Tuesday, September 18, 2012

DAY 162 - From Kingdom of Heaven to Life of Heaven! (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)


**1100 DAYS of prayers now!!!
Please sign up for the new 11th 100 days 24 hours prayer campaign,
I need your prayers!!!
Please click link below.

**NEW link for the 11th 100 days 24 hours prayer campaign(from August 25 to December 03, 2012).

The easiest way is to take one hour slot for the whole week. What you need to do is very simple. Choose one dayThe easiest way is to take one hour slot for the whole week to pray for me, my family and my ministry, remembering the ministry of ACiC(ACiC has two Networks: ACiC, Anglican Coalition in Canada and AI, Asian Initiative). You may use the whole hour in prayer or you can still do you work in your office but use as much time as you can to pray and the other time work prayerfully that hour to pray for our ministry. This campaign is also to teach you that you need somebody to pray for you daily. I have been prayed for hourly the past 1,100 days and I have never experienced this kind of peace and protection before. It's just beyond words can express. If I did not listen and obey to Jesus call 1,100 days ago to start this prayer movement, I think I would be pulled into darkness and discouragement already! I deeply believe that this is a way to draw as many participation as we can in prayers. I encourage you to participate. We need you to join us! Trust in the power of prayers!

Today's Reading: Matthew 5: 1-12

**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 5: 1-12

Bible Study

Jesus says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."
Everything starts with this Good News Jesus proclaims. By our repentance, the turning back from our wrong route to follow Jesus in to the kingdom of heaven, we start a new life, a new life in Christ!

And, today we come to the beginning of the famous 'Sermon on the Mount', which runs through chapters 5 to 7, and sets out the main themes of Jesus' proclamation. It's all about one thing: How to live a life of heaven. Or, just one word, as what John Stott describes: Christlikeness.

This is Christlikeness! This is how we can live a life of Christlikeness! A life God blesses!

From verse 3 to verse 12 is always being called Beatitudes because the Latin word 'beatus' means 'blessed'. As N.T. Wright says:
The point is not to offer a list of what sort of people God normally blesses.  The point is to announce God's new covenant.  In Deuteronomy, the people came through the wilderness and arrived at the border of the promised land, and God gave them a solemn covenant.  He listed the blessings and the curses that would come upon them if they were obedient or disobedient (chapter 28).  Now Matthew has shown us Jesus, coming out of Egypt (2:15), through the water and the wilderness (chapters 3 and 4), and into the land of promise (4: 12-25).  Here, now, is his new covenant.

N.T. Wright concludes this passage by saying:
The life of heaven - the life of the realm where God is already king - is to become the life of the world, transforming the present 'earth' into the place of beauty and delight that God always intended.  And those who follow Jesus are to begin to live by this rule here and now.

How are you living this life of heaven daily when you are still have your life on earth? If you can live like that, then you will be more and more Christlike!  


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: From Kingdom of heaven to life of heaven!

What I received from Jesus is a simple outcome of our true repentance. Jesus says, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." If we truly repent, truly admit that we are poor in spirit and mourn for being so arrogant, so self-centered, so greed, so bitter, so jealous, so angry, so impure, so envy and so sinful, then through our confession and the cleansing of our sins by the blood of Christ we are in His Kingdom and be able to follow Jesus each day.  And then what?By coming and living in the Kingdom of heaven we need to be transformed to live a life of heaven.

Wow, praise the Lord for this important message and reminder:
From Kingdom of heaven to life of heaven.

Are you in? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be transformed by you each day to live a life of heaven. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.


Please click this link to worship with us - I Offer My Life

Chinese praise song - 愛是不保留 Unreserved Love


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大能的勇士啊,耶和華與你同在!

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