Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of Graham Kendrick leading a worship service and singing … Meekness and Majesty, proclaiming the reality of our lives becoming humble and meek examples of the Christ … Who lived, died, and was resurrected to show us how to live in the wake of His meekness and majesty.
Highlight Passage Luke 18: 14 [ESV] …
14 I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
… When we respond to the lives of others, do we try to exalt or humble ourselves?
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Highlight Context - Luke 18: 9-14 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus on our human tendency to be seen as above others
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Reference Passage #1 - 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 on shining His light of love for others to see.
Reference Passage #2 - 1st Corinthians 13: 4-7 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK … … Love shows itself in the way we see others - or try to be seen by others.
Reference Passage #3 - Philippians 2: 5-11 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul shows how we must seek to be humble as Christ was humble and meek.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Randy Kilgore, illustrated his main devotional theme by telling a personal story of hearing an account by a missionary and judging the man for putting his daughter in a special school to protect her safety. Kilgore was thinking, “I would never stoop to something like that with my daughter!”
In other words, the ODB author revealed that he judged the missionary for leaving his daughter behind in a boarding school while the missionary and his wife went off to a dangerous mission field. And with this story, Kilgore made reference to Jesus’ teaching in Luke 18: 9-14 [linked above] on how most of us, when we hear/see the lives of others try to exalt ourselves above that other one. And Jesus’ clear point was that our love for others, in Christlikeness, should cause us to humble, rather than exalt, ourselves. And only those who humble themselves before others will be exalted in glory.
OUCH!!! … Conviction!!! … How often in my trek to mature as a Christian have I tried to exalt myself to be seen as in control or feeling better than someone else? … Too often, I’m afraid! In my position as a ministry leader, I find myself, hearing the story of someone who is contrite and confessing his sins to me, feeling … “Well, at least my past sins were not as bad as this dude!” … Shame on my haughtiness!! I can be - in the parlance of Jesus’ Luke 18 parable - such a Pharisee at times! Let me pray today to seek the humility which Christ teaches and lived himself [see Philippians 2: 5-11].
My Prayer Today: Oh Lord, … I want to be a servant to others in humility just as You were for us. Help me to avoid exalting myself and tear away the Pharisee in me. 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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