Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from the group, The McCraes, singing … He Knows My Name … poignantly singing of God knows everything about me … so, I don’t need to do anything to impress our Lord.
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Highlight Verse[s]: Ephesians 2:8-19 [ESV] ... 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
… Paul shows fellow Christians that our salvation comes - not by our works - but thru the finished work of Christ on the cross and our repentance and declared faith in HIS works.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Ephesians 2:4-10 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… God, thru Paul, teaches truth about salvation by faith - not works!
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Reference Passage : … Matthew 10:30 [ESV] … 30 But even the hairs of your head are all numbered.
… Jesus declares that God knows even every hair on our heads, … therefore, we don’t ever need to get His attention.
Reference Passage : … John 14:21 [ESV] … 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.”
… Jesus shows that our works and obedience to God’s commands are only evidence of our love for our Lord once we’re saved by our faith in His finished work on the cross.
Reference Passage : … Romans 8:38-39 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul shows his confidence that NOTHING can separate us in this life from the love and grace of God if we have saving faith in HIs finished work on the cross.
Reference Passage : … Romans 10:9-13 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul shows any/all who surrender in faith to Christ’s finished work on the cross and, in repentance, declare their faith, WILL BE SAVED.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Sheridan Voysey, uses a story of a dedicated school bus driver to show how we can be misguided in our attempts to motivate others toward good works. … The ODB author wrote: In The Call of Service, author Robert Coles, exploring our reasons for serving, tells the moving story of an older woman’s service to others. As a bus driver, [see photo] she showed great care toward the children she drove to school each day—quizzing them on homework and celebrating their successes. “I want to see these kids make it in life,” she said of her motivation. But there was another reason too.
As a youth, the words of an aunt had shaken this woman to the core. “She’d tell us that we had to do something God would notice,” she told Coles, “or else we’d get lost in the big shuffle!” Worried at the prospect of hell after the “big shuffle” of judgment, this woman had devised ways to “get God’s attention”—going to church so “He’d see me being loyal” and working hard to serve others so God might “hear from others what I was doing.”
Obviously this school bus driver cared for the kids and wanted them to do well in school. However, her motivation was spiritually mis-guided by a false premise that the way to heaven is attained by doing good works to get God’s attention. And I pray that no one reading with me is motivated by such false teaching, which unfortunately is perpetrated on the world by so many false religions, denominations, and sects.
God’s word is clear on this, isn’t it? As God, thru Paul, teaches in the highlight passage [i.e., Eph. 2:8-9], we are saved, NOT by good works; but by our faith in the finished work of Jesus on the cross (see also Romans 10:9-13). And my dear ones, I pray you know that nothing we do or say is going to get “God’s attention.” He already knows every hair on our heads (see Matt. 10:30); and nothing that we can do in life will ever separate us from His love or grace (see Romans 8:37-39).
So, yes, do good stuff, my friends; and let’s show our love for God by being obedient to His word (see John 14:21); but let’s all just trust that God already knows our hearts and knows EVERYTHING about us. We don’t ever need to get His attention by doing ANYTHING.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for knowing everything about me.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to thank God for being there for us and loving us, … no matter what we do. … 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>
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