Sunday, January 17, 2016

January 17, 2016: In the Garden

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 17  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a video of Gordon Mote singing his song … Don’t Let Me Miss the Glory, singing his prayer that God would not let any Christian to miss the glory He has for mankind in this life as we prepare to be with Him in His glory.


Highlight Passage:   1st Corinthians 14:26 [NKJV] …  
26 How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. 
 … We are to be His body in the garden - forever!
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Highlight Context – 1st Corinthians 14:6-12, 26 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK  …  
… A God’s Body, we are to work together in unity for mutual edification and His glory. 
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Reference Passage #1 … Genesis 2:8-25 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… That first garden where mankind could work, walk, and worship with their God.

Reference Passage #2 … Romans 12 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… God’s body being a living testimony of sacrifice for His glory.

Reference Passage #3 … John 15: 1-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
… Walking and living in the garden with and for our Savior.

My Journal for Today:  Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Julie Ackerman Link, uses the word picture of a garden to depict how God has pictured our life, walking with Him and serving Him in glory. She writes … The world-class botanical garden across the street from our church was the setting for an all-church community gathering. As I walked around the gardens greeting people I have known for years, catching up with those I hadn’t seen recently, and enjoying the beautiful surroundings cared for by people who know and love plants, I realized that the evening was rich with symbols of how the church is supposed to function—a little hint of heaven on earth. 

It is true for Christians, that God does give us what I call “glimpses of glory” as we walk with Him in life. And being in a beautiful, well-kept garden (see attached photo) can be such a “hint of heaven,” as the ODB author calls it. Of course, we all know that mankind’s original and glorious interaction with God took place in a garden of His creation. And it was a place where His primo creation, Adam and Eve, could walk with God, work for God, and worship their God in glorious surroundings [see Genesis 2]. But we know how that glorious scenario became perverted; and God’s chosen were banished from that garden.

 And the Apostle Paul, in his attempt to come back from a similar rejection of God, was teaching those who’d been given by Christ a way back into the garden how to walk with the Lord (see the 1st Cor. 14 and Rom. 12 passages); and he exhorted them to live in harmony, using their gifts and working for God’s glory TOGETHER so that they could experience any glimpse of His glory in this life.

 And Jesus, the Lamb of God, Who came to walk among mankind and let them see and experience God in the flesh, taught His beloved Disciples about what it took for them to experience Kingdom living by using a garden-like word picture in John 15 (see link above).

 Bottom-line, my fellow Christian, … we need to walk in the garden of life, with other Christians, serving our Lord TOGETHER in harmony … and for His glory. Because when we do, He will give us glimpses of what’s ahead in the final GARDEN OF LIFE in glory. And as Gordon Mote sings in the song linked above … I don’t want to miss the glory, … DO YOU?

My Prayer Today:  Heavenly Father, … Lord, … As I walk with and for You, Lord, don’t let me miss the glory. 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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