Learning the Faith by Heart

Speaking, Praying, and Singing God’s Word Together

The Week of Sept 7 – Sept 14, 2025

Preparing for the Holy Cross Day

Hymn of the Week: Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle (454)

GLCA Learn by Heart Hymn: These Are the Holy Ten Commands (581:5)

GLCA Catechism Memory: The Fourth Commandment

Bible Verse Memory: “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” – Ephesians 6:1-3  

Monday: Catechism Bible Story – Boy Jesus in the Temple – Luke 2:41-52

         Jesus was obedient and submissive to His sinful parents, Mary and Joseph, not because they deserved it, but because of the office of parent that they had been given by God and because of the command and promise God had attached to that office. Under the Fourth Commandment, is our obedience and honor reserved only for parents who do the right thing or who have “earned” our respect? Why or why not? What does it mean to “obey your parents in the Lord”?

Tuesday: Old Testament – Numbers 21:4-9  

         What consequences did Moses and Aaron receive because they did not do exactly what God had said? What does this tell you about how God views sin? How is Jesus like the bronze serpent that Moses put on the pole in the wilderness? How does Jesus’ death and resurrection remove the consequences of your sin?

Wednesday: Epistle – 1 Corinthians 1:18-25

         The cross Jesus died on is lost to history. We cannot return to Calvary to find our salvation. So, Christ brings the New Testament in His blood to us! According to 1 Cor. 1:21, what does God bring about through the preaching of Christ crucified?

Thursday: Holy Gospel – John 12:20-33

         In our reading on Tuesday, God had Moses hang a snake on a pole so that everyone who had been bitten would be saved when they looked up at it. Read John 12:31 with that pole in mind. What was the pole Jesus was “lifted up on”? How does Jesus being lifted up on the cross “draw all people to himself”? How does “lifting high the cross” (like we sing in the hymn) proclaim the “love of Christ”?

Friday: Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle (454)

No one who judged by common sense would say the spectacle of Jesus dying on the cross was anything but horrible. Yet the Scriptures and the Christian faith point to the cross as the greatest, most wonderful moment not only of Christ’s life but also of ours. It is a moment of great victory. That contrast and paradox is at the center of this hymn. The awful cross is in reality a “trophy,” a triumph, a tree of life. What words occur to you as you meditate on the cross? How many are positive (focused on salvation and forgiveness) and how many are focused on the sufferings of Christ? How are these groups of impressions and words related to each other?  – LCMS Worship Hymn of the Day Bible Studies: Feasts, Festivals, & Occasions, pg. 57

The Order of Meditation and Prayer

The sign of the cross + may be made by all in remembrance of their Baptism 

Invocation 

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Apostles’ Creed 

            I believe in the God the Father Almighty…

Verse of the Week 

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise),“that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” – Ephesians 6:1-3  

Bible Reading for the Day (From Upcoming Readings for Sun, Portals of Prayer, or other Daily meditation)

            This is the Word of the Lord. 

            Thanks be to God. 

Hymn of the Week  

How Clear Is Our Vocation, Lord (853)

Catechism Memory 

What is the Fourth Commandment

Honor your father and your mother. 

What does this mean?

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them.

Family Prayers 

For___________________, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.  

Lord’s Prayer 

Taught by our Lord and trusting in His promises, we are bold to pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven…