Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from the group, The Judds, singing their 1990 classic … Love Can Build a Bridge … poignantly singing of how God’s love, manifest in those who love Him, changes the world.
Seeing God's love in Santo Domingo
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Highlight Verse[s]: Matthew 5:46 [ESV] ... 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
… Jesus: Loving the lovable is easy. It’s when you’re able to love your enemies that we find God’s love manifest.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 3:15-18 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Jesus preached that God’s love goes WAY BEYOND the love exhibited by man.
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Reference Passage : … John 13:34-35 [ESV] … 34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
… Jesus commands His disciples (that’s us!) to love one another, like He loves us, … so that others may see the love of God manifest in us.
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, the night before the cross, taught His disciples (and us now) that it is those who obey His word who will experience the love of God manifest in their lives.
Reference Passage : … 1 John 4:7-12 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru John, teaches about the extent of God’s love manifest in the way Christians live.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Sheridan Voysey, uses a story about seeing God’s love manifest in slum neighborhoods in South America. … The ODB author wrote: I once visited an impoverished neighborhood of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. [see photo] Homes were made of corrugated iron, with electrical wires dangling live above them. There I had the privilege of interviewing families and hearing how churches were helping to combat unemployment, drug use, and crime. …
We visited a … neighborhood, but there we had no problem. Later I discovered why. As I visited each home, a gang leader stood outside guarding us. It turned out his daughter was being fed and educated by the church, and because believers were standing by her, he stood by us.
But I’m sure my fellow readers realize that one doesn’t have to go to foreign lands to see the love of God on display. I see it every week in the hearts of men who gather together, helping one another walk free from past patterns of sexual sin [use this link]. You may see it in a daughter who breast feeds your little grandchild; … or maybe even in your son who is on a military deployment in the Middle East.
As Jesus preached (see Scriptures above), we see God’s love on display in the hearts and lives of anyone who is truly sold out to obey God’s word and serve His kingdom without consideration of self. And when we see it, in Santo Domingo … or in your own family, … we see God’s love shining thru the way His children [that’s us, friends!] follow Him and live for Him.
I pray we see much of it today.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Jesus, … for infusing those who obey and follow You with Your love to share with others.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me, to open up and share God’s selfless love with others today. 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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