Devotional Song: Go to this link … Please go to this You Tube video link to hear the group 4Him singing their call to righteousness Back To The Basics, where Christians are called to return to basics of Christlikeness in the process of sanctification.
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Highlight Passage – NKJV: 2nd Peter 1: 8 [lKJV] …
8 If these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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Highlight Passage [Context] – NKJV: 2nd Peter 1: 2-11 [NKJV] … Go to this link …
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Reference Passages #1 Matthew 6: 33 [NKJV] …
33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Reference Passages #2 Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] …
23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. …”
Reference Passages #3 Galatians 5: 22-23 …
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Reference Passages #4 Philippians 1: 6 …
6 … being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; …
Reference Passages #5 2nd Peter 1: 5-7 [NKJV] … From today’s ODB: “ Christlike living and effective service result from a process [of growth] in eight areas of spiritual development: faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love.”
My Journal for Today: “Sanctification” is one of those theological terms which often misdirects us as Christians. It is THE BASICS of Christian living as the group 4Him sings in the linked song above. However, living in this complicated and demanding world can often cause us to focus more on the problems of living rather than the process of living. That’s what my Our Daily Bread devotional centered on today – helping us to do what 4Him sang about … to get “Back to the Basics” of the Christian’s life.
Actually both of the Apostles Peter and Paul were trying to get Christians of their day to do exactly that when they wrote to the churches in Asia Minor, exhorting them to understand what the basics of the Christian life were all about. Each of them posed a list of the fruit of God’s Spirit upon which Christians should do all they (we) could (can) to develop in Christlikeness. Paul’s check list for sanctification is found in Galatians 5: 22-23 and Peter’s in 2nd Peter 1: 5-7; and it would be a powerful exercise in Christian discipleship to set these lists before us and see where we stand in the process of doing what God promised for all Christians in Philippians 1: 6 - to complete us, by our surrender as Jesus commanded in both Matthew 6: 33 and Luke 9: 23.
If I asked any who read here, “Do you really desire to live and become as much like Christ as possible in this life,” I assume 100% of us would respond affirmatively. Well, if that’s the case, perhaps we all need to use Peter’s and Paul’s lists to help us see how we’re doing in our pursuit of Christlikeness.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, help me to be more fruitful in my desire to become more like You. … 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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