Devotional Song: ... Go to this link … Please take the time to take in a video of Morgan Cryar singing the poignant song … What Sin, declaring the incredible reality that all of my sin, in my faith in Christ’s blood on the cross, was buried in God’s sea of forgetfulness. And how incredible is that??!!
Highlight Passage Mark 14: 10-11 [NKJV] …
10 Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Him to them. 11 And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. So he sought how he might conveniently betray Him.
… And Judas Iscariot did the deed.
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Highlight Context - Mark 14: 10-21 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus knowing selected His betrayer as part of His inner 12 Disciples … Why?
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Reference Passage #1 - Psalm 103: 12 [NKJV] …
12 As far as the east is from the west; … so far has He removed our transgressions from us.
… My Lord has wiped out my sin as far as the east is from the west … forever!!!
Reference Passage #2 - Romans 5: 8 [NKJV] …
8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
… A wonder that Jesus selected Judas Iscariot as a beloved Disciple; … but even more wondrous, TO ME, that He selected and saved me !!
Reference Passage #3 - Ephesians 4: 1 [NKJV] …
1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, …
… So, may I live my life in worthiness to His sacrifice on behalf of this sinner who now has become a saint in God’s eyes.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread devotional entry, authored by David C. Egnar, opened with an age-old question, … “Why would Jesus, being fully God, choose Judas Iscariot, whom the Lord knew would betray him, to be one of His chosen twelve Disciples?” … But a British Pastor, Joseph Parker, according to Egnar, when asked that question, turned it on himself by asking, “Why did He choose me?”
And that latter question, … “Why me?” … the ODB title which I steal for my blog today … was raised in my mind a few years ago when I traveled to Jerusalem and stood on the spot archeologists firmly believe was the spot where Jesus was nailed to the cross [those are my feet in the attached photo standing on those stones where Jesus was nailed to the tree]. I looked down as I took that attached photo of my feet; and I wept, realizing that it was my sin which nailed my Lord to that cross; and yet, knowing all I had done in my past life … all the times I rejected Him … all the times I was unfaithful to my wife … all the times - well, you get the picture!! Yet, when I came to Him and confessed it all and sought His saving grace, He was incredibly willing to welcome me into His kingdom and His family.
He saved … ME!!!
The Psalmist wrote it in Psalm 103: 12 and the Apostle Paul declared as much in Romans 5: 8, both passages above, that when I was willing to accept God’s free offering of His saving grace, He was willing to set my past, present, and yes, even my future sins apart from me … as far as the east is from the west; and as Morgan Cryar sings in the linked song, … God has buried my sins in the sea of His forgetfulness.
Incredible, isn’t it? But it’s true; and all I can think and say in this moment of meditation and reflection is HALLELUJAH!!! And as Paul wrote in Ephesians 4: 1, I will endeavor to do what he exhorted in this letter … to live worthy of my calling into the kingdom of God.
How about you? Will you declare “HALLELUJAH!” with me today, striving to be worthy of His calling … more today than yesterday … more tomorrow than today?
My Prayer Today: Dear Lord, in spite of my sinfulness, you took the nails for me on that cross; and now because of it, I can live forever with You, dear King Jesus! … So, my heart cries … HALLELUJAH!! … 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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