Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics Wayne Watson singing … Love Found A Way … poignantly singing of God’s merciful way - thru His love - to defeat the sin and pride mankind had brought into the garden and the world.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 1st John 3:16 [NLT] …
16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.
… But are we willing to reflect God’s love into the world by loving others?
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Highlight Passage [context]: 1st John 3:11-18 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… John relates the essence of God’s love and our reciprocation of that love to/for others.
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Reference Passage #1 [NKJV] : … John 3:16 [NLT] … I hope you know this one! … … God’s love … so great; … but is ours?
Reference Passage #2 [NKJV] : … Mark 10:45 [NLT] …
45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.”
… Jesus speaking of His own love for mankind, expressed thru His service to His beloved; … even unto death for us.
Reference Passage #3 [NKJV] : … Philippians 2:3-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The Apostle teaching on how we must express the attitude of Christ thru our humility and love for others … reflecting the sacrificial love Christ had for us.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Tim Gustafson, used a story of a prideful professor who realized he must humble himself to be able to teach his students. The ODB author wrote: Horrified by his students’ poor writing habits, renowned author and college professor David Foster Wallace considered how he might improve their skills. That’s when a startling question confronted him. The professor had to ask himself why a student would listen to someone “as smug, narrow, self-righteous, [and] condescending” as he was. He knew he had a problem with pride.
That professor could and did change, but he could never become one of his students. Yet when Jesus came to Earth, He showed us what humility looks like by becoming one of us. Stepping across all kinds of boundaries, Jesus made Himself at home everywhere by serving, teaching, and doing the will of His Father.
And that’s what today’s highlight passage proclaimed about the essence of God’s love; and it’s what the Apostle Paul taught we must do as Christians … to humble ourselves and serve others (see Phil. 2:3-8) … just as Jesus did so for mankind, … setting aside His glory to become one of us and then die for us.
But are we willing to die to self and humbly serve others? I pray so today.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … help me to set aside any pride and humbly serve others in Your Name and for Your glory. … Amen
Blogger Note: Posted on 8/1/17 due to travel schedule ... wrb
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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