Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing … He’ll Do Whatever It Takes … poignantly expressing how God can (and will) do all it takes to rebuild, restore, remake, and renew someone from selfish destruction into a semblance of Himself.
See image of “Berlin Before Restoration”
See image of “Berlin After Restoration”
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Highlight Verse[s]: Nehemiah 2:17 [NLT] …
17 But now I said to them [God’s remnant in Jerusalem], “You know very well what trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire. Let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem and end this disgrace!”
… Nehemiah, having faith in God’s power of restoration, commits to leading the people rebuild the walls around the City of David.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Nehemiah 2:11-18 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Nehemiah, coming from Babylon to Jerusalem inspects the destroyed gates/walls and sets a plan (God’s plan) into motion to rebuild the walls.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … John 21:15-19 [NLT] ... USE THIS LINK …
… After the resurrection and before His ascension, Jesus appears to Peter and restores him from the brokenness of his denial to a recommitment to surrender to Christ’s love and serve the Lord faithfully for the rest of Peter’s life.
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … 2 Corinthians 5:17 [NLT] …
17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
… God, thru Paul, states His promise to rebuild anyone into the newness which is the image of Christ Himself.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David McCasland, uses a personal story to teach on how Christ remakes/restores His beloved into some brand now. The OBD author wrote today: When Edward Klee returned to Berlin after being away for many years, the city he remembered and loved was no longer there. It had changed dramatically, and so had he. Writing in Hemispheres magazine, Klee said, “Returning to a city you once loved tends to be a hit-or-miss proposition . . . . It can be a letdown.” Going back to the places of our past may produce a feeling of sorrow and loss. We are not the same person we were then, nor is the place that was so significant in our lives exactly as it was.
In reading this story here in my quiet time with God here this morning, I thought about how much Berlin was transformed into rubble after WW2 (see photo #1) and then restored to a new and beautiful city after the wall fell more recently (see photo #2). And then the OBD devotional entry helped me remember the true story of now Nehemiah was called by God to rebuild the temple walls in Jerusalem after God’s remnant was led back there following decades of captivity in Babylon (see Neh. 2:11-18).
And then my mind took me to the story of how Jesus restored the Apostle Peter on that beach in Capernaum after the resurrection, … when Peter was absolutely broken by his denial of Christ [see John 21:15-19. And then, from my memory of God’s truth, the reality of 2nd Cor. 5:17 bubbled up in my consciousness, reminding me that, as the linked song proclaims today, God will do whatever it takes in the mind/heart of a born-again Christian to rebuild our hearts and lives into a semblance of our living Lord.
I know that’s what my Lord is doing in my life. How about yours?
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … I am not the old, lost, Bill Berry. I’m totally becoming new by You and in You and for You. … 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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