January 8, 2016: No, His way!!

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 8  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a video of the lyrics from Frank Sinatra singing his anthem to egocentricity … My Way, expressing reality of many lives in this world, … living for self … and leading to an eternal separation for God.

Highlight Passage:   John 8:31-32 [NKJV] …  
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” 
… Abiding in His word will set you free!!
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Highlight Context – John 8:31-38 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK  …  
… “The Truth” is a person; and His Name is Jesus! And knowing Him and following Him sets us free from our slave master, sin.
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Reference Passage #1 … Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] …
 23 Then He said to them all (Jesus’ followers), “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me. … “ 
… The cost of being His disciple.

Reference Passage #1 … John 14:6 [NKJV] …  
6  Jesus said to him (a confused Thomas), “I am the way, THE TRUTH, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. “ 
… Jesus is the living truth; and the only way to freedom and The Father is through Him.

My Journal for Today:  Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Julie Ackerman Link, somewhat painfully reminded me of old excuses we make to keep ourselves as the center of our own universe (see attached photo), … a monument to our own egocentricity. And Frank Sinatra sang the personal anthem to that way of life in his song, linked above, … My Way.

 And when we use excuses in life, as author Link taught today, excuses like, “Everybody’s doing it,” as a teenager, or “It doesn’t hurt anyone else,” when we’re addicted to some sin pattern as adults, we’re saying what Sinatra sings, … to put ourselves at the center of our own universe, with the world revolving around my egocentric place in MY world.

 But Jesus had another idea, didn’t He? And in several of the Gospel messages (but in Luke 9:23 above), He expressed what it took to be His disciple; and His way was exactly opposite to that sung by “The Chairman.”

 And in today’s highlight passage from John 8, our Savior stated clearly Who He is and how following His way is the only way that we’ll ever find happiness and freedom from the slavery of our own sin … and that is to acknowledge Him as The way, THE TRUTH, and The life [see John 14: 6], as He had declared to a doubting Thomas and His Disciples just before He went to the cross.

 I pray, for all Who know Him as Savior and are reading here, that we surrender to THE TRUTH, and walk free from our selves.

My Prayer Today:  Heavenly Father, … You are THE TRUTH. Lead me in Your way, away from my self. I don’t want to do life MY WAY; … but Yours. 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.