Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video images from the group Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing their song … He’ll Do Whatever It Takes … poignantly singing of encouraging others that God will do whatever it takes to bring that lost one to Himself.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Galatians 6:9 … [NLT] …
9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
… Paul may have been speaking to himself as he mentored men like Timothy or Titus or Luke to keep climbing toward the goal Christlikeness.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Galatians 6:1-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s charge to do whatever it takes (see today’s song) to help someone climb to the top of their Christian mountaintop.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … 1st Corinthians 11:1 [NLT] …
1 And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ.
… Paul had been through so much in his quest to climb the mountain of life; and he so wanted others to follow him up the mountain (see photo).
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Ephesians 3:20 [NLT] …
20 Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.
… God will do His part to draw us to Himself. And all we have to do is to latch on and hold to Him in climbing up the slopes of life.
Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … Philippians 3:13-14 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … … Paul realized how hard it was to keep moving forward toward Christlikeness; but he so wanted others to find what he had found in his discipleship.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David McCasland, used a personal story about his mentor to teach on what it takes to disciple others toward their peak of Christlikeness (see photo). The ODB author wrote: Bob Foster, my mentor and friend for more than fifty years, never gave up on me. His unchanging friendship and encouragement, even during my darkest times, helped carry me through.
We often find ourselves determined to reach out and help someone we know who is in great need. But when we fail to see improvement right away, our resolve can weaken and we may eventually give up. We discover that what we hoped would be an immediate change has become an ongoing process.
Mentoring (or discipling) fellow Christians can be like being an experienced free climber and helping a “newbie” up the mountain of life (see photo). We so want the lesser-experienced Christian to find their way up that mountain of Christlikeness; and sometimes that process can be discouraging and exhausting. But, as the Apostle Paul, exhorts [see passages above], we Christians who’re father up the slopes of life, must … keep on keeping on … to help others up the steep slopes of life as God’s Spirit is calling us upward to Christ.
Paul had been thru so much in his life as an Apostle [see 2Cor. 11:22-33 on your own]; and he had found the way up that mountain. And as a mentor of men like Luke and Timothy and Titus, Paul so wanted these others to follow him. Hence, you read him, knowing the way (see 1 Cor. 11:1), encouraging others to follow him … with the message sung by today’s linked song … that our God will do whatever it take to pull us to His glorious mountaintop.
I pray all reading here, especially those who’re more mature climbers in life, will do what Paul exhorts in today’s highlight passage, doing whatever it takes to help others up that mountain of Christliness, … because, as Eph. 3:20 declares, what God has for those who keep climbing to Him, is SO, SO worth the climb.
My Prayer Today: Heavenly Father, … dear Lord, … help me help others up that hill to get closer to 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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