Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from the The Gaither Vocal Band singing their song … He Touched Me … Poignantly singing of what Jesus does for all who surrender to His grace … to touch us and allow us to die to self so that we can live eternally with Him.
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Highlight Verse[s]: John 12:24 [NLT] … 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives.
… Jesus’ word picture of death to life.
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Highlight Passage [context]: John 12:23-33 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus tells what it takes for His disciples to life forever … to die to themselves and be born again to eternal life.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … John 10:10 [NLT] … 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
… Jesus died that we might have abundant life.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Galatians 2:20 [NLT] … 20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
… God, our Heavenly Physician, gives His absolutely solid prescription for anxiety.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David McCasland, used a botanical word picture to teach on how our Lord had to die that we might live. The ODB author wrote: When our children were young, they loved trying to catch the “helicopter seeds” that fell from our neighbor’s silver maple trees. Each seed resembles a wing. In late spring they twirl to the ground like a helicopter’s rotor blades. The seeds’ purpose is not to fly, but to fall to earth and grow into trees.
When I was a kid, in the fall of the year, as the maple tree leaves turned from green to amazing colors of red and yellow, we use to run down our street and catch those “helicopter seeds” [see photo] as they fluttered to earth. But we certainly didn’t see the picture that the ODB author was conveying above or the message that Jesus gave His disciples in the highlight passage from John 12.
He was trying to get across to them that He, the Messiah, would have to die so that they could live the abundant life which anyone in Christ can find when we die to self and are born-again into the abundant life He died to give us (see John 10:10 and Gal. 2:20).
So, I pray that all reading here have done just that; … that we have died to our selves and are now living the life that He died for us to have in Him. If not, I pray that we all die to self today and live for Him.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Oh, Lord, how I want to live the abundant life which You died for me to have. … 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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