Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Natalie Grant singing … Clean … poignantly singing of work the Holy Spirit does in the born-again believer to clean house.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 1st Peter 1:22a, 2:1a [NLT] …
22 You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, …
2a So get rid of all evil behavior. …
… God’s desire for all who’ve come by faith to use His grace to clean house.
============== Highlight Passage [context]: 1st Peter 1:22-2:3 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Peter, teaches on the cleaning of our Christian house when we come to truly believe and live in Christ.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … 2nd Corinthians 5:16-17 [NLT] …
16 So we have stopped evaluating others from a human point of view. At one time we thought of Christ merely from a human point of view. How differently we know him now! 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
… New creations in Christ when we let Him clean us up by our confession and repentance.
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Philippians 1:6 [NLT] …
6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
… It may take God awhile, given our human nature, but He will complete the house cleaning job He began when we were cleansed by His blood.
Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … 1st John 1:9 [NLT] …
9 But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
… He makes us clean any time we’re willing to humble ourselves, in repentance, and confess our sinfulness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Monica Brands, used a personal story and a word picture of her house cleaning to illustrate that our Lord allow us to completely clean our spiritual house until it’s spotless in/for Christ. The ODB author wrote: Recently, I switched rooms in the home I rent. This took longer than expected, because I didn’t want to simply transfer my (extensive) mess to a new room; I wanted a completely fresh and uncluttered start. After hours and hours of cleaning and sorting, bags of stuff sat by the front door to be thrown away, donated, or recycled. But at the end of this exhausting process was a beautiful room I was excited to spend time in.
My housecleaning project [see photo] gave me a fresh perspective when reading 1 Peter 2:1, [see above in NLT] as paraphrased in The Message: “So, clean house! Make a clean sweep of malice and pretense, envy, and hurtful talk.”
That’s what God is doing in my life now, cleaning me up and helping me to in a “do-over” to take on the image of my Savior. He began the project over 30 years ago, when I was saved; and, as Paul wrote in Phil. 1:6, He’ll complete His house cleaning when I come to Him in glory.
The making of our newness in Christ (see 2Cor. 5:17) began when we repented of our sinfulness and received His blood-bought saving grace; and with our cooperation as surrendered house slaves, He continues to clean house (His temple) throughout our lives until we join our Lord in Heaven.
So, dear one, hear the linked song by Natalie Grant; and then let’s open up all the doors to all the rooms in His home in our hearts and allow Him in to really do a complete house cleaning today … and everyday.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … Lord God, … I’m showered by Your grace today, … but prayerfully even cleaner tomorrow. … 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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