Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of song and lyrics from the group Casting Crowns singing … Jesus, Friend of sinners … poignantly singing of the God invites all to come and eat at His table of love and grace.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 15:2 [NLT] … 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
… Jesus’ parable confused the Pharisees seeing Jesus’ desire to invite any/all to come to his Table.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 15:1-7 [NLT]… USE THIS LINK …
… Luke relates the story of Jesus telling the Pharisees about the lost sheep to illustrate that God wants all sinners, even those lost Pharisees, to be saved by the Good Shepherd.
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Reference Passage : … Isaiah 53:6 [NLT] … 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
… God provides a way for any/all, yes, even sinners, to come to Him and be saved.
Reference Passage : … John 3:16 [NLT] … 16 “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that EVERYONE who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.
… Jesus relates to a Pharisee the truth that Jesus wants all lost sheep - EVERYONE - who believe in Him and those who truly repent of their sin can be saved by His love/grace.
Reference Passage : … 2 Peter 3:9 [NLT] … 9 The Lord isn’t really being slow about His promise, as some people think. No, He is being patient for your sake. He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
… God wants all who’re willing to repent of their sin and believe in Jesus as Lord to come to His table of love/grace.
Reference Passage : … Revelation 3:20 [NLT] … 20 “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends.
… God declares openly that He wants to dine FOREVER with anyone willing to open the door and let Him in to dine in fellowship with Him.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David H Roper, used a story about a friend who found out that Jesus wants to be a Friend to any/all who invited Him to be their Lord by repenting of their sin. The ODB author wrote: I have a friend—her name is Edith—who told me about the day she decided to follow Jesus. Edith cared nothing for religion. But one Sunday morning she walked into a church near her apartment looking for something to satisfy her discontented soul. The text that day was Luke 15:1–2, which the pastor read from the King James Version: “Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.”
That’s what it said, but this is what Edith heard: “This man receives sinners and Edith with them.” She sat straight up in her pew! Eventually she realized her mistake, but the thought that Jesus welcomed sinners—and that included Edith—stayed with her. That afternoon she decided to “draw near” to Jesus and listen to Him. She began to read the Gospels, and soon she decided to put her faith in Him and follow Him.
And like Edith in this true story, I’m a prime example that Jesus pursues any/all sinners to dine at His table of love/grace. Because 3 decades ago I came to Him, a confused unbelieving atheist who was steeped in compulsive sexual sin; and my Good Shepherd found this lost lamb and broke me to a place where I could receive His saving grace with my repentance and surrender.
So, any reader here, who meditates on the Scriptures as well as the linked song, will see that anyone - yes, any sinner - who opens the door to God’s love/grace and His invitation to dine with Him forever, can be a friend to our Savior.
And I pray that all who read here with me have done just that, and can call the Good Shepherd A FRIEND, … just as I do. Because we’re all lost sheep in our sin nature; and the Good Shepherd, Who pursues all stray lambs [see photo], as in Luke 15, desires to bring any/all lost sheep into His eternal flock of loved ones.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Lord, Jesus, thank You for pursuing me as a lost lamb, now surrendered to graze with You forever.
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My Prayer Today: Abba Father, … King Jesus, … Precious Spirit … Use me to help others to come to You as their Good Shepherd. … 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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