Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go to this video link to hear an anonymous praise group leading worship and singing the old hymn What A Friend We Have In Jesus, … praising our Lord, Jesus, for being our dearest friend.
=============
Highlight Passage – NKJV: Psalms 23: 4 [NKJV] …
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
============
Highlight Passage [Context] – NKJV: Psalms, Chapter 23 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
=============
Reference Passage #1: John 15: 15 [NKJV] …
15 No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.
Reference Passage #2: 2nd Corinthians 12: 9 [NKJV] …
9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
My Journal for Today: Are you a Facebooker?
Isn’t it incredible that I have over 500 “FRIENDS” on Facebook; but how many of them would you say are really my CLOSE friends? It’s really amazing that in these days of SOCIAL MEDIA we are inundated with many online APPS to connect us with other humans on the planet; yet, there are people with millions of Facebook “friends,” media icons, many of whom are seen daily with an entourage; and some of them commit suicide because they are without one really … good … friend.
But we go back and read in the Bible of two of the great believers, David, the shepherd boy and the Apostle Paul, … both of whom, for much of their lives, lived or traveled alone, in isolation, where trials/tribulations followed them; but they did not despair because each of them had a deep and abiding friendship with the living God.
David wrote one of his most famous songs (i.e., Psalms), Psalm 23 [linked above], when he was isolated, out in the desert, ALONE, watching over a herd of sheep. And we know he encountered attacks from bears and lions; and yet, he did not despair because, as we read in Psalm 23: 4, young David felt the strength of his friendship with the living God as he traversed through “the valleys of the shadow of death.”
And the Apostle Paul, as he wrote in 2nd Cor. 12: 9, when he, in isolation, encountered the pain of some “thorn” in his life, was comforted by his friendship with His Lord, realizing that Jesus would give him the strength to endure the pain of the moment.
My “friend,” and though in reading this you may not consider that I am one of those FRIENDS who’d die for you, … we, who identify ourselves as “CHRISTIANS,” do have a real, true, FRIEND. And He’s One Who has already died for us, saying, in John 15: 15, that He no longer considers us slaves. No, … our Lord and Savior, rather calls us, … His “FRIEND.”
And as the old southern gospel song rings true (see link above), What a friend we have in Jesus!”
My Prayer for Today … Oh, Lord, I’m overjoyed to know You as my Friend. … Amen
Blogger Note: Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled Our Daily Bread [TGIF], distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you’ll find a link to read the Our Daily Bread blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
No comments:
Post a Comment