Daily Devotion for 26 March 2026 (Lent 5, 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 in the fifth week of Lent, the 26th of March, 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 69, Psalm 32, Exodus 4, verses 19 through 31,

Mark 15 verses 16 through 32, and paragraphs 14 through 20 of Article 4 of the solid declaration

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

Today's first reading from the Psalter is the 69th Psalm.

7. Save me, O God, because waters came as far as my soul. I was stuck in deep mire, and there

is no foothold. I came into the depths of the sea, and a tempest overwhelmed me. I grew weary of

crying my throat was horse. My eyes failed from hoping in my God. They multiplied beyond the

hairs of my head, those who hate me without cause. My enemies who persecuted me unjustly became

strong. What I did not seize, I would then repay. O God, you knew my folly, and the wrongs I did

were not hidden from you. May those who wait for you not be put to shame because of me, O Lord,

Lord of hosts. May those who seek you not be embarrassed because of me, O God of Israel.

Because for your sake I bore reproach, embarrassment covered my face. I became estranged from my brothers,

a visitor to the sons of my mother, because the zeal for your house consumed me, and the

reproaches of those who reproach you fell on me. And I bent my soul with fasting, and it became

reproaches to me. And I made sackcloth my clothing, and became an illustration to them.

About me those who sit in a gate would gossip, and against me those who drink wine would make music.

But as for me with my prayer to you, O Lord, it is a time of favor, O God, in the abundance of your

mercy. Harken to me with the truth of your deliverance. Save me from the mud so that I shall not get stuck.

May I be rescued from those who hate me, and from the deep waters. Do not let a tempest of

water overwhelm me, or a deep swallow me up, or a sister enclosed its mouth over me.

Listen to me, O Lord, because your mercy is kind, according to the abundance of your compassion

look upon me. Do not turn away your face from your servant, because I am in affliction quickly

harken to me. Pay attention to my soul and redeem it, for the sake of my enemies rescue me.

For you know my reproach and my shame and my embarrassment, before you are all those who afflict me.

Reproach my heart expected and misery, and I waited for one that would sympathize and none

existed, and for comfortors but I did not find, and they gave gall as my food, and for my thirst they

gave me vinegar to drink. Let their table become a trap before them, and a retribution and a stumbling

block. Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and bend their back permanently.

Pour out upon them your wrath, and may the anger of your wrath overtake them.

Let their stetting become desolated, and let there be no one who lives in their coverts,

because they persecuted him whom you struck, and to the pain of your wounded they added.

Add lawlessness to their lawlessness, and let them not enter in your righteousness.

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and let them not be enrolled among the righteous.

Pour an impain I am, and the deliverance of your face O God supported me.

I will praise the name of God with an ode. I will magnify him with praise, and it will please the

Lord more than a young bull calf, bearing horns in hoofs. Let the poor see it and be glad, seek God

and your soul shall live, because the Lord listened to the needy, and his own that are in bonds he

did not despise. Let the heavens and the earth praise him, see, and everything that creeps in them,

because God will save Zion, and the cities of Judea will be built, and they shall live there and

inherit it, and the offspring of his slaves shall possess it, and those who love his name shall

encamp 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 second reading from the Psalter is the 32nd Psalm.

Happy are those whose lawless behavior was forgiven, and whose sins were covered over.

Happy the man whose sin the Lord will not reckon, and in his mouth there is no deceit,

because I kept silence my bones grew old from my crying all day long, because day and night

your hand was heavy upon me. I was turned to wretchedness when a thorn was stuck in me.

My sin I made known, and my lawlessness I did not cover. I said I will declare to the Lord

against myself my lawlessness, and you you forgave the impiety of my sin. Over this every devout

shall pray to you at an appropriate time, but at a flood of many waters, these will not reach him.

You are my refuge from affliction that besets me, my enjoyment redeem me from those that encircle me.

I will instruct you and teach you in this way in which you should go. I will fix my eyes upon you.

Do not be like horse and mule who have no understanding, with bridle and muzzle squeeze their jaws

when they do not come near to you. Many are the scourges of the sinner, but mercy will surround him

that hopes in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and boast all you upright in heart.

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 4th

chapter, verses 19-31. And the Lord said to Moses and Midian, go, return to Egypt,

for all those who were seeking your soul are dead. Then Moses took his wife and children and

put them on draft animals, and he went back to Egypt. And Moses took the rod from God at his hand.

