Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in a YouTube video of images and lyrics from Jeremy Camp singing … The Answer … poignantly singing of how we Christians must overcome our human nature and desires to follow our own ways … but rather to find THE ANSWER, … following Jesus!
Elizabeth Elliot - sharing God's love with the Huarani people
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Highlight Verse[s]: Romans 12:19-20 [ESV] ... 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.”
… Paul quotes from Prov. 25:21-22 [linked below] to show how Christians should respond from being wronged in life.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Romans 12:17-21 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Paul invokes Old Testament teaching on forgiveness instead of revenge when we are wronged.
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Reference Passage : … Psalm 139:23-24 [ESV] … 23 Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! 24 And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
… My prayer EVERY MORNING to follow God away from my ways and to follow His !!
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 25:21-22 [ESV] … 21 If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, 22 for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
… Jesus and His Apostles simply preached and practiced what they had known God taught from the Old Testament.
Reference Passage : … Matthew 5:43-48 [ESV] …USE THIS LINK ...
… Jesus preaches on loving our enemies to show that we are sons of God, the Father.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Estera Escobar, uses the story of Elizabeth Elliot’s response to her husband’s death to show how we should live as Jesus taught us … with love and grace rather than revenge. … The ODB author wrote: After Jim Elliot and four other missionaries were killed by Huaorani tribesmen in 1956, no one expected what happened next. Jim’s wife, Elisabeth, their young daughter, and another missionary’s sister willingly chose to make their home among the very people who killed their loved ones. [see photo] They spent several years living in the Huaorani community, learning their language, and translating the Bible for them. These women’s testimony of forgiveness and kindness convinced the Huaorani of God’s love for them and many received Jesus as their Savior.
When we’re wronged, especially when it causes deep loss, as in the case of Elizabeth Elliot losing her husband to natives whom he was ministering, … it would normally cause anger and the desire for revenge. But Jim Elliot’s wife took her faith to heart and carried out the teachings of Jesus [see Scriptures above] by going back to the people who had murdered her husband and showing them the Gospel love/grace of our Lord.
It’s a good life lesson in Christlikeness for us all, isn’t it? And I pray we have learned the lesson and can implement it in our lives when we’re wronged … today … or maybe tomorrow.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for showing the way for us to live as You did.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to live for/with God’s love as we overcome our desire for revenge. 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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