Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Nichole Nordeman singing, Finally Free, … declaring the truth that in Christ we can finally be free from our prideful and selfish sinfulness. Christ is the only answer to the core of our sin - PRIDE.
Highlight Passage: Ezra 7: 6 [NKJV] …
6 - this Ezra came up from Babylon; and he was a skilled scribe in the Law of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given. The king granted him all his request, according to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.
… God gave Ezra the discernment to see and grieve the sin of God’s people
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Highlight Context – Ezra 9: 1-9 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Ezra recognized that the pride of God’s people was at the heart their rebellion and sin.
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Reference Passage #1 - Luke 1: 37 [NKJV] …
37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”
… Jesus said it to Mary … with God nothing is impossible - even overcoming the core of our sin nature - pride!
Reference Passage #2 - Galatians 2: 20 [NKJV] …
20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
… Once crucified with Christ - in faith - I can be free of the core of my sinfulness - pride!
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Tim Gustafson, today’s ODB author, tells a personal story to illustrate a core teaching about sin. He writes, … “He thinks he’s really something!” That was my friend’s assessment of a fellow Christian we knew. We thought we saw in him a spirit of pride. We were saddened when we learned that he soon was caught in some serious misdeeds. By elevating himself, he had found nothing but trouble. We realized that could happen to us as well. … It can be easy to minimize the terrible sin of pride in our own hearts. The more we learn and the more success we enjoy, the more likely we are to think we’re “really something.” Pride is at the core of our nature.
Gustafson goes on to refer biblically to Ezra when he was given the opportunity to go back to Jerusalem from captivity in Babylon to rebuild the Temple. And in that process Ezra recognized just how far the Israelites had fallen pray to their sin nature; and the grief of this Spirit-led soldier of God was great (see the highlight passage in Ezra 9). But Ezra also had faith in God’s willingness (and ability) to forgive and provide repentance by God’s people to their prideful sin.
And so do we have the ability - IN CHRIST - to repent of our core sin and be forgiven by the same God who can (and will) forgive His chosen people. In the New Covenant we now serve THE ONE Who came to save all mankind from the core of our sin nature - PRIDE. And as the truth is expressed by Luke (see Luke 1: 37) … nothing is impossible with God! And when we’re willing (and able) to surrender to Christ’s lordship and die to self, we can - and will - be free from our prideful nature. (Hear it in the song, sung by Nichole Nordeman linked above.)
I pray that all who read here with me are walking in that freedom.
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, Jesus! … Thank You for setting me free from myself. … 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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