Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in images and song from Clay Crosse, Bob Carlisle, and Bebe Winans singing I Will Follow Christ … declaring strongly in song how we must stand firm and follow Christ NO MATTER WHAT !!!
Highlight Verse[s]: Mark 15:40-41 [ESV] ... 40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.
… Several women stood firm in following Jesus to the end and attending to His needs.
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Highlight Passage [context]: Mark 15:33-41 [ESV] ... USE THIS LINK ...
… Mark relates how some stood firm in their faith, even to follow Jesus to the cross.
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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. …”
… Jesus demands that we be willing to deny ourselves and follow Him … NO MATTER WHAT!!
Reference Passage : … 1Corinthians 15:58, 16:13 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul exhorts fellow Christians, being persecuted, to stand firm in their faith … just as we should do these days.
Reference Passage : … Ephesians 6:10, … 13 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, calls Christians to stand firm in the faith even when confronted with spiritual warfare.
Reference Passage : … 1Peter 5:8-9 [ESV] … 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
… Peter, writing to persecuted Christians, exhorts them (and us) to resist the attacks of Satan and the world.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Amy Boucher Pye, tells of two Christian evangelists who were willing to give up successful artistic careers to follow God’s call on their lives, … i.e., to share the Gospel with the lost world. … The ODB author wrote: In the Middle Eastern country where they live, Adrian and his family suffer persecution for their faith. Yet, through it all, they demonstrate Christ’s love. Standing in his church courtyard, which was pummeled by bullets when terrorists used it as training ground, he said, “Today is Good Friday. We remember that Jesus suffered for us on the cross.” And suffering, he continued, is something that believers in Jesus there understand. But his family chooses to remain in their homeland: “We’re still here, still standing.”
On that horrible “Good Friday,” as it relates in the highlight passage, there were those who stood with Jesus right to the end of His life. Some of His inner disciples had fled; but not those few, especially those loyal women, were there with/for our Lord as He carried out His mission on the cross.
And the question which arrises from today’s ODB entry, given to us on this “Good Friday,” is whether we are willing to stand with our Lord, … to follow Him as the linked song challenges, … even if we face persecution, as Adrian and his family did in the ODB story. One day, who knows, we may come up against spiritual warfare like the early Church faced from Nero and Rome; and we need to be willing to do what Paul and Peter encouraged those early Christians to do [see reference scriptures]; … and that is to stand firm in the faith.
Oh how I pray we do so!!
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for Your willingness to give us Your grace to empower us to stand and follow You.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me to stand and follow our Lord even thru the valley of the shadow of death. 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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