Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from three friends, Clay Crosse, Bebe Winans, and Bob Carlisle singing … I Will Follow Christ … powerfully singing our decision to follow Christ, our King Jesus, not matter what the cost.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Judges 21:25 [NLT] …
25 In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.
… God created us to worship Him; but He also gave us free will. And our human default, when we see no King to serve is to worship self or Satan. That was the case in the days of the Judges.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Judges 2:11-23, 21:25 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… In the days following Joshua’s death, God’s people rebelled, having no king to serve.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Isaiah 53: 6 [NLT] … 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
… God’s amazing grace … when we’re willing to surrender to King Jesus.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NLT] … 22 The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. 23 Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.
… God’s amazing grace … when we’re willing to surrender to King Jesus.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Luke 9:23 [NLT] … 23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow Me.
… Jesus demands His disciples follow Him and not our selves.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … 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.
… Even when we’ve been serving self, rather than the Savior, God is willing to forgive us and cleanse us of our selfishness and sin.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Xochitl Dixon, relates a personal story about a time when she rebelled in selfishness and sin. The ODB author wrote: After attacking my husband with hurtful words when a situation didn’t go my way, I snubbed the Holy Spirit’s authority as He reminded me of Bible verses that revealed my sinful attitudes. Was nursing my stubborn pride worth the collateral damage in my marriage or being disobedient to God? Absolutely not. But by the time I asked for forgiveness from the Lord and my spouse, I’d left a wake of wounds behind me—the result of ignoring wise counsel and living as if I didn’t have to answer to anyone but myself.
I, for one, can really identify with the ODB author’s testimony of selfishness and rebellion. And she used this to illustrate our human tendency to default to the worship of self rather than the One God created us to worship .. i.e., HIMSELF! That’s what happened to God’s people in the days of the Judges when they had no King to follow [see highlight passages]. While they had the Judges God sent them, they surrendered to worship Him; but when there were no judges, they rebelled into selfishness and worshipped idols.
Do we see the pattern here? If we don’t, we’re blinded and tend to follow our selves rather than King Jesus, our Savior. But as Isaiah prophesied [see Isaiah 53:6], that tendency was given the ultimate release when God sent His Son, King Jesus, to give us a Savior to Whom we could surrender and follow. And He truly is the Christ, … our King Jesus! The question is … do we worship Him and follow His commands [see Luke 9:23]; or do we default to our human tendency to go our own way.
It’s our choice, isn’t it? We can choose to rebel, as did God’s people in the times of the Judges, or we can take advantage of His forever mercy [see Lam. 3:22-23] and His promises to cleanse us from all our sins [see 1John 1:9].
We now have an eternal King in Jesus, our Savior! As our linked song proclaims, let’s choose to follow King Jesus today … and all days!
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Dear Lord, … You are my King, Jesus; and I choose to follow 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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