Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from the group Avalon singing … Orphans of God … poignantly singing of how there are no orphans in the family of God.
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Highlight Verse[s]: 1 Peter 2:9 [NLT] … 9 But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests, a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for He called you out of the darkness into His wonderful light.
… All those called by Christ into His “Royal Priesthood,” are called to show other the goodness of Christlikeness.
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Highlight Passage [context]: 1 Peter 2:4-10 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Peter, shows Christians that all born-again believers are invited to the table of God, all of whom make up His ROYAL priesthood.
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Reference Passage : … Hosea 2:23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Peter in his sermon at Pentecost quotes [see 1Peter 2:10] from this passage and the prophesy of Hosea … that God had come to claim “His chosen people” in all those who come to know The Messiah as “The Christ” … and their Lord and Savior.
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 4:1 [NLT] … 1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.
… Paul exhorts fellow Christians (i.e., prisoners of God’s grace) to live lives worthy of His calling into His Royal Priesthood.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Estera Escobar, uses a true story of a gypsy boy who became a famous evangelist to illustrate that anyone can fit into God’s calling on them as part of His Royal Priesthood in His family. And the ODB author wrote: “Oh, it’s only a gypsy boy,” someone whispered with disgust when Rodney Smith walked to the front of the chapel to receive Christ during a service in 1877. Nobody thought much of this teenager, the son of uneducated gypsy parents. Yet, Rodney didn’t listen to those voices. He was certain that God had a purpose for his life so he bought himself a Bible and an English dictionary and taught himself how to read and write. He once said, “The way to Jesus is not by Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, or the poets. It is . . . an old-fashioned hill called Calvary.” Against all odds, Rodney became an evangelist who God used to bring many to Jesus in the UK and US [see photo].
The evangelist, Gypsy Smith, realized that his identity was not in his earthly ethnic heritage, … but rather in His identity in Christ and His calling to God’s Royal Priesthood, … i.e., into God’s family of born-again believers. And I pray that all reading here recognize that all who believe in Christ as King Jesus, our Lord and Savior, are called to be part of that Royal Priesthood. And we, as Peter preached on Pentecost [see highlight passage] and Paul declared in Eph. 4:1, need to live up to our calling into the priesthood of God’s family.
We are His Royal Priesthood and as the group Avalon sings, there are NO ORPHANS in Christ’s priesthood of believers. So, … let’s go out and share God’s desire that all come to know Him as Lord, sharing His Priestly calling with others.
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My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for calling all in Your Family to be part of Your Royal Priesthood.
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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 live as worthy Priests in God’s family.… 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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