Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of song and lyrics from Matthew West singing … Broken Things … poignantly singing of how Heaven will reach down to accept all who come to offer all to Our Lord and Savior … Yes, … even me!
Rembrandt's painting of the Prodigal's Return
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Highlight Verse[s]: Luke 15:1-2 [NKJV] ... 1 Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. 2 This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such sinful people—even eating with them!
… The religious leaders couldn’t abide Jesus showing His love for sinners.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Luke 15:1-2, 11-31 [NLT] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Jesus relates the parable of the Prodigal to illustrate who we become related to God, the Father.
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Reference Passage : … John 3:14-17 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God’s love - given to us in His Son - is for ANYBODY and EVERYBODY who is willing to receive Him as our King, … our Lord, … and our Savior.
Reference Passage : … Romans 10:9-13 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, declares what it takes to be received into God’s Kingdom as a child of God … ANYONE!!
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Mart DeHaan, uses painting by Rembrandt to illustrate how in the parable of the prodigal God shows how His love, extended thru His Son, is for EVERYONE. … The ODB author wrote: Author Henri Nouwen recalls his visit to a museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, where he spent hours reflecting on Rembrandt’s portrayal of the prodigal son. [See Photo] As the day wore on, changes in the natural lighting from a nearby window left Nouwen with the impression that he was seeing as many different paintings as there were changes of light. Each seemed to reveal something else about a father’s love for his broken son.
Henri Nowwen, according to the ODB author, went on to describe how he saw himself in all of the characters in Rembrandt’s paining, … all except the Father image, … Who was receiving His long lost son; … and yes, even the jealous older son and the observers whom Rembrandt saw as like the Pharisees of Jesus’ day [see the Luke 15:1-2 passage].
But in the painting [again, see photo] our “Prodigal” Father is willing to receive and honor anyone, like the “prodigal” son, who was willing to come and surrender their brokenness to the Father. That’s what Matthew West sings in the linked song; and what the highlight and reference scriptures above declare. And I pray we all see ourselves as coming in surrender to receive the “prodigal” love of our Abba Father.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, ... for being willing to receive us as broken prodigal’s giving our all in surrender to You.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to come in total surrender to our Heavenly Prodigal Father.
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>
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