January 23, 2023 … Living Like Jesus …

Berry Patch Devotions in 2023 - Day 23 

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 how we Christians desire to live more like Jesus lived.    

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Highlight Passage: …  Ephesians 4:1 [NLT] …  

1 Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God.  

… Paul pleads with fellow Christians in Ephesus (and us now) to live lives worthy of our calling as disciples of Christ.         

Highlight Passage (Context): … Ephesians 4:1-5, 25-31 [NLT] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul exhorting fellow Christians to live lives more like Jesus.                                                     

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Reference Passage: … Psalm 139:23-24 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… David prayed and sang for God to show him how to live following God’s will and His ways.                  

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 shows His followers and Disciples how they must must follow Him and to be His disciples.      

Reference Passage: … Romans 12:1-2 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul exhorts and encourages fellow Christians become living sacrifices, living to obey and follow Christ rather than following the world.    

Reference Passage: … Galatians 2:20 [NLT] … </b>

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   

… Paul shows fellow Christians the extent of God’s love in us when we’re willing to die to self and share God’s love with others.   

Reference Passage: … 2Thessalonians 1:11 [NLT] … 

11 So we keep on praying for you, asking our God to enable you to live a life worthy of his call. May he give you the power to accomplish all the good things your faith prompts you to do.   

… Paul shows fellow Christians to pray that God will give them (and us) the enabling grace to live lives worthy as our calling to Christlikeness. 

                                                                  

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Adam Holz … AT THIS LINK …   tells a delightful story of how his little daughter jumped in his lap after waking up one morning; … but in open honesty and love, crinkled her nose, and told her daddy, referring to his coffee breath …  “I love you, and I like you, but I don’t like your smell.”

We need to be more honest like that, don’t we, … to call out ourselves first than then our fellow Christians … to live lives more like Jesus lived?  That’s what Zach Williams is singing about in the linked song, isn’t he?   And it’s what God’s word - in the Scriptures above - calls for us to live lives which are worthy of our Lord and point others to Christlikeness. 

How about it, fellow Christian, … what could we be doing to live more like Christ today?             

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh, Abba Father, thank You, King Jesus, … for calling me, thru Your word, Lord, to deny myself and live more like You.    

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray that all reading here will join me, … to follow our Lord as He called us to live.  …     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.