Daily Devotion for 16 September 2026 (16th Wednesday after Pentecost)

0:00Welcome to The Daily Divotions podcast from Confident Faith. I am Corey J. Moller, a contributor here at Confident Faith, and I will be your reader today. This 17th Wednesday after Pentecost, the 16th of September, in the year of our Lord, 2026, in the time of the Church. Today we commemorate Cyprian of Carthage, Pastor and martyr. Living in the 3rd century AD, Cyprian served as Bishop of Carthage, originally fleeing Carthage under the persecution of Roman Emperor Desias. Cyprian returned and set rules for those who had fallen away from the faith, under persecution,

1:04to return to the Church. Under later persecution by Roman Emperor Valerian, Cyprian initially hid himself, but later gave himself up to the authorities. He was beheaded in AD 258. For readings for today are Psalm 108, 2 Chronicles 35-1-25, Colossians 3-1-25, and paragraphs 11-27 of Article 12A 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 108th Psalm. Ready is my heart, O God. Ready is my heart. I will sing and I will pluck in my glory. Be roused up, Psalter in cathara. I will be roused at dawn. I will make open acknowledgement to you among peoples, O Lord.

2:06And I will pluck to you among nations, for great above the heavens is your mercy, and unto the clouds your truth. Be lifted high upon the heavens, O God, and upon all the earth your glory. That your beloved ones may be drawn out. Save with your right hand and harken to me. God has spoken in his holy place. I will be lifted up, and I will divide Shekum, and the veil of the tents I will measure through. Mine is Gilead, and mine is Manasseh, and Ephraim is the taking hold of my head. Judah is my king, Moab the cauldron of my hope. Upon Idyumea I will stretch out my sandal. To me men of another tribe have been subjected. Who will lead me away into a city of enclosure? Who will guide me as far as Idyumea? Is it not you, O God, who have thrust us from you, and he will not go out O God in our forces? Give us help out of crushing, and vain is the salvation of a man.

3:08When God we shall make force, and he himself will set it not our enemies. 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 the 35th chapter, verses 1-25. And Josiahs held the fashek to the Lord his God, and they slaughtered the fashek on the 14th of the first month, and he set the priests at their watches, and strengthened them for the tasks of the Lord's house, and he said to the Levites who were powerful in all Israel, that they should be sanctified to the Lord, and they placed the holy ark in the house that Solomon's son of David, the King of Israel had built. And the King said, you are not to carry anything on your shoulders.

4:11Now then minister to the Lord your God, and to his people Israel, and prepare according to your paternal houses, and according to your daily divisions, according to the writing of David, King of Israel, and through the hand of his son Solomon, and stand in the house according to the divisions of your paternal houses for your brothers, the sons of the people, and a portion of the paternal houses for the Levites, and slaughter the fashek, and prepare the holy things for your brothers to do according to the word of the Lord through the hand of Moses. And Josiahs contributed sheep and lambs and kids from the young goats to the sons of the people. Starting for the fashek for all those present, up to a number of thirty thousand and three thousand cows, these were from the King's substance. And his officials contributed to the people and to the priests in the Levites, Kelkeus and Zacharias and Giel, the chief officers of the house of God, gave to the priests and

5:12they gave for the fashek, two thousand six hundred sheep, and lambs and kids and three hundred cows. And Kononayus and Benayus and Semyus and Nathaneel his brother, and Haza-Bias and Giel and Joseph Ed, rulers of the Levites, contributed five thousand sheep and five hundred cows to the Levites for the fashek. And the service was set up and the priests stood at their post, and the Levites in their divisions according to the King's command, and they slaughtered the fashek, and the priests poured the blood out of their hand, and the Levites did the skinning, and they made ready the whole burnt offering to pass on to them according to the divisions of their paternal houses, to the sons of the people to offer to the Lord, as it is written in the book of Moses and so until morning. And they roasted the fashek with fire according to the rule and boiled the holy things in the copper vessels and in the cauldrons, and it was a success, and they ran to all the sons

6:14of the people. And after preparing for them and for the priests because the priests offered the fat and whole burnt offerings till night, the Levites prepared both for themselves and for their brothers, the sons of Aaron, and the harpsinger's sons of Asaf were at their post according to the commandments of David, and Asaf and Haimon and Idithan, the King's prophets, and the rulers and the gatekeepers of gate and gate. It was not for them to move from the ministry of the holy things because their brothers the Levites ministered to them. And all the service of the Lord was set up and prepared on that day to hold the fashek and to offer the whole burnt offerings upon the Lord's altar according to King Josiah's command, and the sons of Israel who were present held the fashek at that time and the feast of unleavened bread for seven days, and no fashek like it took place in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet, and none of the kings of Israel celebrated anything like the

