Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Lydia Walker singing … I Have Decided To Follow Jesus … poignantly singing how we, as Christians, with God’s free will and His mercy/grace, must choose to follow God’s way rather than the ways of Satan, the world, or our own fleshly desires.
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Highlight Passage : … James 5:19-20 [ESV] ... 19 My brothers, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, 20 let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.
… God, thru James admonishing Christians to help bring others back to God from their wandering/selfish ways.
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Reference Passage : … Matthew 18:15 [ESV] ... 15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.
… Jesus admonishes His Church to confront a discerned sinner with his sinful ways and do all we can to bring him/her back to follow God.
Reference Passage : … Luke 15:7, 10 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …
… Jesus’s parables of how heaven rejoices when one wayward sinner is turned and brought back to God’s ways.
Reference Passage : … 1Corinthians 11:1 [ESV] … 1 Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
… Paul, knew that others could follow him because he was choosing to follow Christ.
Reference Passage : … Galatians 6:1 [ESV] … 1 Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted.
… God, thru Paul, admonishes Christians to help restore those who wander away from God’s way to come back to God.
Reference Passage : … 1 Timothy 5:20 [ESV] … 20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
… Paul helping a young Pastor, Timothy, deal with sinners in Christ’s body, … the Church.
My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Arthur Jackson, AT THIS LINK relates a story of turning around to find the right path when he encountered a “Do Not Enter” sign [see photo] on the road where he was driving, … illustrating how we can choose to repent and turn our ways toward God’s way when someone helps show us we’ve been off track.
Any of us can get off God’s path in life, can’t we? But don’t you just love how Jesus related the joy in heaven when even one sinner chooses to repent and come back to follow God’s way (see Luke 15:7, 10).
So, we Christians, when we discern another who has turned from God’s ways, are strongly exhorted (see Pauline passages above) to do all we can to confront and turn the wayward one back to God. And when that one decides to turn and follow Christ, as in the linked song, we can - and should - rejoice with the angels in heaven because that one has been saved from himself to follow The Lord.
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My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for calling us, as Your chosen ones, to help others turn from self to The Savior.
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My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray, Lord, that all reading here will join me today, to stay on the right path ourselves and to lead others to follow Jesus. … 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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