Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please once again take the time to take in a video of Nichole Nordeman singing her uplifting song Finally Free proclaiming the reality we find as those who are no longer slaves of sin … those who’ve become slaves to Christ, Who has set us free from the bondage of our sin.
Highlight Passage Romans 6: 19 [NKJV] …
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.
… Sin used to have us in its grip; … but no longer! In Christ we now have the power of God’s grace to resist the pull of sin.
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Highlight Context - Romans 6: 16-23 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… No longer slaves of sin … now slaves of righteousness.
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Reference Passage #1 - John 8: 31-36 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK ...
… Knowing and abiding in God’s word sets us free from the bondage of sin.
Reference Passage #2 - John 14: 21 [NKJV] …
21 He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
… Christlikeness is manifest in those who keep His word (i.e, His commands).
Reference Passage #3 - Romans 12: 1-2 [NKJV] …
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
… Now we’re free to walk away from our sin nature and become free, living sacrifices in Christ
Reference Passage #4 - 1st Corinthians 10: 13 [NKJV] …
13 No temptation (or trial, trouble, or tribulation) has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, … Who will not allow you to be tempted (or tried) beyond what you are able. But with the temptation (or tribulation) will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it.
… We can deal with any temptation when we surrender our will to His and be a slave to the Savior rather than being a slave to self.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, David Roper, illustrates his blog today with a personal story of a frightening incident. He writes of being very close to the entry hole into the Kuna lava tube in Kuna, Idaho. Looking down into the darkness of that cave, Roper reports feeling drawn to get closer to the opening; and he almost slipped and fell into the cave. He said, "I felt a moment of heart-pounding terror and stepped away from the opening."
And Roper’s story does illustrates how curiosity can draw us toward the darkness of temptation and sin. Have you ever felt drawn to some very tempting image online or felt the lure of lust drawing you closer to the dark opening to the cave of sin? … I sure have; but as I’ve grown closer and closer in a more abiding relationship with Christ, those instances are fewer and fewer; and I find myself more able to resist, using God’s empowering grace, to give me the ability to draw away from the entry to darkness, … staying in the Light of Christ.
Some four decades ago, I was a slave to sin and living in the darkness of my own self-imposed bondage to habitual sexual sin; but when I surrendered my will to Christ’s, as long as I maintain my bond-slave closeness with Christ, He gives me the strength to resist temptation and to avoid getting too close the edge of the darkness of that sin hole in my soul.
Please take the time to hear and meditate on today’s devotional song and those scripture passage above; and realize that in Christ we are free to be living sacrifices to our Master and Savior, Jesus. I pray that today for all of us.
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … I pray that all who come here today will be able to stay away from the edge of any dark hole of temptation and walk in freedom from our own selfishness and sinfulness. … 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, distributed online via email by RBC Ministries. If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.
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