Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Steve Green singing … Find Us Faithful … proclaiming what should be the focus of our entire life … working thru the Body of Christ to express His love in a love darkened world.
Highlight Verse[s]: Romans 15:5-6 [NKJV] …
5 Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
… In Christ, we are exhorted to come together with like-mindedness so as to glorify our God with the unity of the Body.
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Highlight Context: Romans 15:1-7 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul exhorts Christians to unite as His body to bear the burdens of others.
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Reference Passage #1 … John 13:34-35 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus commands us to come together to love others as He loved us, so that our unity of love will glorify Him.
Reference Passage #2 … 1st Corinthians 12:12 [NKJV] …
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ.
… Coming together as one Body in Christ.
Reference Passage #3 … Ephesians 4:1-6 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul exhorts fellow Christians to live as one Body, serving One Lord and bearing one another’s burdens.
My Journal for Today: … Our Daily Bread author, Jennifer Benson Schuldt, tells a pointed story to illustrate how Christians must unite in Christ to reach out in faith to a sin-darkened world. She wrote: While Nicholas Taylor was boarding a train in Perth, Australia, his leg became wedged in the gap between the platform and a commuter car. When safety officials could not free him, they coordinated the efforts of nearly 50 passengers who lined up and, on the count of three, pushed against the train. Working in unison, they shifted the weight just enough to free Taylor’s leg.
I’m afraid that all too often I don’t see Christians coming together in the unity exhibited in this story, performing as one body - Christ’s Body, … united and reaching out to shine the light/love of Christ [as He commanded in John 13:34-35] to a lost and ever-darkening world.
What the Apostle Paul was exhorting to Christians in the first century (see Pauline passages above) still holds true today for us as Christ’s body - the Church. We need to come together in unity- one Body - to more powerfully reach out and share Christ’s love with a love-starved world.
And I’m convicted to do my part as a member of His Body, using my Christ-imparted gifts, to glorify My Lord today.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Join me with other fellow Christians, Lord, to be Your body to lift up others with your love/strength 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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