Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Third Day leading an audience in worship and singing the old hymn … Blessed Assurance … joyously singing and declaring of the eternal promise of God’s love forever for all who believe in His saving grace, assured for us by His shed blood and His resurrection.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Romans 8:38-39 [NKJV] …
38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
… Paul’s persuaded apologetic about the locked-in and eternal nature of God’s love.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Romans 8:31-39 … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, declares the eternal permanence of His love, … measured and displayed by His death on the cross and His resurrection.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … Psalm 106: 1 [NLT] …
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good! … His faithful love endures forever.
… Truth!!!
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Cindy Hess Kasper, used a news event in 2015 to illustrate the permanent nature of God’s love. The ODB author wrote: In June 2015, the city of Paris removed forty-five tons of padlocks from the railings of the Pont des Arts pedestrian bridge. As a romantic gesture, couples would etch their initials onto a lock, attach it to the railing, click it shut, and throw the key into the River Seine. After this ritual was repeated thousands of times, the bridge could no longer bear the weight of so much “love.” Eventually the city, fearing for the integrity of the bridge, removed the “love locks.”
The locks were meant to symbolize everlasting love, but human love does not always last. … But there is one constant and enduring love—the love of God. “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever,” proclaims Psalm 106:1
I think we, as Christians, can get the word picture to assure us of God’s love. But the ODB author went on to write the following, which I feel compelled to included, because it strongly assures us of God’s “LOCKED-IN LOVE.”
Christ’s work on the cross to secure our salvation has been completed. With a triumphant proclamation, Jesus said, “It is finished” (John 19:30). Forty days after His resurrection, Jesus returned to the Father. Now seated at God’s right hand, the exalted Christ continues His redemptive and sanctifying work as our eternal High Priest (Heb. 4:14–16). He is our “Advocate with the Father” (1 John 2:1–2; 1 Tim. 2:5), always defending and interceding for us (Heb. 7:24–25; 9:24). Paul confidently writes, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). No one can successfully bring a charge of condemnation against those who are in Christ (vv. 33–34).
I know my journal entry may be a bit long today; but I hope you’ve taken the time to digest these truths and the assurance of the linked song above. And then, going into a new year very soon, I pray we all stand and live by the realization that God’s love was lock-solid and eternally guaranteed when He shed His blood and died on the cross; and that love can be eternally received by faith by anyone who believes - and declares - that Jesus died for our sins and has allows us to be with Him for eternity.
And moving into 2017 that’s a deal I was not able to pass up; and I pray any reader here has received God's locked-in love as well.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Lord, thank You for Your love, … locked in forever when You died for me and any believer who has received Your love/grace in faith. ... 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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