Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from John Waller singing … As For Me And My House … poignantly and powerfully declaring the commitment from Joshua, which we should share, to choose to serve our Lord by serving others over the idols of selfishness.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Philippians 2:3-5 [NLT] …
3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. … 5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.
… We are to think of the needs of others before self and in doing to be more like Jesus.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Philippians 2:1-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, exhorts us to serve others - like Him!
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Reference Passage #1 [NLT] : … Joshua 24:15 [NLT] …
15 But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”
… We always have a choice to serve self or the Savior, … which will we choose today?
Reference Passage #2 [NLT] : … Mark 10:43-45 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus commands His disciples to serve Him, as the Son of Man, by serving others.
Reference Passage #3 [NLT] : … 1st Peter 4:10 [NLT] …
10 God has given each of you a gift from His great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another.
… Today’s let’s use our God-given gift(s) to serve others.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Dave Branon, related a personal story to illustrate that, as Christians, we only serve our Lord when we’re serving others. The ODB author wrote: My friend Jaime works for a huge international corporation. In his early days with the company, a man came by his desk, struck up a conversation, and asked Jaime what he did there. After telling the man about his work, Jaime asked the man his name. “My name is Rich,” he replied.
“Nice to meet you,” Jaime answered. “And what do you do around here?”
“Oh, I am the owner.”
Jaime suddenly realized that this casual, humble conversation was his introduction to one of the richest men in the world.
Because of our human default to selfishness and our sin nature, one of the hardest lessons that we Christians learn, in becoming more and more like our King, Jesus, is to choose to serve others before self. … Common; … admit it, … it’s tough, isn’t it? We’re so prone to serve self before others; but meditating on the truth in today’s ODB certainly points us 180 degrees in the opposite direction, doesn’t it; … to serve our Lord by serving others?!
So, like me today, when you take in the song and the Scriptures today, maybe, instead of choosing to serve the idol of self today, … like Joshua, … we’ll declare strongly, … “As for me and my family we will serve our God;” and in doing so we’ll be serving others before ourselves just as our Lord did.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Help us all to focus on serving You by serving others 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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