Today's Reading: John 12: 20-26
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read John 12: 20-26
Bible Study
This is a meaningful passage teaching us the meaning of a key word in John - Glory. Here we see Andrew and Philip came to tell Jesus that there were some Greeks (foreigners) who wanted to see Jesus. Instead of going to see those people, Jesus went off into a teaching about seeds and plants, life and death, servants and masters. Why?
We should know the reason from what Jesus wanted to teach His disciples:
1. The meaning of glory - Those Greeks knew how glorious Jesus was being received as described in yesterday's passage, they wanted to take part in that kind of glory. Or, those disciples thought that Jesus was very famous now and they fell into a wrong sense of glory. That's why Jesus wanted to use this opportunity to teach them to know the real meaning of glory.
2. Jesus talked about one single seed dies and produces many seeds, the man who loves his life will lose it and who hates his life will keep it eternally, those who serve Jesus must follow Jesus to be His servants and the Heavenly Father will honor them. This is a total paradigm shift of what ordinary people think about to have a glorious life.
Everyone wants to live a glorious life, to be honored by many, praised by many and even "worship" by many. But Jesus tells us that true honor and glory comes from dying, giving, serving. True honor and glory does not come from having the power to "lord" other people but to serve our Lord Jesus Christ and then we will be honored by God.
Is that a wonderful teaching that we need to think of?
Have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: Come to serve Jesus!
Jesus gives us a total paradigm change message of receiving honor and glory. In human terms to have honor and glory we need to fight hard, to control and lord other people and sometimes to "kill" other people in order that we can raise up to the top of the world.
But Jesus tells us the only way to have glory and honor is to serve him, follow him as our Lord to give, to love, to share, to die. Then through those giving and dying we can bear much fruit, much much fruit!
How are you going to live it out now?
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to come to you each day, follow you and obey your command to serve you with all we have. We want to be honored by our Heavenly Father. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Please click this link to worship with us - You Are My All in All
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC617kE1maU&feature=related
Chinese praise song - 这一生最美的祝福 The Most Wonderful Blessing of My Life
You can subscribe to my podcast feed here:http://feeds.feedburner.com/discipler123