Today's Reading: John 15: 9-17
**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 15: 9-17
Bible Study
Rick Warren, in his famous book "Purpose Driven Life" starts with one simple line that capture his readers: It's not about you.
How come the purpose of our lives is not about us? Here in this passage we have the answer:
You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit - fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Love each other.
Jesus uses everything He can to tell us through chapter 14 and this chapter how He loves us and how important it is for us to stay in His love and to love Him. And, the secret and the mandate to stay in His love is to "listen and obey":
If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love.
And, just as N.T. Wright says:
At the heart of it all is the humility that comes from knowing who's in charge. 'You did not choose me; I chose you'...It is a personal relationship of love and loyalty to the one who has loved us more than we can begin to imagine. And the test of that love and loyalty remains the simple, profound, 'dangerous and difficult command: love one another.
God choose you to love each other so that you can bear fruit, fruit that will last. What do you say?
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: It's not about you!
What I heard from Jesus today is pointing to our lifelong calling. What is that? It's about something not about us but about God's purpose and God's command to us. The key word I got for more that 16 years that almost every member of Richmond Emmanuel Church knows is "Listen and Obey".
Today Jesus told me the second part of "Listen and Obey". You know what is that?
"Love each other". The message I received from Jesus today is that if it is really from Jesus calling us to listen to obey, it has to do with something leading us to love more. Jesus listened and obeyed to the Father's command and He died on the Cross. He loves us so much that He died for us. Jesus chooses us and appoints us to love, and we need to listen and obey to His daily call of how to leave our comfort zone to love like He loves us!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Tell us that one step that we can love more today. What do you want us to do that little step that we can love and bear fruit today, not tomorrow, but today. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Please click this link to worship with us - I Offer My Life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0ar5EfvAcU
Chinese praise song - 愛是不保留 Unreserved Love
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