A DEVOTIONAL THOUGHT: Our Lutheran Church celebrated the 495th anniversary of the Confession of Augsburg. This document, read by Christian Beyer before Emperor Charles V and the Roman Catholic leaders, on June 25, 1530, gave witness to the Christian faith in our Triune God, who sent Jesus to forgive us our sins. We receive this justification through faith in Christ not by works, as Article XX so boldly asserts (the longest article in the Augsburg Confession) and as stated so clearly by St Paul in Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace are you saved through faith, and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God--not the result of works, so that no one may boast."
