Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song, images, and lyrics from Michael W Smith singing … Friends Are Friends Forever … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, will have friends forever when we share a friendship with our Lord.
Internet Connectivity
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Highlight Verse[s]: Proverbs 27:10 [ESV] ... 10 Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend, and do not go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity. Better is a neighbor who is near than a brother who is far away.
… Solomon provides valuable Godly wisdom about the closeness of friendships in community.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Proverbs 27:1-10 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Solomon writes of the value of friends and the community of neighbors.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 27:17, 18:24 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Godly wisdom on the value of close friendships.
Reference Passage : … Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 [ESV] … 9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. 10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
… Solomon, reflecting on his life and failures, exhorts fellow believers to value their close friendships in life.
Reference Passage : … John 15:13 [ESV] … 13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
… Jesus shows that a close friend would even be willing to die for a real friend.
Reference Passage : … Colossians 3:12-14 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul shows that Christlike love is what binds real friends together.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Kirsten Holmberg, shows that the Internet can connect people; but it’s close friendship and community which bond people closely together. … The ODB author wrote: Our neighborhood, like many others, uses a website to help neighbors connect immediately with those surrounding them. In my community, members warn one another of mountain lion sightings and wildfire evacuation orders, as well as supply one another with child care when the need arises. It has even proven to be a resource for locating runaway pets. By leveraging the power of the internet [see photo], those living near one another are connecting again in ways that are often lost in today’s fast-paced world.
The Internet can be a great tool to connect and communicate with friends or loved ones who live far away; or even to kindle new friendships. However, there’s nothing like the closeness and community of sharing life with a neighbor, a dear family member, or close friends who are in close proximity. And as Michael W Smith sings, when close friends share a close friendship with Jesus Christ, all of the truths in the Scriptures above come to bear on those relationships, which are bonded forever in a mutual relationship with Christ.
Dear one, have you ever been on a plane and met a total stranger whom you discover shares a love of Jesus with you? It’s like - all of a sudden - your connection is blessed by God’s closeness; and it’s like you’ve been - and will be - friends forever. I pray my readers here have many such experiences and have many such friends in your lives.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for blessing my life with many, many mutual friends of Yours.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to do all we can to bless those whom God has brought into our lives as friends. 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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