Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go this video link to hear the group 4 Him singing, Back To The Basics of Life, reminding today’s believers that we need to return, as the remnant of true believers in Christ, to a faith that is firmly rooted in our relationship with Christ.
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Highlight Passage – NKJV: Ezra 9: 9 [NKJV] …
9 For we were slaves. Yet our God did not forsake us in our bondage; but He extended mercy to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to revive us, to repair the house of our God, to rebuild its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and Jerusalem.
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Highlight Passage [Context] #1 – NKJV: Ezra 9: 5-9 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
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Highlight Passage [Context] #2 – NKJV: Ezra 10: 1-4 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
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Reference Passage #1 : 2nd Chronicles 7: 14 [NKJV] …
14 If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Reference Passage #2 : Nehemiah 1: 8-9 [NKJV] …
8 Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations; [Lev. 26: 33] 9 but if you return to Me, and keep My commandments and do them, though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens, yet I will gather them from there, and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for My name.’ [Deut. 30: 2-5]
Reference Passages #3: Romans 1: 18-32 [NKJV] … Go to this link … … yes, even when God leaves His people to their own selfish evil, He will bring a remnant through to reap the benefits of His covenant of mercy.
Reference Passage #4 : Romans 11: 5 [NKJV] …
5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry related an interesting bit of rural history in 19th century America. Apparently in those days when agriculture was dominant in the early history of America, farmers would clear the land to create the fields for their crops; but in doing so, they would leave one large tree, usually on the edge of the land, for the farmer who was working the field to have rest from the hot sun; and as pictured in the attached photo, this tree would be called “the tree of rest.”
Well, in the days of the Old Covenant (i.e., Old Testament), we know that God’s people were established as a “tree of rest” in the midst of sinful mankind, … a remnant of faith to follow God’s law and to show mankind, in obedience, that God held out a “tree of rest” (i.e., salvation) for the remnant of God’s people who were obedient to His covenant. However, we also know that the Israelites, even thought they were God’s chosen people, failed over and over again, falling back into their sinful ways. But from Old Testament history, there was always a remnant of steadfast believers which God brought through to be the place (i.e., the tree of rest) for others to see the results of thier faithfulness (see the Ezra and Nehemiah passages and 2nd Chronicles 7: 14 above).
Even under the New Covenant promises after the resurrection of Christ and the establishment of God’s New Testament church, God’s word documents that mankind will become engulfed in the evils of Satan, the world, and the flesh (see Romans 1: 18-32). But no matter how far mankind drifts from God’s will and His ways, there will always be a remnant who will come back and be the “tree of rest” for mankind (see Romans 11: 5).
I pray that all who read here are a part of that remnant tree of rest.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, keep me rooted in Your will and Your ways as a steadfast tree of rest for others to see You in me. … 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.
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