Feb 2, 2025: …  The Paradox of The Cross   

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...  Please take the time to take in this song with music and lyrics with Keith and Kristyn Getty Singers singing a contemporary rendition of the old hymn … When I Survey The Wondrous Cross …  showing the paradox of the love and the horror of the cross of Christ. 

The Cross - God's ultimate paradox ... 

Highlight Passage: … Matthew 5:4 [NLT] …

4 God blesses those who mourn, for they will be comforted.           

… Jesus shows His followers the paradox of this life, in this case God comforting those who mourn.  

Highlight Passage (in context): … Matthew 5:1-12 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …  

… Jesus - to His Disciples (and us) and the paradoxes of the Beatitudes introducing His Sermon on the Mount, showing that God’s chosen live in two worlds … the kingdom of Satan (i.e., the world) and the Kingdom of God.                                                                        

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Reference Passage: … Matthew 6:19-21 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus shows the paradox of our hearts, revealing who we are in Christ.             

Reference Passage: … Matthew 6:30-34 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Jesus reveals the paradox of our lives showing us not to worry about tomorrow because of where God leads us today.   

Reference Passage: … John 3:16 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK …

… Jesus reveals to Nicodemus (and us) the paradoxical method Jesus would  use to give believers in Him a route to glory.               

Reference Passage: … 2Corinthians 5:17 NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… The Apostle Paul teaches truth that anyone who surrenders to Christ becomes a new person in His love/grace.   

Reference Passage: … Colossians 2:20 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

… Paul witnesses that he had died to self and and was made alive in Christ.  

Reference Passage: … Colossians 3:1-4 [NLT] … USE THIS LINK … 

…  Paul also teaches Christians belong to Christ and He will live them (us) forever in glory.        

                              

My Devotional Journal: Today’s Our Daily Bread  Author -  Kenneth Petersen … AT THIS LINK   … the ODB author tells about Isaac Watts,  the writer of the classic old hymn, When I Survey The Wondrous  Cross (hear a contemporary version in the song link provided), the writer used paradox to show the wondrous opposing forces seen at the Cross of Christ, … how that horrible death could bring such wonderful love to completion.   And it reveals how we, as surrendered followers of Christ, live in two paradoxical worlds but pursue the world Christ gives us - I.e., His kingdom, as opposed to choosing to live in the paradoxical world which God allows Satan to rule.     

Personally, …  in seeing the paradoxical view of the cross, … I have chosen to live for Christ and follow His way … all the way to glory.   How about you?                    

          

My Thanksgiving: … Oh, King Jesus, thank You , Lord, … seeing the wonderful/horrible view of the Cross, I choose to follow our Lord.  

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... . I pray. again today, that all reading here will join me, … to see Christ’s way following the Cross all the way to glory.     … 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.