Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing Let My Words Be Few, … letting our life show how much we love Jesus.
Highlight Passage: Matthew 21: 32 [NKJV] …
32 For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him; but tax collectors and harlots believed him; and when you saw it, you did not afterward relent and believe him.
… To the religious leaders of His day, Jesus reminded them how they responded to John the Baptist’s call for repentance, telling them straight where they stood as disobedient sons of God.
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Highlight Context – Matthew 21: 28-32 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’ parable of two sons, … one obedient and one disobedient; … which are we?
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Reference Passage #1 - Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Flat out - this is how Jesus expected His disciples to live.
Reference Passage #2 - Romans 12: 1-2 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Let us be “living sacrifices” and let our lives - our actions - show who we are in Christ.
Reference Passage #3 - Galatians 5: 22-23 [NKJV] …
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.
… Life-affirming actions are the fruit of God’s Spirit; … hence, we are to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.
Reference Passage #4 - 1st John 3: 18 [NKJV] …
18 My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth.
… About as clear as God’s word can say it. He honors what we do as the fruit of His Spirit.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Dave Branon, interprets a quote from Matthew Henry, who used a plant analogy when writing of our words and promises as opposed to our deeds and actions. Henry wrote, ”Buds and blossoms are not fruit.” Whereas Branon wrote, … [Our] … “Words are the blossoms, … action the fruit.”
And that was the essence of what Jesus put before the religious leaders of his day in the parable about two young men in Matthew, Chapter 21 [linked above]. One son was reluctant to follow his father, … first balking on a promise, but ultimately doing what the dad requested. The other son, said he would do what the father asked; but then did not. And Jesus, indicating that the religious leaders had taught that righteousness was their lives, when they were unwilling to follow what John the Baptist had preached. And then, to the dismay of the Pharisees, Jesus said that there were tax-collectors and harlots who would be heaven bound because they had repented of their sins to the preaching Jesus’ cousin.
Which are we? Are we those who live by promises; or are we those who show our love of our Lord with our actions? Will we promise to follow our Lord (see Luke 9: 23) and then do life our own way; or will we actually become a “living sacrifice” (as Paul preached in Romans 12: 1-2) with the fruit of the Spirit being evident in how we live (see Galatians 5: 22-23)?
Today, I’m praying I can SHOW OFF the fruit of God’s Spirit (see attached photo) and “let my words be few,” as the linked song goes, … showing my love of the Lord by the way I live.
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … let me show the fruit of Your Spirit in how I live today. … 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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