Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the group Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing … Your Grace Still Amazes Me … poignantly singing of how God’s grace, which pours out to surrendered Christians every day, is so, so amazing!
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Highlight Verse[s]: Acts 9:11-12 [NLT] … 11 The Lord told him [Ananias], “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.”
… God gives Saul the grace of sight again as Saul is being called out to be an Apostle of Christ.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Acts 9:1-19 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Saul of Tarsus, becoming the Apostle Paul, at his conversion, receives a return of his sight thru the hands of Ananias, who was called by the Lord to be God’s agent to Paul.
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Reference Passage [NLT] : … 2nd Corinthians 5:17, 12:9 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s amazing grace gives the lost a make-over into Christlikeness; and His grace is sufficient for all of our lives.
Reference Passage [NLT] : … Philippians 1:6 [NLT] … 6 being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
… God’s grace will complete His work on me in glory, when I will become like my Lord. My
Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Randy Kilgore, uses a personal story to illustrate how God’s grace, which we don’t deserve, changes our lives. The ODB author wrote: It was an early Saturday morning in my sophomore year of high school, and I was eager to get to my job at the local bowling lanes. The evening before, I had stayed late to mop the muddy tile floors because the janitor called in sick. I hadn’t bothered to tell the boss about the janitor so I could surprise him. After all, What could go wrong? I thought.
Plenty, as it turns out.
Stepping in the door, I saw inches of standing water, with bowling pins, rolls of toilet paper, and boxes of paper scoresheets bobbing on top. Then I realized what I had done: While doing the floors, I had left a large faucet running overnight [see photo]! Incredibly, my boss greeted me with a huge hug and a big smile—“for trying,” he said.
Oh, … dear one, … as I read that story, allegorically illustrating God’s grace, and I hear today’s linked song [PLEASE take the time to let it touch you], I’m almost overwhelmed by how God’s grace has changed me like He did Saul of Tarsus (see the story in Acts 9, linked above.
Like Paul I was once an antagonistic non-believer, trying to persecute Christians. Oh, maybe I wasn’t trying to kill them as was Saul of Tarsus; but I did everything I could, for many years, trying to rip the faith out from under those who called themselves “Christian.” But as God did with Saul, who became Paul, His Spirit came after me and broke me with His prevenient grace to a place where I could become a called out agent of King Jesus.
Who would’ve ever thought that an angry atheist could become an ordained Minister of the Gospel of Christ? And that, my friends, is God’s grace in action in me.
Certainly, I’m no Apostle, like Paul became; but God’s grace is making me over, even as reluctant as I can be at times, into my Lord’s image [see 2Cor. 5:17]. And one day God’s grace will complete its work in me and I will be transformed COMPLETELY into a spiritual clone of my Savior [see Phil. 1:6].
And all I can say to that now is … ”HALLELUJAH!!!”
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Dear Lord, … You grace will ALWAYS amaze me! … 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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