Thursday, April 28, 2022

April 28, 2022 … Growing In Christlikeness

Berry Patch Devotions in 2021 - Day 118 


Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...   … Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Pat Barrett singing … Into Faith I Go … showing in song how our faith grows thru the challenges of life.   


Maturing into fruitfulness ... 

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …  James 1:3-4 [NLT] … 

For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing

… James shows fellow Christians that our faith grows an develops when it is tested by trials.                       

Highlight Passage [Context]: … James 1:2-6 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… James helps oppressed and persecuted Christians to see that maturity in faith often requires dealing with and living thru struggles in this life.                                                                           

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Reference Passage: … John 15:7-8 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus shows His disciples that they (we) must remains connected to Him by obedience to HIs word to be fruitful as mature disciples         


Reference Passage: … Luke 9:23 [NLT] … 

23 Then He said to the crowd, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.   

… Jesus teaches His followers that to be His disciple they (we) must deny themselves (ourselves) and be willing to follow HIm.       


Reference Passage: … Romans 8:28 [NLT] … 

28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.

… Paul teaches truth about everything in our lives helps us mature in the faith to be able to glorify God in what we think, say, and do.  .


Reference Passage: … 1Corinthians 13:11, 14:20 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … </b>

… Paul challenges fellow Christians to grow and mature in their faith, … abandoning childish ways to maturity in Christ.       


Reference Passage: … 1Peter 2:1-3 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Peter exhorts persecuted Christians to rid themselves (ourselves) of immature, childlike behavior, and seek mature, Christlike, behavior.                                                                             

 

My Devotional JournalToday's Our Daily Bread author, Kimya Loder … AT THIS LINK   showed how a gardener must be patient to allow the seedlings to blossom (see photo); and then to nourish them to help the seedlings to grow and be fruitful. 


And that’s the lesson from the ODB entry today, … challenging and charging Christians to recognize that the challenges of life are God’s way of promoting our growth and maturity in the faith, … with us growing and developing to be able to honor God with our fruitfulness.  


And so I challenge any/all my readers here to take in Pat Barrett’s thought-provoking song and to meditate on the Scriptures above, … all of which call on us to let God - thru His word - nourish our lives to become more mature in Christlikeness so that we glorify God with our fruitfulness.   Are you with me in that, dear one?!                


My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for helping me to grow in following You today.             

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, …  to seek to become more fruitful for Your glory, Lord, … today and tomorrow.     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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