Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the group Sidewalk Prophets singing … Come To The Table … poignantly singing of how we can come to God’s table of love and grace when we’re willing to come to Him in faith and be set free from our shackles of sin.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Isaiah 44:2 [NKJV] … 2 Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you: ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant; And you, Jeshurun, [i.e., “Israel”] whom I have chosen.
… Israel was God’s chosen ones, … whom He will never abandon.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Isaiah 44:1-5 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Isaiah, prophesies His love and favor on His promised sons in Israel.
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Reference Passage : … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s mercies and His faithfulness are for all time to His children.
Reference Passage : … Luke 15:20-24 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus parable of the prodigal Father and his son showing God’s forever grace.
Reference Passage : … Hebrews 13:5-6 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God will never forget or forsake His children.
Reference Passage : … Revelation 3:20 [NKJV] … 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
… God invites us to open our hearts and dine with Him at His table of love/grace.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Tim Gustafson, tells a personal story of coming back to be reconciled into the loving arms of his father. The ODB author wrote: I’d been out late the night before, just as I was every Saturday night. Just twenty years old, I was running from God as fast as I could. But suddenly, strangely, I felt compelled to attend the church my dad pastored. I put on my faded jeans, well-worn T-shirt, and unlaced high-tops and drove across town.
I don’t recall the sermon Dad preached that day, but I can’t forget how delighted he was to see me. With his arm over my shoulder, he introduced me to everyone he saw. “This is my son!” he proudly declared. His joy became a picture of God’s love that has stuck with me all these decades.
Doesn’t take much of a stretch to see Jesus’ story [in Luke 15] of the prodigal love of the “Father” for a wayward son who comes home in surrender and faith, does it? [See photo] And I’m praying that any reading my entry today, who might have father or family wounds, as real and hurtful as they may be, might be willing to come back to God’s table of love and grace where our Abba Father invites any/all who will come to dine with Him [see Lam. 3:22-23 and Rev. 3:20].
Our Heavenly Father, in the Person of His Son, invites us to open the door of our hearts to let Him in to hug us and fellowship with us at His table. That’s what the Sidewalk Prophets sing in the linked song; and what God promises in all of the Scriptures above.
And in today’s ODB entry, the author asks all readers if we have opened our hearts to the prodigal love of our Heavenly Father. I pray so!!
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for Your faithful love and open invitation to dine with You for eternity.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit ... O Lord, … I pray all reading here, as have I, have come to Your table to dine with You for eternity. … 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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