Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and song from Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing their song … He’ll Do Whatever It takes … poignantly singing of wondrous forgiveness and saving grace offered by our Abba Father to any wayward lamb who has strayed from His flock as our Good Shepherd and comes back for the Father’s love.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Psalm 98:1a [NLT] … 20 “So he [the wayward son] returned home to his father. And while he was still a long way off, his father saw him coming. Filled with love and compassion, he ran to his son, embraced him, and kissed him.
… Jesus telling a parable to illustrate just how far God, our Father, is willing to go to take a wayward son back into he family.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 15:11-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… The wonderful parable of the lost son and the prodigal father, so faithfully willing to forgive a wayward son.
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Reference Passage : … Isaiah 53:6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… All of us are wayward sheep. But The Father, our Good Shepherd, was (and IS) willing to do whatever it takes to bring us back into the flock, … including sacrificing His own Son for us.
Reference Passage : … Romans 3:23 [NLT] … 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
… We’ve all fallen short of God’s mark of holiness, steeped in sin. And none of us is deserving of His lavish forgiveness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Kirsten Holmberg, used a personal story about how we can sing praises to the Lord with a joyful heart even if we are not talented singers. … The ODB author wrote: One afternoon I spent two hours at an art exhibit—The Father & His Two Sons: The Art of Forgiveness—in which all of the pieces were focused on Jesus’s parable of the prodigal son (see Luke 15:11–31). I found Edward Riojas’s painting The Prodigal Son especially powerful. [See photo] …
I was deeply moved by realizing once more how God’s unchanging love has altered my life. When I walked away from Him, He didn’t turn His back, but kept looking, watching, and waiting. His love is undeserved yet unchanging; often ignored yet never withdrawn.
Oh, how this tale (i.e., Jesus’ parable from Luke 15) has so defined my life as well. For 22 years of my life I had wandered away and lived in the pig-sty of my own sin; and yet, … when I came back to The Lord 35 years ago, He was there, receiving me with the open arms of a Good Shepherd who’d just found His wayward lamb. And with “prodigal” [which actually means “extravagant”] love, my Lord welcomed me into His arms and He’s never (and will never) quit loving me extravagantly.
After taking the time to hear the entire linked song and taking in the verses above, I hope all reading here feel the way I do about our loving, forgiving, PRODIGAL Father.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for waiting on me and then lavishly giving me Your love.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … May I crawl back into Your arms today for some of Your prodigal love. … 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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