Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of Chrystal Lewis and Ron Kenoly singing Beauty For Ashes , declaring reality of our Lord’s restoration business - “Beauty for Ashes!” … AND TO THIS LINK to hear Brian Littrell sing I Surrender All, which is absolutely necessary if our Lord is do His business of transformation in our lives.
Highlight Passage: Philippians 3:7-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.
… The transformation of Paul’s mind of surrender to Christ.
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Highlight Context – Philippians 3:1-8 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s declaration of his transformation in Christ.
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Reference Passage #1 - Psalm 139:13-14 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… David realized that everything he was or had become was the result of God’s doing.
Reference Passage #2 - Romans 12: 2 [NKJV] …
2 And be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
… God will renew our minds/hearts - IF - we let Him.
Reference Passage #3 - 2nd Corinthians 5:14-17 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul, led by the Spirit, declares the newness of transformation found in Christians willing to surrender to His will
Reference Passage #4 - Philippians 1: 6 [NKJV] …
6 … being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ; …
… The work of transformation which God’s begins in our hearts, He is willing (and able) to complete … IF … we let Him.
My Journal for Today: Our Daily Bread author, Dennis Fisher, helped his ODB readers (me) recognize that God is in the restoration and transformation business; and He’s good at it … VERY GOOD! But there’s one hang up; and that is the mind and heart of the one for whom He desires to reclaim for His glory. He sent His Son to establish the transformation of our hearts into the image of the One Who died for us; but His preset plan of transformation requires that we - in faith and free will - surrender self to the Savior.
And for us to be fully and successfully transformed by God’s will and ability, we have to - in faith - give Him the reign to do so. He most certainly has created us for this process (we call “sanctification” - see Psalm 139:13-14); but we have to be willing to yield to Him and let Him restore our minds (see the remaining references passages above) to complete the transformation process.
If our God can transform a caterpillar into a beautiful Monarch butterfly [AT THIS LINK], our God can most certainly take any surrendered soul - like you or me - and turn us into His own image. Take a couple of minutes and hear the powerful 2 min. testimony of one such child of God … AT THIS LINK.
The question is … Will we let our God do His transforming business on us today?
My Prayer Today: O, Heavenly Father, … As the songs render above, I come here today to declare my surrender to Your sanctifying grace, dear Lord, which daily transforms me, giving me Your beauty for my ashes. 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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