Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of The Gettys, Keith and Krystyn singing Stuart Townsend’s song, By Faith,… declaring, in song, the faith of the all those who preceded us, walking in faith as sojourners on the way Home.
Highlight Passage: Hebrews 11:8 [NKJV] …
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going.
… Abraham, God’s prime example of Old Covenant, saving faith.
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Highlight Context – Hebrews 11:1-16 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s Author of Hebrews expounds on the essence of faith and lists a pantheon of faithful Christian warriors.
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Reference Passage #1 - Genesis 12: 1-5 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God calls the Chaldean, Abram, to go … and, in faith, Abram, who became “Abraham” went as God instructed, not knowing where God was leading.
Reference Passage #2 - Proverbs 3:5-6 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… The movement if faith requires faith and a willingness to deny our own feelings.
Reference Passage #3 - Luke 9: 23 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’ call on all Christian disciples.
Reference Passage #4 - Acts 1: 8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’ call for us to go and be His witness in all the world.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Amy Boucher Pye, used a personal story to illustrate her teaching on our calling to walk through this life in faith on the way to glory. She wrote … I parked my bicycle, fingering my map of Cambridge for reassurance. Directions not being my strength, I knew I could easily get lost in this maze of roads bursting with historic buildings. … Life should have felt idyllic, for I had just married my Englishman and moved to the UK. But I felt adrift. When I kept my mouth closed I blended in, but when I spoke I immediately felt branded as an American tourist. I didn’t yet know what my role was, and I quickly realized that blending two stubborn people into one shared life was harder than I had anticipated.
And in her ODB entry today, author Pye related that she identified with Abraham in Genesis 12, where he was called by God to sojourn to a foreign land; and in faith (as related in the Hebrews 11) Abraham, then called ABRAM, gathered his family and followed God’s leading. Which brings us to the question raised by this ODB entry today; and that is, ”Are we listening to God’s calling; and are we willing, as was Abram, to follow Him?”
Certainly we have a New Covenant calling don’t we, by our Savior in Luke 9:23 and Acts 1: 8 as well as in the Great Commission (see Matt. 28:19-20)? And so, are we willing to do what The Gettys sing in the linked song for today … to move out, IN FAITH, even as sojourners in this very foreign world, … to be Christ’s witnesses? Are we really willing to deny our selves, take up our crosses daily, and follow our Lord (again, Luke 9:23)? Just how deep does our faith really go?
Personally, I’ve been called to head toward the Promised Land myself; and I’m on my way. That’s why I’m here posting this blog every morning. And my prayer today is that I’m an effective witness for my Lord in this foreign land.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Give me the opportunity and strength as Your witness to shine Your Light in this very dark land where I walk today. . … 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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