Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Don Moen singing the old hymn Trust And Obey, … expressing the reality how we must live our lives trusting God’s ways and His will from His word
Highlight Passage: 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.”
… Oh how I pray He manifests Himself in me.
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Highlight Context – John 15: 10-20 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Keeping His commandments - i.e., surrender and obedience to God’s Spirit - is the essence of living a life in Christ
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Reference Passage #1 - Proverbs 3: 5-6 [NKJV] …
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths.
… Trust and obey, as the linked song above sings …
Reference Passage #2 - 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.
… God, thru Paul, exhorts Christians to live as daily living sacrifices avoiding the fires of the world.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Dennis Fisher, tells a personal story to illustrate his teaching. He writes … When I was a young boy, my mom warned me that I should never play with fire. Yet one day I decided to see what would happen if I did. Taking a book of matches and some paper, I went out into the backyard to experiment. With heart beating fast, I knelt on the ground, struck the match, and set the paper aflame. … Suddenly I saw my mother approaching. Not wanting to get caught, I put my legs over the flames to hide what I was doing. But Mom shouted, “Denny, move your legs! There’s a fire underneath them!” Fortunately, I moved my legs quickly enough and was not burned. I realized then that my mother’s rule about not playing with fire was not to spoil my fun but because of her concern to keep me safe.
How often do we encounter people who think that God is a “cosmic killjoy” … Who has all these “dos & don’t” in God’s word to make our lives restrictively miserable? When, in reality, God’s law and His word has been given to us that we would live the abundant life (see John 10: 10). And God wants, through His truth (i.e., in the Bible), to protect us from an enemy who stalks us (see 1st Peter 5: 8) and a world which would do us harm (see Romans 12: 2 above), as well as from our own deceitful hearts (see Jer. 17: 9). Really, ... God wants to do what Dennis Fisher’s mother was doing for him, … to protect a child who is playing with fire.
So the ODB entry today asks us (me), ”What are we doing in our lives to avoid playing with the fires out there in the world and from our own weaknesses when Satan tempts us to play with His fire?” I’m dealing with that challenge today; … as I feel you likely are yourself? And the only viable battle plan is to do what Don Moen sings in the linked song above … “Trust and Obey!”
My Prayer Today: Oh, my Lord, … Keep me away from the tempting flames the Devil uses to try and burn me. … 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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