Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube of images and lyrics from the group Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing … I Want To Be Just Like You … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, need to do all we can to live like Christ as parents so that our kids will walk toward Christlikeness in their lives.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ephesians 4:31-32 [NKJV] … 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
… The new (born-again) man (or woman) is characterized by Christlikeness.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ephesians 4:17-32 [NKJV]… USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, charges all Christians to put off the old sin nature and put on the character Christ.
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Reference Passage : … Malachi 4:6 [NKJV] … 6 And He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”
… For all true believers, God will bring fathers and sons together one day in Christ.
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 4:1-3 [NKJV] … 1 I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, 2 with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, 3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
… Paul begs fellow Christians to live humble, forgiving lives defined by Christlikeness.
Reference Passage : … Colossians 3:12-13 [NKJV] … 12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
… The new (born-again) man (or woman) is characterized by putting on the newness of Christ’s character.
Reference Passage : … Revelation 21:3-4 [NKJV] … USE THIS LINK …
… One day in the New Jerusalem, we all will be reconciled COMPLETELY with our Lord to be like Him and live like Him forever.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, David H Roper, uses a personal story of regret that he didn’t take the opportunity to interact with his earthly father more closely while his dad was alive. The ODB author writes … My father was a good father, and, in most respects, I was a dutiful son. But I allowed my father to starve for the one thing I could have given him: myself.
He was a quiet man; I was equally silent. We often worked for hours side-by-side with scarcely a word passing between us. He never asked; I never told him my deepest desires and dreams, my hopes and fears.
In time I woke up to my reticence. Perhaps the perception came when my first son was born, or when, one by one, my sons went out into the world. Now I wish I had been more of a son to my father.
I think of all the things I could have told him. And all the things he could have told me. At his funeral I stood beside his casket, struggling to understand my emotions. “It’s too late, isn’t it?” my wife said quietly. “Exactly.”
We only have one life, don’t we? And, as born-again Christians, we need to do all we can to imitate the charge of our Heavenly Father [see Scriptures above] and come together, in the Spirit, to live and love as Jesus lived and loved us. We need to put on the newness of Christlikeness and put off the old sin nature, doing all we can to surrender to the Holy Spirit’s parenting to bring us into the newness of Christlikeness, together in the family of God.
My brothers/sisters in Christ, … that is my prayer for all of us today.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for being our loving Abba Father, and bringing us into the Family of God, … Your family!
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that we will all put off the old nature and live in the newness of Christ. … 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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