Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the group 4HIM singing their song … The Basics of Life … poignantly singing of getting back to the basics of our faith to defeat the post-modern and darkness of these evil days.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 39:4 [NLT] … 4 “Lord, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that my days are numbered—how fleeting my life is.
… King David shows of his own (and our) vulnerability to our feelings and exhorts God’s people to take advantage of the time they (we) have for God’s glory.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Psalms 39:1-6 [NLT] …USE THIS LINK …
… The Psalmist sings of remembering just how fleeting our time is here on earth
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Reference Passage : … Matthew 5:16 [NLT] … 16 In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.
… Jesus, exhorting His followers to let our light shine in all we say and do for others to see Christ’s light shining in the darkness of this world.
Reference Passage : … 1 Corinthians 7:29a [NLT] … 29 But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. …
… Paul exhorting believers to remember what a brief and fleeting time we have in this life to give God the glory with how we use our time.
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 5:15-16 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul exhorts Christians to live wisely in these evil times.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Dave Branon, used a scientific reference to remind us of how important our time is for our witness while we have even a moment given to us by God for His glory. … The ODB author wrote: Scientists are pretty fussy about time. At the end of 2016, the folks at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland added an extra second to the year. So if you felt that year dragged on a bit longer than normal, you were right. Why did they do that? Because the rotation of the earth slows down over time [see photo], the years get just a tiny bit longer. When scientists track manmade objects launched into space, they must have accuracy down to the millisecond. …
For most of us, a second gained or lost doesn’t make much difference. Yet according to Scripture, our time and how we use it is important.
And if you’ve taken in and meditated on God’s word above you’ll see that both King David (in Psalm 39) and the Apostle Paul (in the reference passages) admonished believers to take the time we have very seriously, … primarily because in the eternal scheme of things, we have so little of it; and in our humanity, we tend to treat it so blithely and foolishly.
So, let’s all dig and capture the meaning - especially - of Ephesians 5:15-16 and do all we can today (and onward tomorrow) to maximize our use of the time we have to shine God’s light in the way we live, especially in these dark times.
Jesus preached it (see Matthew 5:16); and so, … as the Nike slogan exhorts … let’s “JUST DO IT!” And … as the song charges us, let’s just get “back to the basics” of our faith and go about shining Christ’s light in the way we live.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for giving us Your light to shine in this darkened world.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … May I be or become Your light, shining from the way I live for Your glory. … 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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