Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and song from an anonymous worship group singing … Heaven’s Child … poignantly singing of how Mary and Joseph must’ve pondered with wonder, after their baby was born, that this was “heaven’s child.”
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 2:19 [ESV] ... 19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
… Mary ponders and sees what her obedience to God, from the time the Angel came to her until after Heaven’s child was born.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 2:15-19 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Mary, after delivering her Baby, King Jesus, ponders what her obedience had brought about.
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Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [ESV] … 23 And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. … “
… Jesus commands that His disciples deny themselves and obediently follow Him.
Reference Passage : … John 14:21 [ESV] … 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
… Jesus charges His disciples (and that’s us too!!) to be obedient to His word if they truly loved and believed in Him.
Reference Passage : … Acts 1:8 [ESV] … 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
… Jesus’s last command to His disciples as He ascended back to Heaven after His resurrection … and that was to be His obedient witnesses in our time here on earth.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Elisa Morgan, uses an interesting word picture of stringing together obedient “Yeses,” being pictured like wearing a string of lovely pearls to honor our Lord. … The ODB author wrote: One Christmas, my grandmother gave me a beautiful pearl necklace. The beautiful beads glowed about my neck until one day the string broke. Balls bounced in all directions of our home’s hardwood flooring. Crawling over the planks, I recovered each tiny orb. On their own, they were small. But oh, when strung together, those pearls made such an impression! [see photo]
Interesting word picture, isn’t it [?];… a lovely pearl necklace, signifying a string of “yeses” in obedience to our Lord, as He calls for us to be His witnesses (see Acts 1:8. And then the ODB author illustrates such obedience and love for God (see John 14:21) by telling of Jesus’ mother, Mary, [see highlight passage] who strung together one obedient “YES” after another from the time she was visited by the Angel, Gabriel, until she gave birth to heaven’s child in that lowly manger [see linked song].
The question for us from this ODB entry obviously is … do we love our Lord enough to follow Him (see Luke 9:23) with our yeses, i.e., our string of pearls, … being obedient witnesses to His word, to show our King that we love Him. I pray today that we wear our pearl necklace of yeses as we move into the New Year as obedient witnesses of His love.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for giving is the ability to proudly wear a string of yeses as we witness to Your saving grace and love.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to show off God’s love for us by wearing a lovely string of obedient pearls into this upcoming new year. … 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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