Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and song with the group Phillips, Craig, and Dean singing He’ll Do Whatever It Takes ... poignantly singing of how God’s grace is there to do whatever it takes to transform us into the image of our Lord.
==============
Highlight Verse[s]: Ephesians 4:24 [NLT] ... 24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy. … “
... God, thru Paul, exhorted other Christians to put on the new nature of Christlikeness.
==============
Highlight Passage [context]: Ephesians 4:21-24[NLT] ... USE THIS LINK ...
... Paul had experienced a Spirit makeover and he wanted fellow Christians to experience the same Christlike transformation.
==============
Reference Passage : ... 2 Corinthians 5:17 [NLT] ... 17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!
... God, thru Paul, assures born-again believers that we have a new nature in Christ.
Reference Passage : ... Philippians 1:6 [NLT] ... 6 And I am certain that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.
… If Christians will surrender to God’s Spirit, He will make us over into the image of our Lord.
Reference Passage : ... Colossians 3:12-15 [NLT] ... USE THIS LINK ...
... Paul urges fellow Christians to put off the old selfish image and put on the new image of Christlikeness.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Boucher Pye used a story about a man whose life was transformed by his relationship with Christ and how this man, as we Christians should, did all he could to show other young people how Christ can do a makeover in our lives. ... The ODB author wrote: Stephen grew up in a rough part of East London and fell into crime by the age of ten. He said, “If everyone’s selling drugs and doing robberies and fraud, then you’re going to get involved. It’s just a way of life.” But when he was twenty, he had a dream that changed him: “I heard God saying, Stephen, you’re going to prison for murder.” This vivid dream served as a warning, and he turned to God and received Jesus as his Savior—and the Holy Spirit transformed his life.
Stephen set up an organization that teaches inner-city kids discipline, morality, and respect through sports. [see photo] He credits God with the success he has seen as he prays with and trains the kids. “Rebuilding misguided dreams,” he says.
The Apostle Paul was like that man in the ODB story above. Paul had experienced a transformation - a “make over” - by God’s Spirit. And in the scriptures above we read of just how much Paul wanted other Christians to experience that same Spirit “make-over” in Christ.
Everywhere Paul went on his missionary journeys, we read in his letters, how he exhorted fellow Christians to surrender to Christ and allow His Spirt to do, as Phillips, Craig, and Dean sing, … “whatever it takes” … to transform us into the image of Christlikeness.
I pray that all reading here are surrendered today to God’s Spirit and allowing Him to do His eternal and miraculous make-over in us thru God’s transforming and sanctifying grace.
=============
My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for Your promise of making me (us) over in Christ.
=============
My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here can, and will, join me to surrender and letting God’s Spirit make us over into the images of Christlikeness. … 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.</ span>
No comments:
Post a Comment