Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from the group Third Day singing the old Hymn … Blessed Assurance … poignantly singing of the hope we have in Christ to join Him in glory.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Romans 5:3-4 [NLT] … 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.
… Because our hope is in Christ’s finished work on the cross and not on our own abilities or position in life, our hope is the “real-deal!!”
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Highlight Passage [context]: Romans 5:1-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, shows Christians where our hope lies … in the one - AND ONLY ONE - Who died that we might have life thru our faith in His saving grace.
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Reference Passage : … Romans 5:8-9 [NLT] … 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.
… Yes, … even tho we were (are) sinners, Christ died and was risen again, to allow us to have genuine hope for our eternal future.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:16 [NLT] … 16 For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.
… For the born-again Christian, it’s God’s Spirit, joined with ours at conversion and justification which testifies to the hope we have in our eternal relationship with Christ.
Reference Passage : … 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.
… We have “real-deal” hope in Christ that helps us look forward to heaven no matter what we’re facing.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, James Banks, uses an interesting word picture of waiting in lines to get somewhere to illustrate the very real-deal hope we have in Christ. The ODB author wrote: Not long ago I visited the Empire State Building with a friend. The line looked short—just down the block and around the corner. Yet as we entered the building, we discovered the line of people stretching through the lobby, up the stairs, and into another room. Every new turn revealed more distance to go.
Attractions and theme parks carefully route their crowds to make the lines seem shorter.[see photo]
Perhaps you’ve been to a theme park or airport where the waiting lines are in a “snake” configuration (again see photo) to give those waiting a feeling that the lines are shorter than they really are. The park or airport creates a feeling of false hope that we’re going to arrive at our destination faster than we really will.
Well, the hope we have in Christ is no false feeling of getting to our destination. It’s “real-deal” hope … because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection to show us the genuine hope we can have to overcome the “waiting” we have to do as we travel thru the circumstances (i.e., waiting lines) of life.
That’s what the Apostle Paul was writing about to Christians in the Scripture passages from Romans 5 and 8 and Philippians 3 [see above]. We. who’re genuine, born-again Christians, can have real-deal hope in any waiting line in life; because we have the genuine assurance [hear the song] that Jesus gives us as we wait for our eternal reward in heaven. And it looks like the line to get there is getting shorter and shorter, doesn’t it?
It could be tomorrow … or even today!
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for showing us the end of the line, which is to be with You forever.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Come soon, Lord Jesus; … but I wait with the hope that is in 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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