Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to once again take in a video of images from Steve Green singing Find Us Faithful exhorting Christians to join together in faithful witness to and for our Lord, Jesus Christ … and THEN ON TO THIS LINK to hear Steve Green singing another charge from our Lord … People Need The Lord .
Highlight Passage: Ephesians 4: 16 [NKJV] …
16 … from Whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.
… When we are joined TOGETHER - in our mutual relationship with Christ - we gain His empowering grace to go forth as a united witness for His glory.
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Highlight Context – Ephesians 4: 1-16 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… All of His body, walking in worthy pursuit of Christlikeness and becoming faithful witnesses to His glory here on earth.
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Reference Passage #1 - Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] …
23 If any one would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.
… Jesus’ charge to follow Him as HIS disciples.
Reference Passage #2 - Acts 1: 8 [NKJV] …
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
… Jesus charges all of His faithful disciples to not only follow Him but to be powerful witness, with the power of God’s Spirit … to the world …
Reference Passage #3 - Hebrews 12: 1 [NKJV] …
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, …
… Running the race of life as witnesses - TOGETHER - as the body of Christ …
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Poh Fang Chia, relates a true story of a potential disaster … as a man was boarding a train in Perth, Australia. In the process the man got his leg caught between the train and the station platform. Immediately some passengers enlisted everyone on the platform to push the train away from the platform, creating a gap, which allowed others to pull the man to safety and avoiding a leg crushing incident. The story, of course, illustrates the power of people working in unison … TOGETHER … (yes I know that’s redundant!) … to accomplish a worthy goal.
And that’s what the Apostle Paul was exhorting Christians in Ephesus [and us, by extention] to do by joining in the Body of Christ, to work toward the goal which Christ has charged all Christians toward when He was returned, after resurrection, to Heaven (see Acts 1: 8). As His remaining “BODY,” left on earth, we are to join the great cloud of unified witnesses and take the Gospel of Christ with the Power of God’s Spirit to the entire world.
Really, … I don’t need to write any more than that which is forged for us in the exhortations above from God’s word. So, let’s get out there and be Christlike worthy witnesses … because as Steve Green sings in the 2nd song above, … “People need the Lord!!”
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … help me to join with my brothers and sisters in Christ to be Your witnesses everyday in this life. … 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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