Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of images and lyrics of the group 4Him singing … The Basics of Life … poignantly singing of how we, who claim to follow Jesus’ way, should stick to Christ’s basics of life instead of letting the world and Satan (and our flesh) pollute our relationship of Christ.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Song of Solomon 2:15 [NKJV] … 15 Catch us the foxes, … the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
… Foxes were known to invade the vineyard and destroy the growing grapes, which were being grown by the wife to provide for her husband in her love for him.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Song of Solomon 2:14-17 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… God’s charge, thru Solomon, for us to protect our love relationship with our Lord.
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Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NKJV] … 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.
… If we use our own instincts to get in the way of following God’s way, we will be led astray.
Reference Passage : … John 15:1-7 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… We can only be fruit-bearers as Christians if we remain connected to Christ and don’t allow outside influences to block that relationship.
Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [NKJV] … 23 Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. …”
… Jesus calls all of us to follow His lead and we cannot do this if we end up following non-productive and competing rabbit trails in life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Boucher Pye, uses a comparison of avoiding foxes in life to the same warning made by Solomon in his most famous song (i.e, Song of Solomon) The ODB author writes … While talking on the phone with a friend who lives by the seaside, I expressed delight at hearing seagulls squawking. “Vile creatures,” she responded, for to her they’re a daily menace. As a Londoner, I feel the same way about foxes. I find them not cute animals but roaming creatures that leave smelly messes in their wake.
Foxes appear in the love poetry of the Song of Solomon, an Old Testament book that reveals the love between a husband and wife and, some commentators believe, between God and His people. The bride warns about little foxes, asking her bridegroom to catch them (2:15). For foxes, hungry for the vineyard’s grapes, could tear the tender plants apart.
It’s an apt word picture of our lives, isn’t it? How often do we let those little, destructive “foxes” into our lives, impeding or impairing our ability to follow our Lord diligently and directly?
Too often for yours truly, I’m afraid. Sometimes, I have trouble saying “NO” to lesser important demands, which, when pursued, dilute my abilities to do what God is really calling me to do. That’s letting the foxes into the vineyard to steal away my fruitfulness for Christ (see photo and the reference Scriptures above).
And as the linked song calls us, let’s get “back to the basics” of Christ’s calling on our lives and following His will and His ways … thru His word. And in doing so, let’s avoid letting the foxes in to dampen and deflect our fruitfulness for Christ.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for Your Spirit’s help in keeping me close and connected to You.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that we are able to keep the main thing (Your thing!) as our main thing today and all days. … 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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