Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a video of the group Hillsong leading in worship and singing Lord I Offer My Life To You, declaring the purpose of any Christian to open our hearts and our hands to serve the Lord Who gave His all for us.
Highlight Passage: Exodus 31:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s picks exactly the right hands for the right job - His Tabernacle.
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Highlight Context – Exodus 31:1-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God chooses the right hands to do His Good works ============
Reference Passage #1 - Ephesians 2:8-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… We become the workmanship of God’s grace when we reach out to help others with our hands of faith.
Reference Passage #2 - Ephesians 4:11-12 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God imparts His gifts to be used by His church for His glory.
Reference Passage #3 - Colossians 3:22-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… When we’re serving others in this life, we are to see it as serving the One Who gave His all to serve us. See especially VERSE 23 - where we are to work willingly in whatever we do, as unto the Lord.
My Journal for Today: Today’s Our Daily Bread author, Randy Kilgore, used a story picture of the hands of a missionary going to work, using his hands for God’s glory and a vehicle to serve a king. The ODB author wrote: In 1878, when Scotsman Alexander Mackay arrived in what is now Uganda to serve as a missionary, he first set up a blacksmith forge [see attached photo] among a tribe ruled by King Mutesa. Villagers gathered around this stranger who worked with his hands, puzzled because everyone “knew” that work was for women. At that time, men in Uganda never worked with their hands. They raided other villages to capture slaves, selling them to outsiders. Yet here was this foreign man at work forging farming tools. Mackay’s work ethic and life resulted in relationships with the villagers and gained him an audience with the king. Mackay challenged King Mutesa to end the slave trade, and he did.
It’s a good word picture, … showing how God’s uses the gifts and talents which He gives us so that we can turn around and open our hands and use them for Him. When the Lord showed Moses how to build His Tabernacle [see the Exodus 31 passage above], God chose exactly the right hands to serve THE King, … just as He chose and used Alexander MacKay in Uganda; … and just as He will use any Christian who has been given special - Spirit-imparted - gifts to be used, with open hands, for His glory [see the Eph. 2 & 4 and Col. 3 passages linked above].
The question this ODB poses for any reading with me today is … AM I USING MY GOD-GIVEN GIFT{S} FOR MY GOD’S GLORY? … And if not, why not?
God gave me His gifts of teaching and encouragement [or exhortation]; and I’ll leave it to you to determine whether I’ve used them here with this blog to serve Him. He certainly deserves me being here each day to use my blacksmith’s hands to shape these words to lovingly instruct and encourage others.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Lord, Jesus, … may I use all that You’ve given me to serve others and Your glory. … 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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