Thursday, October 20, 2016

October 20, 2016: The Long Road Home

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 294  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of lyrics and a 60s classic with Paul McCartney singing … Long and Winding Road, poignantly singing of the road of life, which is truly one that is long and winding, ending with my plea to God … “to lead me to Your door.”


Highlight Verse[s]: John 14:16-18 [NKJV] …  
16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. 
 … One man standing in the presence of God’s creation realizing that through God’s mercy it all was created for us.
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Highlight Context: John 14:15-21 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK 
 … Jesus, about to leave His Disciples, promises to return but leave His Spirit as their “helper” in dealing with the long road ahead.
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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. 
… Trusting God will lead us to His eternal door.

Reference Passage #2 … Hebrews 13:5 [NKJV] …  
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” [from Deut. 31:6,8] 
… God’s promise to ALWAYS be with His beloved ones.

My Journal for Today:  … Our Daily Bread author, Bill Crowder, in teaching about the long road of our life, used a personal story from the 1960s with which I strongly identify.  He wrote: I grew up in the rebellious 1960s and turned my back on religion. I had attended church all my life but didn’t come to faith until my early twenties after a terrible accident. Since that time, I have spent my adult years telling others of Jesus’s love for us. 
It has been a journey. Certainly “a journey” describes life in this broken world. On the way we encounter mountains and valleys, rivers and plains, crowded highways and lonely roads—highs and lows, joys and sorrows, conflict and loss, heartache and solitude. We can’t see the road ahead, so we must take it as it comes, not as we wish it would be. 

I think we all can identify with this “journey” of life we’re on, can’t we? And as John McCartney sang, back in the days the ODB author wrote about, life truly is a “long and winding road.” But the question from this ODB entry for all reading here is … “Where is our road leading?” And as McCartney ends his song (linked above), I take great comfort knowing that my road, no matter how harried or difficult it will be to travel, is leading to God’s door of heaven.

How about you?

My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … I know that You’re always with me on this road; and You are leading me home. 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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