Daily Devotion for 16 April 2026 (Easter 2, Thursday)

Welcome 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 Thursday and the second week of Easter, the 16th of April.

In the year of our Lord, 2026, in the time of Easter, there are no feasts, festivals, or

commemorations on the calendar today.

Our readings for today are Psalm 119, verses 25-32, Psalm 9, Exodus chapter 25, verse

17-39, and Paragraphs 59-61 of Article 7 of the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concorde.

We will close, as always, with the Lord's Prayer.

Today's first reading from the Psalter is from the 119 Psalm, and we will be reading

verses 25-32.

My soul clung to the ground, quickened me according to your word.

I told of my ways, and you harkened to me, teach me your statutes.

Your statutes' way make me understand, and I will ponder in your wondrous works.

My soul was drowsy from exhaustion, confirm me in your words.

In justice's way put far from me, and by your law have mercy on me.

Truth's way I chose, your judgments I did not forget.

I clung to your testimonies, O Lord, do not put me to shame.

I ran the way of your commandments, when you made my heart spacious.

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 second reading from the Psalter is the 9th Psalm.

I will acknowledge you, O Lord, with my whole heart.

I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.

I will be glad and will rejoice in you.

I will make music to your name a most high.

In my enemy turns back rearwards, they shall grow weak and shall perish from before you.

Because you maintained my right and my cause.

You sat on a throne, you who judged with righteousness.

You rebuked nations and the impious perished.

Their name you blotted out forever and forever and ever.

The swords of the enemy failed completely, and cities you destroyed.

The memory of them perished resoundingly, and the Lord remains forever.

He prepared his throne in judgment.

And it is he who will judge the world with righteousness.

He will judge peoples with uprightness.

And the Lord became a refuge for the needy, a helper at opportune times in affliction.

And let those who know your name hope in you, because you did not forsake those who seek

you O Lord.

Make music to the Lord who resides in Zion, declare his practices among the nations.

Because while avenging blood he was mindful of them, he did not forget the cry of the needy.

Have mercy on me O Lord, see my humiliation from my enemies.

You are the one who lifts me up from the gates of death, so that I may proclaim all your

praises in the gates of daughter Zion.

I will rejoice in your deliverance.

Because God's stuck in the corruption they produced, in this trap which they hid their

own foot was caught.

The Lord is known when he executes judgments.

The sinner was caught in the work of his own hands.

Let sinners be turned away to Hades, all the nations that keep forgetting God.

Because the poor shall not be completely forgotten.

The endurance of the needy shall not perish.

Rise up O Lord, do not let man prevail.

Let nations be judged before you.

Set a logiver over them O Lord, let nations know that they are but men.

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 Exodus, and we will be reading

the twenty-fifth chapter, verses one through twenty-two.

And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the sons of Israel, and take for me first

fruits from all those to whom it seems good in their heart, and you shall receive my first

fruits.

And this is the first fruits that you shall take from them.

Gold, silver, bronze, blue, purple, double scarlet, and twisted linen, and goats hair, and

red dyed rampskins, and blue skins, and decay-resistant wood, and stones of sardius, and stones

for engraving for the shoulder strap, and the full length robe.

And you shall make a holy precinct for me, and I shall appear among you, and you shall

make for me according to all that I show you on the mountain, the pattern of the tent,

and the pattern of its furnishings, so you shall make.

And you shall make an ark of witness from decay-resistant wood, the length to and a half cubits, and

the width the cubit and a half, and the height a cubit and a half, and you shall gold-plated

with pure gold, outside and inside you shall gild it, and you shall make for it twisted

gold moldings around, and you shall cast four gold rings for it, and put them on the

four sides, two rings on the one side, and two rings on the second side.

And you shall make carrying poles from decay-resistant wood, and gold plate them with gold, and you

shall put the carrying poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to lift the ark

with them.

In the rings of the ark the carrying pole shall be fixed, and you shall deposit in the

ark the witnesses, whichever I give you.

And you shall make a propitiatory as a cover of pure gold, the length to and a half

cubits, and the width one and a half cubits, and you shall make to cherubim engraved in gold,

and you shall position them at both sides of the propitiatory.

They shall be made one cherub on this side, and one cherub on the second side of the propitiatory,

and you shall make the two cherubim on the two sides.

