Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video with song and lyrics from Jeremy Camp singing … The Answer … poignantly singing of how we Christians must avoid the foibles and failures of this world and seek the only answer to life and that is an abiding relationship with Christ.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Philippians 1:9-10 [NLT] … 9 I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10 For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return.
… Paul’s prayer for fellow Christians … that they would always live in an abiding relationship with Christ.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Philippians 1:3-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul so desired that his fellow Christians were aware of themselves and the times which could/would draw them away from abiding in Christ.
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Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [NLT] … 23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be My follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow Me. … “
… Everyday we are to deny our own way, take up the way of the cross, and follow our Lord, … no matter where He will lead us.
Reference Passage : … Romans 12:2 [NLT] … 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
… God’s warning, thru Paul, that we Christians avoid the pitfalls of the world, which would draw us away from God’s way and His will.
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 5:15-16 [NLT] … 15 So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. 16 Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days.
… As Paul warned fellow Christians in his day, … we too live in evil times and we must do all we can to draw on God’s wisdom an power to avoid the evil of our times.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, John Blase, uses a personal reflection of a time when he was concerned for the well being of his family in a potentially dangerous situation. The ODB author wrote … My family, all five of us, found ourselves in Rome over the Christmas holidays. I don’t know when I’ve ever seen more people jammed together in one place [see PHOTO]. As we snaked our way through crowds to see sights like the Vatican and the Coliseum, I repeatedly emphasized to my kids the practice of “situational awareness” — pay attention to where you are, who’s around you, and what’s going on. We live in a day when the world, at home and abroad, isn’t a safe place. And with the use of cell phones and ear buds, kids (and adults for that matter) don’t always practice an awareness of surroundings.
Even tho it was a different day, with different threats and evils, the Apostle Paul recognized the evils of his day; and as the parents in the ODB entry, he so desired that his fellow Christians were self aware and able to recognize that an abiding relationship with Christ was, as Jeremy Camp sings in the linked song, the ONLY ANSWER to the ills and evils of his day.
And so, in the Scriptures above, Paul wrote to fellow Christians of his day, to Philippi (highlight passage), to Rome and Ephesus (reference scriptures), and really to all Christians (that’s us!). Really, it was God’s Spirit, and even Jesus Himself in Luke 9:23, charging us to be self aware and seek to follow the admonition of our Lord, … to be aware of our self and to follow Him.
And that is my prayer for all of us reading and sharing here today.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for leading us unto Your path of righteousness.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to intentionally be aware of our circumstances and to follow Christ, no matter where He leads us. … 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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