Devotional Song: … GO TO THIS LINK … Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Jimmy Cliff singing his hit song… I Can See Clearly Now … poignantly singing of how life is so much better when we can see clearly to travel forward.
==============
Highlight Verse[s]: Exodus 25:40 [NLT] … 40 “Be sure that you make everything according to the pattern I have shown you here on the mountain.
… God wants us to pay attention to every detail in His word so that He we can see Him clearly in dealing with life.
==============
Highlight Passage [context]: Exodus 25:31-40 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God gives Solomon clear and precise detail on how to build the lamp stand to be placed in the Tabernacle.
==============
Reference Passage : … Psalm 119:4-7, 105 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… When we view life thru God’s word, things are made so much clearer for us to follow Him down the path of life.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… If we completely trust [i.e., have faith] in God’s truth and follow His ways thru His word, we can see His path so much more clearly to follow Him.
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 …
… Trying to see life thru our own eyes, is like visually impaired drivers trying to drive thru life without corrective lenses (see photo).
Reference Passage : … Romans 1:20 [NLT] … 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
… Really, all we have to do is look around us in creation to see God. … BUT … it is so much easier to see Him more clearly when we use the corrective lenses of God’s truth (i.e., His word).
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Julie Schwab, uses a personal story to illustrate doing all we can to see things more clearly in life. And the ODB author wrote: “It must be amazing to look at a tree and see the individual leaves instead of just a blur of green!” my dad said. I couldn’t have said it better. I was eighteen at the time and not a fan of my new need to wear glasses, but they changed the way I saw everything, making the blurry beautiful! [see photo]
When reading Scripture, I view certain books like I do when I look at trees without my glasses. There doesn’t seem to be much to see. But noticing details can reveal the beauty in what might seem to be a boring passage.
Then the ODB author used the story of the incredible detail God called Solomon to follow in building the lamp-stand for the Tabernacle (see highlight passage). And this OT example illustrated for Ms. Schwab how God wants his faithful (that’s us!) to follow His commands (i.e., His word) with great detail. And hence the image of trying to see things more clearly with corrective lenses if we have natural visual impairment (which we all do in our sin nature).
Naturally, I see life much as the photo shows one seeing without glasses. However, when I put my glasses on, I have 20/20 vision (see photo). So, … when I come here each morning and put on the lenses of God’s truth, by viewing life thru God’s word, things become so much clearer. I feel like the Psalmist who wrote Psalm 119 (see reference passages), who was able to see his path thru life so much clearer by follow God’s commands.
And I pray we all feel as Jimmy Cliff sings in the linked song, … seeing life so more clearly by using God’s corrective truth as our lenses to follow the Lord thru life.
=============
My THANKFULNESS: … Oh Abba Father, … thank You, Lord, … for giving us the corrective lens of Your truth to help us see Your path the way You want us to see it.
=============
My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, … King Jesus, … I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to put on the corrective lens of God’s truth daily to travel the road of life more safely. … 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.
No comments:
Post a Comment