Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with images and lyrics from the group Casting Crowns singing their song … If We Are the Body … poignantly and powerfully singing of the challenge to us as Christians to grow in Christlikeness TOGETHER and to work TOGETHER for Christ no matter how diverse we are.
=============
Highlight Verse[s]: Colossians 3:11 [NLT] … 11 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized,[b] slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.
… No matter whom we are, we must pursuit unity in Christ in our pursuit of Christlikeness.
==============
Highlight Passage [context]: Colossians 3:9-17 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul’s exhortation and instruction for a very diverse set of Christians - like us - to be unified in their pursuit of Christlikeness and their expression of love thru how they live.
=============
Reference Passage : … Romans 3:29-30 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Only one God justifies and saves us all … Jews and Gentiles alike.
Reference Passage : … 1 Corinthians 12:27 [NLT] … 27 All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.
… If we are truly IN CHRIST, then no matter who we are, we are part of HIS BODY.
Reference Passage : … Galatians 3:28 [NLT] … 28 There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
… We Christians are all ONE in Christ Jesus!
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 4:3-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, commands His Church to be united as ONE BODY to spread His love and peace in this world.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David C McCasland, uses a personal reference to teach on how God charges us, as part of His body, the Church, to word TOGETHER to spread His Kingdom Gospel truth. The ODB author wrote: Growing up during the 1950s, I never questioned racism and the segregation practices that permeated daily life in the city where we lived. In schools, restaurants, public transportation, and neighborhoods, people with different shades of skin color were separated.
My attitude changed in 1968 when I entered US Army Basic Training. Our company included young men from many different cultural groups. We soon learned that we needed to understand and accept each other, work together, and accomplish our mission.
I was also one of those young people, growing up in the 50s-60s when there was much turmoil in our land with regard to racial and gender inequality. But not being Christian then, I only felt pressure to seek after equality for social justice, not seeing that there was a higher Authority commanding His called ones to seek after the equality that He calls for from His Church.
And now that I am a Christian, reading the calls of God, thru the letters Paul wrote to Christians (and to us now in the passages above), one cannot escape the message that we all may be different, as Christians, but we are ONE BODY, i.e., His Church, and we should be, as Casting Crowns sings, reaching out - as His body - to share His love and His message to a lost world.
So my conviction today, from the song - and even more from God’s word, is to do all I can today - and tomorrow - to use what gifts/talents He has given me to share my Lord’s love with others.
=============
My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for saving me from myself to be Yourself to others.
=============
My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Help me to be Your eyes, Your most, Your feet, and Your hands … to be part of Your Body reaching out to others. … 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment