins is not necessary. This is also pleasing to Penoermetonus and very many other learned legal scholars. Before we want to burden the consciences of our people by the regulation of Nesutriusque, we judge it to be like any other human tradition.

13:28They are not acts of worship necessary for justification. This regulation commands that we do something impossible, that we should confess all sins. However, it is clear that most sins we neither remember nor understand, according to Psalm 1912, who can discern his errors. If the pastors are good men, they will know to what extent they should examine in experienced persons. But we do not want to sanction the torture of the Summess. It would have been more tolerable if they had added one word about faith, which comforts and encourages consciences. About this faith, which obtains the forgiveness of sins, there is not a syllable and so great a mass of regulations, commentaries, summaries or books of confession. Christ is nowhere read there. The lists of sins are read. The greater part is occupied with sins against human traditions. This is most useless. This doctrine has forced many to despair. Godly minds were not able to find rest.

14:28Because they believe that by divine law, listing was necessary, yet they experienced that it was impossible. Other faults of no less importance cling to the doctrine of the adversaries about repentance, which we will now recount. 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, but 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

15:29trespass 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.