And the Lord said to Moses, as you go and return to Egypt, see, all the wonders which I put in your

hands, you shall perform them before Pharaoh, but I will harden his heart, and he will not send the

people away. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, this is what the Lord says, my firstborn son is Israel,

and I said to you, send my people away so that they might serve me. Now then, if you are unwilling

to send them away, see then I will kill your firstborn son. Now it happened on the way at the

lodging, an angel of the Lord met him, and was seeking to kill him, and Sephora took a pebble and

circumcised the foreskin of her son, and she fell at his feet and said, the blood of the circumcision

of my child is staunched. And he went away from him because she said, the blood of the circumcision

of my child is staunched. And the Lord said to Aaron, go into the wilderness for a meeting with Moses,

and he went and met him at the mountain of God, and they kissed one another, and Moses reported to

Aaron all the words of the Lord, that he sent in all the signs that he commanded him. Then Moses

and Aaron went and assembled the elders council of the sons of Israel, and Aaron spoke all these

words that God had spoken to Moses, and performed the signs before the people, and the people

believed and were glad because God had observed the sons of Israel, and because he had seen their

oppression, then the people bowed down and did obeisance. This is the word the Lord. Thanks be to God.

Today's New Testament reading comes from the book of Mark, and we will be reading the 15th chapter

verses 16 through 32. And the soldiers led him away inside the palace, that is the governor's

headquarters, and they called together the whole battalion, and they clothed him in a purple cloak,

and twisting together a crown of thorns they put it on him, and they began to salute him,

hail King of the Jews, and they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him,

and kneeling down and homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple

cloak, and put his own clothes on him, and they led him out to crucify him, and they compelled a

passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander in Rufus to

carry his cross, and they brought him to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull,

and they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it, and they crucified him and

divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take,

and it was the third hour when they crucified him, and the inscription of the charge against him

read, the King of the Jews, and with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left,

and those who pass by to write at him wagging their heads and saying, aha, you who would destroy

the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross.

So also the chief priest with the scribes mocked him to one another saying,

he saved others, he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from

the cross, that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

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

and we will be reading Article 4, paragraphs 14 through 20.

Clarification of terms. First, regarding the necessity or voluntary nature of good works,

it is clear that in the Augsburg confession and its apology, these expressions are often used and

repeated. Good works are necessary. Likewise, they say it is necessary to do good works,

which necessarily follow faith and reconciliation. Likewise, we necessarily are to do and must do

the kind of good works God is commanded. In the Holy Scriptures themselves, the words

necessity, needful and necessary, as well as ought and must, are used to describe what we are

bound to do because of God's ordinance, command and will. See Romans 13.5, 1 Corinthians 9.9,

Acts 5.29, John 15.12, 1 John 4.21. It is for this reason that the sayings and propositions

just mentioned in this Christian and proper understanding are unfairly condemned and rejected by

some people. These sayings should rightly be employed and used to reject the secure epicurean

delusion. For many create for themselves a dead faith or delusion that lacks repentance and good

works. They act as though there could be true faith in a heart at the same time as the wicked

intention to persevere and continue in sin. This is impossible, or they act as though a person

could have and keep true faith, righteousness and salvation, even though he is and remains a

corrupt and unfruitful tree, from which no good fruit comes at all. In fact, they say this even

though a person persists in sins against conscience or purposely engages again in these sins,

all of this is incorrect and false. In this matter the following distinction must be noted,

the meaning of these expressions must be a necessity based on Christ's ordinance, command and will,

and based on our obligation. But not a necessity based on coercion. In other words,

when the word necessary is used, it should be understood not as force, but only as the order of

God's unchanging will, whose debtors we are. His commandment points out that the creature should

be obedient to its creator. In other places, 2 Corinthians 9-7, Philemon 14 and 1 Peter 5-2,

something is said to be of necessity that is rung from a person against his will by force or

otherwise, so that he acts outwardly for the sake of appearance, but without an against his will.

God does not want such hypocritical works. The people of the New Testament are to be a willing

people, Psalm 110-3, and sacrifice freely Psalm 54-6, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

2 Corinthians 9-7, they are to be obedient from the heart, Romans 6-17, for God loves a

cheerful giver, 2 Corinthians 9-7. In this understanding and in this sense, it is correctly

said and taught that truly good works should be done willingly, or from a voluntary spirit,

by those whom God's son has made free. The dispute about the voluntary nature of good works

was engaged in by some people specifically to make this point.

Here again it is well to note the distinction that St. Paul makes in Romans 7, 22-23.

For I delight in the law of God in my inner being, but I see in my members another law

that is not only unwilling or disinclined but also waging war against the law of my mind.

Regarding the unwilling and rebellious flesh, Paul says, I discipline my body and keep it under

control, 1 Corinthians 9-27. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh

with its passions and desires. Galatians 5-24, see also Romans 8-13. When it is asserted and

taught that good works are free to believers, in the sense that they are optional for them,

to do or not to do, this is false and must be rejected. It is false to say that believers might

or could act against God's law and still have faith and God's favor in grace.

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 are to

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