August 12, 20147 … Follow the Leader Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please go this video link to hear Daniel O’Donnell singing a song of Christian witness and commitment, Here I Am Lord, proclaiming the power of our witness when we surrender all to Jesus.
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Highlight Passage - 1st Peter 2: 11-12 [NKJV] …
11 Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, 12 having your conduct honorable amount the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation.
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Highlight Passage [Context] - 1st Peter 2: 9-12 [NKJV] … GO TO THIS LINK
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Reference Passage #1 - Matthew 5: 16 [NKJV] … Repeating from yesterday’s ODB devotional, Christ’s admonition to disciples as to our witness to others …
16 Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven.
Reference Passage #2 - Acts 1: 8 [NKJV] … Once again as well, Jesus declares …
8 And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will become witness to Me in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the utmost part of the earth.
My Journal for Today: In this morning’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, the author, Randy Kilgore, relates an incident where a friend of his was attacked by bees in close proximity with another friend. The first friend received several bee stings, the second only one or two. The first friend, however, had almost no reaction to his multiple stings; but the second friend was allergic to bee stings and had a severe allergic reaction to his few stings.
Kilgore used the story to illustrate that our words/actions can be like the bee stings in the story. Though our words may be few or our actions seemingly benign to some, either can have profound effects upon others whom we have more personal influence. The old adage, “sticks and stones may hurt my bones, but words will never hurt me, “ is TOTALLY FALSE; because our words may not affect some; but they can often have a drastic negative affect upon others, especially if those words open old wounds or are not in accord with our perceived character.
Have you ever been sorely disappointed or hurt when the words of a friend just don’t fit what you perceived their character to be? Or have you been let down when a Christian, with whom you had deep respect, is revealed to have had a deep fall into some form of socially unacceptable behavior? How do you feel when a highly respected Christian leader is “busted” in the media and revealed to have fallen into sexual sin? Or very personally, how do you feel when a Christian friend is uncovered to have lied to you?
The Apostle Peter, in writing to Christians who were being severely persecuted for their faith (see today’s highlight passages), exhorted these believers to stand firm in their faith, because Peter strongly proclaimed the power that the words/actions of these mostly Jewish Christians would have upon the minds/hearts of the Gentiles, mostly Romans, who were persecuting these first century Christians.
What we do or say as Christians will be the light which Jesus commanded His disciples to become (see Matt. 5: 16; and those words/deeds will become the witness Jesus exhorted believers to share with the world after The Savior left the world and ascended in Heaven after His resurrection.
Therefore, … today, … let us all examine our witness, i.e., the character others perceive in our lives, and then let us go forth, with what we say and do, shining the Light of Christ for all to see.
My Prayer for Today … Lord, just as I prayed yesterday in my devotional blog, … I pray that I go out and shine Your powerful light through all I think, say, and do to be a powerful witness in my world for Your glory. ... Amen
Blogger Note: Every day 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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