Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in Follow Jesus … poignantly singing of how we, as Christians, are called to follow Jesus out of our lives of selfishness into lives of service to/for Him.
SO WORTH IT !!!
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Highlight Verse[s]: Matthew 4:20 [ESV] ... 20 Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.
… These fishermen, to the promise of following their Messiah, were wiling to set aside the known to follow Jesus into the unknown.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Matthew 4:18-22 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Jesus call four of HIs original 12 disciples to leave their known lives and to follow Him to an entirely new life of self denial and service to God.
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Reference Passage : … Matthew 29:19-20 [ESV] … 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
… Christ’s GREAT COMMISSION, … calling ALL who’re willing to follow the Lord, to eternal service for God’s glory.
Reference Passage : … Luke 5:1-11 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Luke’s account of Jesus calling out His first disciples
Reference Passage : … Luke 9:23 [ESV] … 23 And He said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
… Christ’s charge to any who would claim to follow Him.
Reference Passage : … Acts 1:8 [ESV] … 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
… At His ascension. Christ called all disciples to be His witnesses to the world.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Elisa Morgan, uses a personal story of change and loss being a big part of moving forward in service to our Lord. … The ODB author wrote: As a young woman, I imagined myself married to my high school sweetheart—until we broke up. My future yawned emptily before me and I struggled with what to do with my life. At last I sensed God leading me to serve Him by serving others and I enrolled in seminary. Then the reality crashed through that I’d be moving away from my roots, friends, and family. In order to respond to God’s call, I had to leave.
In 1983, thru a rather dramatic scenario (too long for now), God called me out of a life of sin and selfishness to follow Him. At that time, all I could see was that following Christ’s way, instead of my own, was going to take a lot more self denial than I had been used to up to that point in life. But now, almost four decades later, having been led to become an Ordained Minister and lead a ministry for over two decades, I see that deciding to drop my past, as did His first four disciples in the Matthew 4 and Luke 5 accounts (see above), was WELL WORTH IT. But back in 83’ it was a scary proposition.
How about you, my fellow Christian? What has been - or will be - your calling to follow and serve King Jesus? But, if this seems like a scary proposition for you, … I can say this to you. If you feel the Lord calling you forward in life … to deny yourself in some way and follow Him, … drop your nets, dear one, and become a fisher of men. It is SO worth it !!!
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for calling me to follow and serve 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 respond and drop our selfishness in following and serving our Savior. 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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