Berry Patch Devotions in 2021 - Day 244
Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ... Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Zach Williams singing … Less Like Me … powerfully singing of doing all we can, as followers of Christ, to live lives more like Jesus and less like us.
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Highlight Passage: Ephesians 4:22-24 [NLT] …
22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; 23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. </i>
… God, thru Paul, charges Christians to live more like Christ.
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Highlight Passage [Context]: …Ephesians 4:20-32 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul exhorts fellow Christians to put off the old way of selfish/sinful living and to put on Christlikeness thru God’s Spirit.
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Reference Passage: … Luke 9:23 [NLT] …
23 Then He said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.
… Jesus commands His followers to follow HIS way of living in the life we’ve been given as His disciples.
Reference Passage: … 1Corinthians 11:1 [NLT] …
1 Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.
… Paul was confident that He was following Christ; t and therefore, exhorted other Christians to follow him in following Christ.
Reference Passage: … Galatians 2:20 [NLT] …
20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
… Paul, to fellow Christians, declares what it’s like to put to death the old sinful way of living and to live a Christlike - Spirit-led - way of life.
Reference Passage: … Colossians 3:12-17 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …
… Paul so desired that other Christians, like the Colossians, live more like Jesus and less like their old way of sinful living.
My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Dave Branon, AT THIS LINK … tells of desiring to paint and fix-up his home; and learning that the COVID19 restrictions would limit home-repair supplies, he rushed to purchase what he’d need to make the changes he desired to make in his home.
And the ODB author made a comparison if this personal “fixer-up” scenario to that of the Apostle Paul, who had learned to make serious, Christ-like, changes in his own life and to teach/preach that other other fellow Christians could follow the Lord’s ways and live lives which reflected less of their (our) old selfish/sinful selves and would live more like Christ.
Jesus certainly calls us to follow Him, doesn’t He (see Luke 9:23)? And I’m sure all fellow born-again Christians reading here with me see that this was Paul’s desire for all of us in writing to many of his fellow disciples of Christ (see Pauline Scriptures above). So, I pray that we take up God’s will for us in Paul’s writing and do all we can, as Zach Williams sings, … to live more like Jesus today and not just a little bit … but a LOT …more like Jesus today.
My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for giving empowering grace to live more like You today.
My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to clean up our way of living and to live more like You. … Amen
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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.
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