Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in images, song and lyrics from Hawk Nelson singing … Live Like You’re Loved … powerfully singing of how we need to choose to live like we’re loved by Jesus … because He does!
He's Our Good Shepherd ...
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Highlight Verse[s]: John 10:10-11 [NLT] ... 10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life. … 11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.
… Jesus declares His willingness to die for His sheep as our Good Shepherd, showing just how much He loves His beloved sheep (that’s us, folks!!).
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Highlight Passage [context]: John 10:1-11 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus pictures Himself as our “Good Shepherd,” willing to give up His life for His sheep so that they (we) can live a more abundant life.
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Reference Passage : … Isaiah 53:6 [NLT] ... 6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on Him the sins of us all.
… We may stray, like sheep, but our Lord has made the way of His love for us to rise above ourselves.
Reference Passage : … Proverbs 3:5-6 [NLT] ... 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. 6 Seek His will in all you do, and He will show you which path to take.
… If we trust God’s will thru His word, He will show us the right patch to take in life.
Reference Passage : … Psalm 23 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus, our Messiah, leads us from the valley of the shadow of death unto His garden of goodness and love.
Reference Passage : … Matthew 6:31-33 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus shows disciples what it takes to overcome the worries of life … to seek to follow Him, no matter what!
Reference Passage : … Romans 12:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… God, thru Paul, taught that If - AND ONLY IF - we’re willing to become living sacrifices to/for Him, … following His ways ALWAYS, … He is willing to show us His perfect will and give us His love for life.
My Devotional Journal: Today's ODB author, Remi Oyedele, compares a bleak philosophical view of life from Thomas Hobbes with Jesus’ view with His promise of abundant living. … The ODB author wrote: Seventeenth-century philosopher Thomas Hobbes famously wrote that human life in its natural state is “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.” Hobbes argued that our instincts tend toward war in a bid to attain dominance over others; thus the establishment of government would be necessary to maintain law and order.
The bleak view of humanity sounds like the state of affairs that Jesus described when He said, “All who have come before me are thieves and robbers” (John 10:8). But Jesus offers hope in the midst of despair. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy,” but then the good news: “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full” (v. 10).
I think we’d all agree that life at times just sucks, doesn’t it? And that’s what the philosopher Thomas Hobbes proclaimed by describing our human tendency to see life the way our sinful minds perceive it. But Jesus came, as our “Good Shepherd” (see Ps. 23), to die on a cross to give us a view of life worth living [see highlight passage], … a life full of the love and grace and abundance He promises when we surrender to follow Him.
He loved us, as our Good Shepherd, … enough to die for us as His sheep [see Isaiah 53:6]. And I ask my readers today the question asked in the linked song, ”Are we living like we’re loved by Jesus?” Because that’s the abundant life that I, for one, desire to live today.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for showing me the way to live with and for Your love - which is the abundant life.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me, … to choose to surrender and follow the One Who is leading us to the love our Good Shepherd has for us. 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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