Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from an old Lutheran hymn with an anonymous soprano singing … The Tree of Life … poignantly expressing how God used “a tree” to bring life and death to the Garden and then to be the instrument of redemption with Christ’s blood being shed on that “tree” to atone for that sin in the Garden.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Colossians 1:19-20 [NLT] …
19 For God, in all His fullness, was pleased to live in Christ; 20 and through Him God reconciled everything to Himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.
… 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]: Colossians 1:15-20 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul lays out the supremacy of Christ and His sacrifice to pay our penalty for sin on the cross.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : …1st Peter 2:24 [NLT] …
24 He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed.
… God, thru Paul, states His promise to rebuild anyone into the newness which is the image of Christ Himself.
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Revelation 22:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Seeing heaven, John saw the restored “tree of life” from which all mankind could then partake of its fruit forevermore.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Dennis Fisher, used a rather obscure reference to an 8th century English poem to teach about how God has used the image of “a tree” to depict man’s sin as well as His plan of redemption. You can USE THIS LINK to read the ODB entry for today.
However, reading this ODB devotional and meditating on the Scriptures referenced (see above), my mind was taken back a few years when my wife and I sojourned to the Holy Land; and I had the opportunity to stand on the very stones where Jesus as nailed to that “TREE” (i.e., the Cross). In the attached photo you see my feet standing on those stones.
And it was there it impacted me how it was my sins which nailed my Savior to that tree; and I wept almost uncontrollably. And I’ll pray today that we all realize the extent of God’s use of Christ’s shed blood on “a tree” that ultimately will allow sinful man to be reconciled to God so that one day all who do so in faith will be able to partake of another tree, … “the tree of life” in Heaven (see Rev. 22:1-2).
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … Thank You, Lord, for Your atoning blood which paved the way for all who come to you in faith to partake of the fruit of the eternal tree of life. … 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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