June 28, 2016: Miraculous Make-Over

Daily Berry Patch Devotions in 2016 - Day 180  

Devotional Song:  … GO TO THIS LINK …  Please take the time to take in a You Tube video of Daniel O’Donnell singing … There Is No Secret, poignantly declaring the truth that Christ can/will transform the life of any surrendered disciple.

Highlight Passage:  2nd Corinthians 5:17 [NKJV] …    
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 
… A total makeover into Christ’s image.
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Highlight Context – 2nd Corinthians 5: 12-21 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …  
… Paul declaring God’s promise of His ministry of reconciliation and reconstruction by His Spirit. 
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Reference Passage #1 … 1st Corinthians 6:9-11 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …  
… A complete make-over in Christ.

Reference Passage #2 … Galatians 5:22-23 [NKJV] …  
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. 
 … The make-over is completed when we see the character of Christ in His disciple.

Reference Passage #3 … 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; … 
… Once one is converted in Christ the make-over begins and will be completed in glory.

My Journal for Today:  … Our Daily Bread author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, uses a true story of a tattoo artist who helps former gang members and victims of sex trafficking by making tattoos they have received in their former life into new and beautiful tattoos depicting their dreams for the future [see attached photo].

And that’s an interesting life picture of what happens when one comes to Christ for His promised and perfected make-over by His Spirit. And I should know; … because when it comes to the reality of the highlight passage from ODB today, I’m a living poster boy for 2nd Corinthians 5:17.

God took this former sex-addict and angry atheist and has already reshaped me into an ordained minister of His Gospel, doing all I can daily to bring the truth of the reference promises above to others. In essence, I’m sort of a spiritual version of the tattoo artist our ODB author wrote about today. I take broken and beleaguered disciples of Christ and show them the make-over God has waiting for them when they surrender and truly make Christ the LORD of their lives. Because, He truly will do a make-over which reshapes them into His own image (see Phil. 1:6 and Gal. 5:22-23 above).

I pray that all who come here with me are allowing the great make-over artist, Who is our Lord, to make us over into His image … today and into the future.

My Prayer Today:  O, Heavenly Father, … make us over into Your image, Lord.    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.