The cherubim shall be stretching the wings above, overshadowing with their wings the propitiatory,

and their faces towards one another.

Towards the propitiatory shall the faces of the cherubim be, and you shall place the propitiatory

on the ark above, and in the ark you shall deposit the witnesses, whichever I give you,

and I will be known to you from there, and I will speak to you from above the propitiatory,

and between the two cherubim that are on the ark of witness, even in accord with all

that I may command you for the sons of Israel.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Today's New Testament reading comes from the book of Luke, and we will be reading the

fifth chapter, verses 17 through 39.

In one of those days as he was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law were sitting there,

who had come from every village of Galilee in Judea and from Jerusalem, and the power

of the Lord was with him to heal, and behold some men were bringing on a bed a man who

was paralyzed, and they were seeking to bring him in and lay him before Jesus, but finding

no way to bring him in because of the crowd.

They went up on the roof and let him down with his bed through the tiles into the midst

before Jesus, and when he saw their faith he said, man, your sins are forgiven you, and

the scribes and the Pharisees began to question saying, who is this who speaks blasphemies,

who can forgive sins but God alone?

When Jesus perceived their thoughts he answered them, why do you question in your hearts, which

is easier to say, your sins are forgiven you, or to say rise and walk, but that you may

know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home,

and immediately he rose up before them, and picked up what he had been lying on and went

home, glorifying God, and amazement seized them all, and they glorified God and were filled

with awe saying, we have seen extraordinary things today.

After this he went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth, and

he said to him, follow me, and leaving everything he rose and followed him.

And Levi made him a great feast in his house, and there was a large company of tax collectors

and others reclining it table with them.

And the Pharisees and their scribes grumbled at his disciples saying, why do you eat and

drink with tax collectors and sinners?

And Jesus answered them, those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are

sick.

I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

And they said to him, the disciples of John fast often and offer prayers, and so do the

disciples of the Pharisees, but yours eat and drink.

And Jesus said to them, can you make wedding guests fast while the brideroom is with them?

The days will come when the brideroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast

in those days.

He also told them a parable.

No one tears a piece from a new garment and puts it on an old garment.

If he does, he will tear the new, and the piece from the new will not match the old.

And no one puts new wine into old wine skins.

If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, and it will be spilled, and the skins will

be destroyed.

But new wine must be put into fresh wine skins.

And no one after drinking old wine desires new for he says, the old is good.

This is the Word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Today's reading from the book of Concorde comes from the solid declaration of the formula

of Concorde, and we will be reading Article 7, Paragraphs 59 through 61.

New types of eating.

We unanimously abide by this simple, well-founded explanation of this glorious testimony, 1 Corinthians

10.

We are truly shocked that some are now so bold that they venture to quote the passage

below, previously, even they attributed this to the sacramentarians as a foundation

for their error.

Now they say that in the supper Christ's body is only partaken of spiritually.

The bread is the communion of Christ's body, in other words, it is that by which we have

fellowship with Christ's body, which is the church, or it is the means by which we

believers are united with Christ, just as the word the gospel received by faith, is

a means through which we are spiritually united to Christ, and built into Christ's body,

which is the church.

It is not only godly pious and believing Christians who orally receive Christ's true

body and blood in the sacrament.

So do unworthy godless hypocrites, like Judas and his ilk, who have no spiritual communion

with Christ, and who go to the Lord's table without true repentance and conversion to God.

St. Paul teaches clearly that by their unworthy eating and drinking, they grievously sin

against Christ's body and blood, for he says,

Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner,

is not merely against the bread and wine, not merely against the signs or symbols and

emblems of the body and blood, but will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the

Lord, 1 Corinthians 1127.

Such a person dishonors abuses and disgraces the body and blood, like the Jewish people,

who by their actions violated Christ's body and killed him.

The ancient Christian fathers and church teachers have unanimously understood and explained

this passage in this way.

There is a twofold eating of Christ's flesh.

One is spiritual, which Christ describes, especially in John 654.

This eating happens in no other way than with the spirit and faith in preaching and meditation

on the gospel, as well as in the Lord's supper.

By itself this is useful and helpful and necessary for all Christians at all times for salvation.

Not the spiritual participation, the sacramental or oral eating in the supper is not only

not helpful, but is even harmful and damning.

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 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

trespass against us.

It 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 that before you, until tomorrow, God be with you.