March 14, 2023 …Game Changing Love …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2023 - Day 73 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Kyle Simon singing … Love Your Enemies … poignantly singing how we Christians are called by God’s world to love even our enemies in life, just as Christ showed us. 

Truly game-changing love ... 

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Highlight Passage: … Luke 6:27-28 [NLT] … 

27 “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. 28 Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.   

…Jesus teaches about loving one’s enemies.            

Highlight Passage (Context): … Luke 6:27-31 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK …  

…God shows how faithful Christians run the race of life God has set before u s.       .                   

===============                                                                     .                                                                                                         .  

Reference Passage: …  Proverbs 25:21-22 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

…God, thru Solomon, calles on His people, to show love for even our enemies.  

Reference Passage: …  John 13:34-35 [NLT] … 

34 So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. 35 Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”   

… Jesus teaches His any who believe in Him to love each other as HE loves us. .    

Reference Passage: … 1Corinthians 13:4-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul shows fellow Christians what Christine love is all about.   

Reference Passage: … Ephesians 5:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul once again teaches fellow Christians that we muse show Christlike love to all others. 

                                                                                                            

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Patricia Raybon … AT THIS LINK …  shows how Christlike love can be a game-in life by what happened in the 1963 NCAA Basketball tourney when the captains of the Mississippi State team shook hands with the captain of the Loyola team <b>(see photo)</b>, … the first time MSU had played an integrated team.  It was a social game changer in days where segregation and raisin separated African Americans from whites, especially in the Southern American states.  

And that’s what Jesus represented, calling on all who believed in Him as Lord and Savior to love others - yes, even our enemies - like He has loved ALL others by dying on the cross to save us from our divisive sinfulness.  So, taking in the linked song and the Scriptures above, I think we must ask ourselves what we are doing - or can do - to show Christlike love for others today … and then again tomorrow.  

And when we do that, we’ll be like those two players who shook hands in that 1963 basketball game, … showing off God’s love to any/all who need to see and express Christlike love to others.  How about it, my friend.  Let’s shank hands and get in the game of life together, showing Christ’s love for one another.                                              

y THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for modeling Your call for us to love one another.    .

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to live and follow Your call, Lord, for us to love one another as You have loved us.  …  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 -n the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.