Today's Reading: John 12: 37-43
**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: 37-43
Bible Study
This passage shows us a sad reality in human history. Even for all the signs from God since creation showing God's true glory and Jesus showing signs of God's new creation showing God's true glory, people do not believe.
As John faced with this same situation that people did not believed in what Jesus had done so far from the six miracles he recorded in John's gospel waiting for the seven miracle, the Cross, to be revealed, his mind went back to two Old Testament themes. Moses who did a series of signs in front of Pharaoh and his courtiers and they did not believe. Isaiah who faced with the rebellious people against God spoke to them words from God, they were just like Pharaoh himself. Their eyes were shut, their hearts were hard and nothing could touch them.
Jesus says in verse 43, "For they loved praise from men more than praise from God." It's the "crown" that people are looking for always and not the Cross! It's the "getting" that people have been seeking and fighting for but not the "giving" and "sacrificing"! That's a wrong understanding of "glory" and a sad reality of "blindness"!
Are you just going to misunderstand the true meaning of glory? Are you blind or can you see?
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: Glory and blindness!
Today Jesus challenges us of whether we can see what God's true glory is or are we just as blind as all those people in the history of mankind.
Just as what John use Isaiah 53:1 showing us that God's arm has been showing forth His miraculous glory since His creation and how He led Moses. And Isaiah 6: 10 of how Isaiah explaining why people did not get it. You know why?
If your eyes can see and your hearts are soft then you have to understand and then change your course of life to be healed. The healing process is not easy. You have to stop doing something in order to start doing anything Jesus commands you to do. Just like I start to stop playing any electronic games for 40 days since this Tuesday because Jesus wants to test me whether I get to be addicted to that.
My challenge to you today is to invite you to pray to our Lord Jesus Christ asking Him to open your eyes so that you can see those things He wants you to see. And, if you see then listen and obey, no matter what you have seen. God's true glory is the Cross, the dying, the changing, the giving, the sacrificing so that we can be transformed and renewed to be more like Jesus - Christlikeness!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Open our eyes that we can see. And, help us to do what you command us to do to be more like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wutmEjdbedE&feature=related
Chinese praise song - 我要向山舉目(詩篇121篇) I Will Lift Up My Eyes to The Hills
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