Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill singing the old hymn … How Great Thou Art … at the 2011 ACM special awards when God showed up to turn the entertainment show into a worship service. …
AND THEN ON TO THIS LINK where blind singer Gordon Mote sings Don’t Let Me Miss The Glory with the prayer all Christians should have to be able to see God’s glory in the midst of trials/tribulations.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Esther 8:16 [NLT] …
16 The Jews were filled with joy and gladness and were honored everywhere.
… When it looked like the Jews were about to be wiped out, God showed up and everything turned for His glory, causing the people to revel with joy.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Esther 8:11-17 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God showed up to save His people from peril using Mordecai and Esther in an unusual set of circumstances to show off His glory.
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Reference Passage #1 [NLT] : … Matthew 14:25-27 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus is always with us, as believers; but sometimes we just have trouble seeing Him in troubling situations.
Reference Passage #2 [NLT] : … Hebrews 13:5 [NLT] …
7 … For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
… God is always there, … we just have to be observant enough to find Him.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Tim Gustafson, told a personal story where God showed up to show off His glory in a curious set of circumstances. The ODB author wrote: As the minister spoke at a funeral for an old military veteran, he mused about where the deceased might be. But then, instead of telling the people how they could know God, he speculated about things not found anywhere in Scripture. Where is the hope? I thought.
At last he asked us to turn to a closing hymn. And as we rose to sing “How Great Thou Art,” people began to praise God from the depths of their souls. Within moments, the spirit of the entire room had changed. Suddenly, surprisingly, in the middle of the third verse my emotions overwhelmed my voice.
Have you ever seen our great God show up and show off His glory in curious, sometimes amazing, places? In 2011, many were watching an awards show of County Music artists on TV; and they had Carrie Underwood and Vince Gill sing a powerful rendition of that old hymn How Great Thou Art (see YouTube link), the one mentioned in the ODB entry above; and all of a sudden God shows up and the TV audience became a worship service. It was amazing to see God’s glory on display that night.
And I think of something much simpler like flowers growing beautifully thru the cracks of rocks on a city street [as in the attached photo]. Or biblically, when God showed up and saved His people with young Esther intervening before the King. Most certainly, our Lord will never leave us or forsake us (see Heb. 13:5); but as the disciples almost missed Him in that horrible storm (see Matt. 14:25-27), sometimes we let our fears and faithlessness blind us to our Lord’s presence; and we miss His gory.
As the amazing blind pianist and song writer, Gordon Mote sings his song [linked above), we need to pray that we don’t let our egos and fears blind us to be able to see God’s glory in even some flowers growing in strange places or when circumstances seem to force our Lord far away from us.
God’s there, ... we just need to trust that He is and do our best not to miss His glory.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … On this Sunday, Lord, … help me to see Your glory and worship You in church today. … 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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