Sunday, December 23, 2012

DAY 258 - How Can You Pass Those Exams.? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)



Today's Reading: Matthew 27: 39-44

**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Matthew 27: 39-44

Bible Study

     N.T. Wright gives us a shocking message about this passage. He says:
     As in the previous section we found our minds going back all the way to the Sermon on the Mount, so here matthew leads us to an even earlier part of his story: Jesus' baptism and temptation.
     It was in Jesus' baptism that God told him, clearly and dramatically: you are my son, I am delighted with you (3:17).  Jesus had lived all his public career in the belief that God had indeed spoken those words, confirming the vocation of which he had been aware, we may suppose , from much earlier.  Now this belief was to face the sternest and roughest challenge.
     It was in his temptation, of course, that the challenge had begun.  As we look back a a the story (4:1-11), we see how it points directly to the mocking of the Jewish leaders.  If you really are God's son ,said the tempter, surely it's wrong that you should be hungry like this?  If you really are God's son, why don't you show people the dramatic ways in which God will look after you?  If you really are God's son, why don't you take the quick way and come to your kingdom in one easy move?  Now, in almost exactly the same tone of voice, we find the mockers challenging him:  If you really are God's son, why don't you do what you said - destroy the Temple and rebuild it?  If you really are God's son, why don't you come down from the cross?  If you really are God's son, why doesn't God deliver you?  Surely he can't want you to be hanging there in agony?  sure he doesn't want you to ...die?...

     Between the temptations of chapter 4 and the mocking on the cross stands Jesus' entire public career.  During that time, as we have seen, he was challenged and confronted many times by the leaders, actual or self-appointed, of his own Jewish people and their public opinion.  They accused him of breaking the law.  They accused him of being in league with the devil.  They refused to believe that the way he was going was the true way to God's kingdom.

      Such a wonderful message from bishop Wright helping us to understand how the devil wants to deceive us and to take us away from the Kingdom authority we are in when we become God's children. Those challenges between our conversion and our final step towards the Cross are like all kinds of tests and examinations when we were still in high school. And the Cross, or the final moment of our earthly life would be the final examination. There are so many chances for us to fail in those examinations and let Satan win and take us away from Jesus. How can you pass those exams.?   
   
Let's 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: How can you pass those exams.?

     What I got from Jesus today is a warning for us to prepare for our next exam. in order not to fail. I have seen too many Christians fail in those exams. and become another person, sometimes a very wicked one! How sad!

     Learn from Jesus of how he could win over and pass all those exams. giving us good examples to follow. First, each time he knew what exactly God wanted him to do. To use quotations from scripture to defeat Satan or to remain silence.
Second, his intimate personal relationship with God.

     Do you have these two when you face with the exam.?
     How can you do better armed with these two essentials? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be able to follow you good examples to pass all those exams. l In Jesus name we pray. Amen.



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