Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of images and lyrics from Nichole Nordeman singing … Finally Free … poignantly singing of how we as Christians are freed from our past when we come to know Christ as Lord and Savior.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 1Timothy 1:12-13 [NKJV] … 12 And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, 13 although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
… Paul - transformed from persecuted to preacher by Christ’s grace.
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Highlight Passage [context]: 1Timothy 1:12-17 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… Paul testifies to how his relationship with Christ had changed him and transformed him from murderer to minister.
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Reference Passage : … Lamentations 3:22-23 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s forgiving mercies are ALWAYS there for us when we’re willing to receive them.
Reference Passage : … Acts 1:8 [NKJV] … 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
… Jesus charges all Christians to go forth and be His witness to the world.
Reference Passage : … 2 Corinthians 5:16-19 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… We are - and will be - transformed into the images of Christ when we receive His saving grace and repent of our past sinfulness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Xochitl Dixon, uses the personal testimony of the change which took place when she was willing to just be herself. The ODB author writes … For years, feelings of unworthiness and shame over my less-than-godly past had an adverse impact on every aspect of my life. What if others discovered the extent of my blemished reputation? Though God helped me muster up courage to invite a ministry leader to lunch, I strived to seem perfect. I scrubbed my house spotless, whipped up a three-course meal, and donned my best jeans and blouse.
I rushed to turn off the front-yard sprinklers. Twisting the leaking nozzle, I screamed when a gush of water drenched me. With towel-dried hair and smeared makeup, I changed into dry sweat pants and a T-shirt . . . just in time to hear the doorbell. Frustrated, I confessed my morning’s antics and motives. My new friend shared her own battles with fear and insecurity stemming from guilt over past failings. After we prayed, she welcomed me to her team of God’s imperfect servants.
“God’s imperfect servants;” … oh how I identify!! … I can’t go back and erase my past, racked and shackled in the shame of habitual sexual sin; but as did the Apostle Paul, I can look in the mirror, after he received the saving grace of Christ when Paul accepted Jesus as Christ and Lord, and see a new me (see photo). Paul went from being a murderer to becoming a minister of the gospel … from a persecutor of Christians to a preacher to non-Christians, … all when he surrender himself to the Savior.
And when each of us looks into the mirror today, I pray, as Nichole Nordeman sings, that we see ourselves as free in Christ, … able to accept Jesus’ charge (see Acts 1:8) and be witnesses to the power of the Lord to set us all free from our past.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, for saving and sanctifying grace, which is transforming me into Your image.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I’m praying that all who read here can look in the mirror and see the transformed image which God’s Spirit is molding us to become. … 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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