Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … Please take the time to take in a video of three friends [Clay Crosse, Bob Carlyle, and Bebe Winans] singing… I Will Follow Christ, … declaring their desire as disciples of Christ to follow their Lord and pursue Christlikeness.
Highlight Passage 2nd Timothy 2: 1-2 [NKJV] …
1 You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things that you have heard from me among many witnesses, commit these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. …
… Paul mentors Timothy in discipling his flock for God’s Kingdom …
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Highlight Context - 2nd Timothy 2: 1-6 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
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Reference Passage #1: Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] …
16 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to follow Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. … “
… Jesus on the essence of discipleship.
Reference Passage #2: Matthew 28: 19: 20 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’s great commission for His Church to “make disciples!”
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by Poh Fang Chia, uses a story from a Chinese proverb to illustrate the essence of Christian discipleship. He writes … Chinese proverbs are common and often have stories behind them. The proverb “pulling up a crop to help it grow” is about an impatient man in the Song Dynasty. He was eager to see his rice seedlings grow quickly. So he thought of a solution. He would pull up each plant a few inches. After a day of tedious work, the man surveyed his paddy field. He was happy that his crop seemed to have “grown” taller. But his joy was short-lived. The next day, the plants had begun to wither because their roots were no longer deep.
The Apostle Paul, mentoring and patiently leading, his young disciple, Timothy, who had become the Pastor of the new church in Ephesus, writes of what it takes to follow Christ’s instructions on discipleship (see Luke 9: 23 copied above), when, in 2nd Timothy 2: 1-6, Paul instructs his young protege that he must model and lead others to pursue Christlikeness and then charge them to do the same with others.
The model is “teach one so that each one will teach one more!” (see 2nd Timothy 2: 2 above). The questions from this ODB entry today [at least for me] is, are we really Christ’s disciples; and are we doing all we can to “ follow Him” and “make disciples?” [see Luke 9: 23 and Matthew 28: 19]
Personally, I need to be planting more seeds and nurturing them in growth for God’s Kingdom.
My Prayer for Today … O Lord, … help me to plant more seeds for Your kingdom. … 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.
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