7:14fashek that Josiah's held for the Lord, and the priests and the Levites and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the 18th year of King Josiah's reign, and King Josiah's burned the ventriloquists and the wizards and the tariffine and the idols in the karrasim, which were in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem in order to establish the words of the law that were written in the book that Kalkias the priest found in the Lord's house. And no one like him appeared before him who turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength according to all the law of Moses and none like him arose after him. Nevertheless, the Lord did not turn back from the anger of his great wrath, with which the Lord was angry with wrath against Judah, for all the provocations with which menaces provoked him to anger. And the Lord said, Indeed Judah I will remove from before me as I remove Israel, and I have

8:15rejected the city I chose Jerusalem and the house about which I said, My name shall be there. And Pharaoh Neko King of Egypt went up against the king of the Assyrians to the river Euphrates, and King Josiah's went to meet him, and he sent on voice to him saying, What have I to do with you King of Judah? I have not come against you today to make war, and God has told me to hurry. Beware of the God who is with me lest he destroy you. And Josiah's did not turn away his face from him, but he was strengthened to fight him, and did not listen to Neko's words through God's mouth, and went to fight in the plane of Magadan. And the archer shot at King Josiah's, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, as I am very much in trouble. And his servants removed him from the chariot, and put him on the secondary chariot, that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried with his fathers, and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah's.

9:19And Jeremiah's lamented over Josiah's, and all the leading men and leading women have spoken the lament over Josiah's until this very day. And they gave it as an ordinance for Israel. And see, it is written among the laments. This 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 the third chapter, verses 1 through 25. If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ to his life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Put to death therefore what is earthly in you, sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil

10:19desire, and covetousness which is idolatry. An account of these, the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Anger, wrath, malice, slander, nabseen, talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek in Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised. For Bari and Skithian slave free, but Christ is all and in all. Put on then as God's chosen ones holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord is forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

11:20Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing songs in hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God, and whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Hives submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Children obey your parents in everything for this pleases the Lord. Fathers do not provoke your children, lest they become discouraged. Slaves obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers. But with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord, whatever you do work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as

12:21your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he is done, and there is no partiality. 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 12A, paragraph 11 through 27. These things happen in the first act of this play. What about confession? What a work there is in the endless listing of sins. Nevertheless, this is in great part devoted to sins against human traditions, so that good minds may be more tortured by this. The adversaries falsely assert that this listing is of divine right. They demand this listing under the claim of divine right. In the meantime, they speak coldly about absolution, which is truly a divine right.

13:24They falsely assert that the sacrament itself bestows grace by the mere performance of one act, exoprioprato, without a good disposition on the part of the one using it. They do not mention faith grasping the absolution and comforting the conscience. This is truly what is generally called departing before the mysteries. The third act of this play, concerning satisfaction, remains. It contains the most confused discussions. The adversaries imagine that eternal punishments are switched to the punishments of purgatory, and teach that a part of them is forgiven by the power of the keys, and that a part is to be redeemed by means of satisfaction. Further, they add that satisfaction should be extraordinary works, super-arigation. They make these consist of most foolish observances, such as pilgrimages, rosaries, or similar observances, that do not have God's command. Then just as they redeem purgatory by means of satisfactions, so as scheme was created

14:25for redeeming satisfactions, which was most abundant in revenue. They sell indulgences, which they interpret as the part of satisfactions. This revenue is not only from the living, but is much more plentiful from the dead. Nor do they redeem the satisfactions of the dead only by indulgences, but also by the sacrifice of the mass. In a word, the topic of satisfactions is infinite. The doctrine of the righteousness of faith in Christ and the benefit of Christ lies buried among these scandals, for we cannot list everything, and doctrines of devils. Therefore all good people understand that the doctrine of the learned persons and canon lawyers about repentance has been criticized for a useful and godly purpose. For the following teachings are clearly false and foreign, not only to Holy Scripture, but also to the Church Fathers. 1. Through good works apart from grace, we merit grace from the divine covenant. 2. We merit grace by attrition.

15:273. Mearily hating the crime is enough for the blotting out of sin. 4. We obtain forgiveness of sins because of contrition, and not by faith in Christ. 5. The power of the keys provides the forgiveness of sins before the Church, but not before God. 6. Sins are not forgiven before God by the power of the keys. Rather the power of the keys has been set up to transfer eternal punishments to temporal, to put certain satisfactions upon consciences, to set up new acts of worship, and to put consciences in doubt to such satisfactions and acts of worship. 7. The listing of offenses in confession, as taught by the adversaries, is necessary according to divine right. 8. Canonical satisfactions are necessary for redeeming the punishment of purgatory, or they benefit as a compensation for blotting out guilt. This is how unenformed persons understand it. 9. Without a good disposition on the part of the one using it, that is, without faith in Christ.

16:30The reception of the sacrament of repentance by the outward act, exoprioprato, obtains grace. 10. Our souls are freed from purgatory through indulgences by the power of the keys. 11. In the reservation of cases, not only canonical punishment, but also the guilt, should be reserved for one who is truly converted. 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. 8. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

17:34Give 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.