February 5, 2023 … We Can Only Imagine …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2023 - Day 36 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from the group Mercy Me singing  … I Can Only Imagine … poignantly and powerfully singing about how we Christians can only imagine what it will be like what it will be like when we are with Jesus in Heaven..   

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Highlight Passage: … 2Corinthians 5:8 [NLT] … 

8 Yes, we are fully confident, and we would rather be away from these earthly bodies, for then we will be at home with the Lord.  

… Paul is confident in teaching truth to fellow Christians that to be absent from the body in death for born-again believers is to be present with the Lord in Heaven,                                                                                              

Highlight Passage (Context): … 2Corinthians 5:1-10 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK …  

…  Paul helps fellow Christians realize what it will be like to have new bodies in Heaven.    

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Reference Passage: … Ecclesiastes 12:7 [NLT] … 

7 For then the dust will return to the earth, and the spirit will return to God who gave it.. 

… God’s wisdom, thru Solomon, promising the return to the Lord in death for those who are His chosen ones in life. 

Reference Passage: … John 5:24 [NLT] … 

24 “I tell you the truth, those who listen to my message and believe in God who sent me have eternal life. They will never be condemned for their sins, but they have already passed from death into life. 

… Jesus declares the religious leaders of His day that He is the Son of God and anyone who believes in Him as Messiah will pass from death into life.

Reference Passage: … John 11:25 [NLT] …

25 Jesus told her [the Samaritan woman at the well], “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 

… Jesus teaches truth about the resurrection from death to life for those who believe in Him as Lord and Savior.                 

Reference Passage: … 1Corinthians 15:42-44 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK  ...

… Paul teaches about the new bodies we, born-again believers, will have in Heaven.

Reference Passage: … Romans 6:23 [NLT] … 

23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.  

… Paul assures Christians that eternal life is the gift in death to all true believes in Christ.            

                                                                             

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, l?Xochitl Dixon … AT THIS LINK …   shared a story of getting to know a friend she met in church who was singing the new song, ”I Can Only Imagine,” - [See song link].  And learning that the woman had been diagnosed with terminal cancer that song and their prayers took on more potent and powerful meaning.   

Oh I can remember when my dad was slowing going thru painful maladies before he died,  And every time I visited him in his nursing care facility, being a relatively new Christian, he wanted me to read to him from the Bible about the new body he would have in Heaven (see 2Cor 5 and 2Cor 15), because he knew - and believed - that he would not have to deal with anymore pain when he would be with Jesus in Heaven.  

And that’s where he is now; and I can only imagine what that’s like for my dad and for all of us one day when we with our King Jesus in Heaven.                    

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for Your promises of what it’s going to be like for me - and all born-again believers - in Heaven.                

My Prayer Today:: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to just imagine what it’s going to be like to be with Your, Lord, in heaven.           Amen

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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.