Love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life. Deuteronomy 30:20 (Life Application Study Bible)
Jesus Tells Us…Stop worrying, and listen carefully for My voice. But remember that I speak softly. If your own thoughts are too noisy, you will not hear Me. I understand that there are many things to think about: school, family, friends, what to wear, what to say, what to do, the list goes on and on. All those thoughts start bouncing around in your mind, zigzagging all over the place, until the “noise” they make drowns out My voice. You’ll never hear Me above all that confusion. That is why I gave you a special gift, My Spirit inside you.
Jesus Concludes…Ask My Spirit to quiet your thoughts so that you can hear Mine. Then sit peacefully in My Presence, letting My thoughts become yours.
Deuteronomy 30:20; Genesis 1:27; Romans 12:2; Study Notes
Footnotes Deuteronomy 30:19-20; Moses challenged Israel to choose life, to obey God, and therefore to continue experiencing his blessings. God doesn’t force his will on anyone. He lets us decide whether to follow him or reject him. This decision, however, is a life-or-death matter. God wants us to realize this, for he would like us all to choose life. Daily, in each new situation, we must affirm and reinforce this commitment.
Passage Genesis 1:27; So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female, he created them.
Footnotes Genesis 1:27; God made both man and woman in his image. Neither one is made more in the image of God than the other. From the beginning the Bible places both man and woman at the pinnacle of God’s creation. Neither gender is exalted over the other, and neither is depreciated. Our identity is given to us by God. It is not defined by culture, experience, or environment, he has the prior claim to us. Thus, he is Lord of our gender and sexuality.
Passage Romans 12:2; Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Footnotes Romans 12:2; Paul warned Christians about following the selfish and corrupt pattern of this fallen world. Many Christians wisely decide that a large portion of the world’s behavior is off-limits for them. Our refusal to conform to this world, however, must go even deeper than just behavior and customs, it must be firmly planted in the values rooted in our minds: “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” It is possible, however to avoid most worldly customs and still be proud, covetous, selfish, stubborn, and arrogant. Only when the Holy Spirit renews, reeducates, and redirects our minds are we truly transformed.
Jesus Tells Us is from the Jesus Calling 365 devotions for kids.
THE WORLD…we see history
BARACK OBAMA, MOST UNEXPECTED WORLD LEADER
Barack Obama at a Sudanese refugee camp
What makes Obama’s story so extraordinary, is his heritage and upbringing, it’s as improbable a success story as America has ever produced. In 2006 the junior senator from Illinois returns to his roots in Africa, where he is received as a conquering hero by Sudanese people at a refugee camp. He was a most unexpected world leader. For at the start of the millennium, few believed that in a land that once condoned slavery, a biracial child from Honolulu with the perplexing, foreign-sounding name Barack Hussein Obama II, could reach the highest office in the land. And to get there, Obama took an unlikely path. The son of a Kenyan student and a white classmate, Obama was raised by his mother in Indonesia and also by his maternal grandparents in Hawaii, after his parents divorced. He went on to Columbia College and then Harvard Law School, where he became the first black American to serve as president of the Harvard Law Review. Settling in Chicago, Obama met his wife-to-be, became a community organizer, and set his sights on politics. It was then a 12-year shot from the Illinois state senate, and then the U.S. Senate to the White House. Yet even after two terms as President, perhaps Obama’s most fitting accomplishment came in 2009, when he earned a Nobel Peace Prize. It was an honor he shared with the world.
Source: https://www.life.com/history/lifes-100-people-who-changed-the-world/ Page 82