Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images from Sara Groves singing here song … Eyes On the Prize … poignantly singing of how we Christians need to keep our eyes ahead on the prize of salvation as we move forward in life.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Philemon 1:15-16 [NLT] … 15 It seems you lost Onesimus for a little while so that you could have him back forever. 16 He is no longer like a slave to you. He is more than a slave, for he is a beloved brother, especially to me. Now he will mean much more to you, both as a man and as a brother in the Lord.
… Paul, pleading to Onesimus’ former master to free him as Christ had freed him, explains how belief in Christ had changed Onesimus and allowed him to move forward.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Philemon 1:8-16 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul pleads for a fellow prisoner who was released to return to his former slave master, pleading for this new brother in Christ because of the change which had taken place in the heart of this man, Onesimus.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … 2nd Corinthians 5:17 [NLT] … 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
… When we surrender to Christ, we’re set free and don’t need to look back, moving forward as a new creation in Christ.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Philippians 3:13-14 [NLT] … 13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
… Paul exhorts fellow Christians (you and me too!) to look forward with hope to the prize which awaits us as we travel down His road to glory.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Karen Wolfe, told a personal story of trying to help a newly released prisoner to see the road ahead and not look back. The ODB author wrote: I saw Mary every Tuesday when I visited “the House”—a home that helps former prisoners reintegrate into society. My life looked different from hers: fresh out of jail, fighting addictions, separated from her son. You might say she lived on the edge of society. …
It’s easy to allow the walls of socio-economic status, class, or cultural differences to separate us. The gospel of Christ removes those barriers, changing our lives and our relationships forever.
And the story in today’s highlight passage illustrates this in Scripture, doesn’t it? It’s the story of Paul intervening on behalf of Onesimus, a fellow prisoner he had led to Christ, shared in a letter to his former owner, Philemon, pleading for the freedom and life of this new Christian, because Paul knew personally of how different Onesimus would be having been saved by God’s grace.
There’s a word picture which I often use to help those I’m discipling to help them see that in Christ we’ve been set free from the past, … that we’re radically new creations (see 2Cor. 5:17); and we can move forward toward the prize of glory Christ has set before us (see Phil. 3:13-14). And so the images I tell them is that one can’t drive a car effectively toward their destination if they only use the rear-view mirror.
But all too often we, who’ve been set free in Christ, have the very human tendency to carry the baggage from our past into the future, focusing on our past rather than our future, driving our vehicle in life using only the rear-view mirror.
So, today I’m hoping - and praying - that any and all who read here can do what Sara Groves sings in her touching song (linked above) … and keep our eyes on the prize God’s grace has given us … and move on toward glory.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Dear Lord, … I pray that all of us look ahead to the glorious vistas ahead .. on the road You’ve called us to travel. … 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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