Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from the group Sidewalk Prophets singing Live Like That ... powerfully singing of the need for Christians to live and walk like Jesus.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Philippians 2:5 [NLT] ... 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
... Jesus was counter-culture and so should we be.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Philippians 2:1-11 [NLT] ... USE THIS LINK ... .
.. God, thru Paul, is calling fellow Christians to live like, to walk like, and to BE LIKE Jesus.
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Reference Passage : ... Matthew 5:1-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK ...
... Jesus’s call in the Sermon on the Mount was all about charging God’s elect to follow His lead and walk differently than the world.
Reference Passage : ... Luke 9:23 [NLT] ... 23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me. … “
... Jesus calls His disciples (that’s us!) to deny ourselves and follow Him.
Reference Passage : ... Romans 12:2 [NLT] ... 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
... God, thru Paul, calls us, as Christians, to avoid copying the ways of the world.
Reference Passage : ... Galatians 5:16-17 [NLT] ... 16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. 17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires.
... Living like Jesus goes against our basic human nature.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Winn Collier, uses a reference to the Apostle Paul, in Philippians, calling Christians to live counter to the culture and to live and walk in the world like Jesus. … The ODB author wrote: A life that [i.e., following Christ] runs counter to the norm is inevitable for those who would truly imitate Jesus. Philippians tells us that Jesus, though His “very nature” was God, didn’t move in the predictable ways we would expect (2:6). He didn’t use His power “to his own advantage,” but “rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant” (vv. 6–7). Christ, the Lord of creation, surrendered to death for the sake of love. He didn’t seize prestige but embraced humility. He didn’t grab power but relinquished control. Jesus, in essence, walked backward—counter to the power-driven ways of the world.
Fellow Christian, … does doing all try can to follow Jesus, as Jesus and Paul called us to do in the passages cited above, make you feel like walking as illustrated in the attached photo, … in a counter-culture direction? If so, dear one, we are walking in the right direction, … just as Jesus called us to walk, … by following Him (see Luke 9:23); … and just like the group Sidewalk Prophets sing in the linked song?
And that calling, … from our Lord, … is why the Apostle Paul, who had discovered just how counter to the culture following Jesus was, wrote often to other Christians charging us to overcome our nature and avoid following the world (see Pauline reference passages above).
The question is … ARE WE?
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for Your empowering grace to be able fo follow You.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me to set ourselves on a counter-culture direction by following our Lord. … 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.</ span>
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