Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from Dennis Jernigan leading in worship and singing his song … Thank You Lord … as we Christians gather to celebrate our thankfulness for all the blessings bestowed by God … AND THEN TO THIS LINK to hear Laura Story singing her song Blessings, helping us to keep the concept of “BLESSINGS” in God’s perspective rather than from our selfish desires.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 17:15-16 [NLT] … 15 One of them, when he saw that he was healed, came back to Jesus, shouting, “Praise God!” 16 He fell to the ground at Jesus’ feet, thanking him for what he had done. This man was a Samaritan.
… The Samaritan with a grateful heart praises His Lord in faith.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 17:11-17 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus heals 10 Lepers; but only one comes back in gratefulness to praise the Lord.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … Exodus 23:16 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… In Jewish tradition, after the harvest, the “Festival of the Harvest” or also called “The Festival of Weeks,” or today called “Pentecost” or “Sukkot,” celebrated traditionally 50 days after Passover to give the first fruits of the harvest to the Temple and express thankfulness to Jehovah Jireh, our Provider. And that’s the day when God sent the Holy Spirit after Christ’s resurrection to dwell in the hearts of believers in Christ [see Acts 2:1] - certainly giving all Christians something for which to be grateful … FOREVER!!
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Dave Branon, used the biblical story of God instituting, thru Moses, the “Festival of the Harvest” described above in Exodus 23:16 described above. The ODB author wrote: Several thousand years ago, God spoke directly to Moses and instituted a new festival for His people. In Exodus 23:16, according to Moses’s record, God said, “Celebrate the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of the crops you sow in your field.”
But we Christians, on this day we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the U.S., have so much more to celebrate in the context of our gratefulness than God’s people in the OT, because on the Day of Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection [again see Acts 2:1], God sent His Holy Spirit, as promised by Jesus, to indwell the hearts of all true, born-again, believers. Wow! Do I sense a sincere “PTL!!!”
And hopefully we can be like the one in ten who came back to Jesus (see Luke 17:11-17) with a heart of worship and gratefulness, thanking Jesus for what he had done to heal the leprous Samaritan. Because God blesses those with grateful hearts for all He has done to save us.
Therefore, … I for one express my strong HALLELUJAH [!!!] today, feeling so deeply grateful for what my Lord did on the cross, making all His other blessings in my life, which are myriad, pale by comparison.
And so, as we partake of our traditional day of thankfulness, let us take in the meaning of the two linked songs above, especially remembering that many of God’s blessings, as Laura Story sings, come in the challenges of life. And so, as Dennis Jernigan sings, let us truly have grateful hearts, thanking God for all the blessings He has brought into our lives.
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Oh, Lord, thank 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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