Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2013 - Day 253
Devotional Song: Go to this link ...
Please take in this poignant and powerful call, sung by an unknown Irish worship group, … singing Be Thou My Vision, calling to the hearts of all Christians to join our spirits with the One Who rules in our hearts, … God’s Spririt.
Highlight meditation passage – 1st Corinthians 14: 15 [NLT]: …
15 Well then, what shall I do? I will do both. I will pray in the Spirit, and I will pray in words I understand. I will sing in the spirit, and I will sing in words I understand.
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Highlight reading study of 1st Corinthians, Chapters 14`: Go to this link …
Reference Passage #1: 1st Corinthians 12: 4-7 [Many varied gifts, all imparted from one Spirit for the common good of Christ’s body.] … [NLT] …
4 There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God Who does the work in all of us.
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.
Reference Passage #2: Ephesians 1: 17 [We need to pray as Paul did for fellow Christians and for ourselves, … that God will impart understanding as well as His gifting.] … [NLT] …
16 I have never stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, 17 asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you might grow in your knowledge of God.
Reference Passage #3: Colossians 1: 9-10 [Every day we seek to know God more intimately so that we can serve Him more faithfully and effectively.] … [NLT] …
9 So we have continued praying for you ever since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you a complete understanding of what He wants to do in your lives, and we ask Him to make you wise with spiritual wisdom. 10 Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and you will continually do good, kind things for others. All the while, you will learn to know God better and better.
Reference Passage #4: Romans 12: 1-2 [When our minds are given over to God’s Spirit, he can use our lives for God’s glory.] … [NLT] … If not memorized … GO TO THIS LINK …
My Journal for Today: As children of God we have a body, a mind, and a spirit; and as believing Christians, we are to surrender all of who we are to the One Who resides in our hearts, the Holy Spirit, so that He can rule our personal worship (i.e., our spirit), yielding our minds to the Lord to use our actions for His glory.
Today, as I was using Os Hillman’s devotional and reviewing my collection of personal worship songs, I came across a You Tube version of an old Irish hymn, Be Thou My Vision, which was translated from ancient Gaelic to English at the turn of the 20th century. The hymn calls all Christians to join their hearts and minds with God’s Spirit, making Him the guide to our lives, … our vision. And I challenge any reading with me here to go back and use the link above to hear this Irish chant, using your minds to read and grasp the lyrics imparted by song.
With the song today and the scriptures cited, my devotional study has brought to my mind the truth that God gave us our minds to surrender our spirit to God’s Spirit, Who resides in our hearts so that we can honor our Lord with our lives, … our choices and our actions. And by now, if you’ve followed my blogging for any period of time, you’ll know that I often end up coming back from my own scripture memory to Paul’s admonition in Romans 12: 1-2 to becoming worshipful lives of “living sacrifice,” whereby we, as followers of Christ, do all we can to give up our own selfish ways and the ways of the world to become living sacrifices of worship, 24/7, for our God, … our lives given over in surrender to God’s Spirit, thus becoming agents of power in this world to glorify God.
I don’t know about you; but my whole life has become “addicted” to my own search to know God, … to love God, … to obey God, … to serve God, … and in doing so, join with His Spirit, to glorify God. That’s why I’m here today; and that’s why I’ll be here tomorrow. And I will pray that we all join our minds and hearts to seek God’s Spirit in becoming more like Christ today than yesterday … and even more like Him tomorrow.
My Prayer for Today … Oh LORD, I pray to know You more tomorrow than today; … and I thank You for helping me to know You more today than yesterday. … Amen
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