Monday, December 16, 2013

DAY 576 - Turn Your Sufferings into Praise (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

**NEW link for the  15th: 13th 100 days 24 hours prayer campaign (We are going to use this 13th list leads up to the 15th. 13th from March 15 to June 22, 2013. 14th from June 22 to August 31, 2013, 15th from Sept. 1, 2013 to Dec. 9. 2013)

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Confirmation from John Stott in 2009: 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
My MicroMacro Discipleship, A missing DNA in Discipleship Development: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/introduction-micromacro-discipleship.html
Subject Shifting Devotion Method(Inspired by John Stott in 1991: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

                               Today's Reading: 2 Corinthians 4:13-18
** If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from my Devotion on Fire blog:
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html
To use this simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:
 .Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf

Please click this link to read 2 Corinthians 4:13-18

Bible Study

     Paul comes back to the start of this chapter in verse 16: We do not lose heart. In the midst of deep sufferings, how can we not lose heart? Talking is easy, but if you have experienced what is deep suffering, you should know what I am saying. It is just not easy! 
Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     As Paul reflects here on the whole experience, he finds himself in the same position as the Psalmist in Psalm 116:10: he has stayed faithful, and so now speaks.  The Psalmist stayed faithful, and spoke - to the Lord himself in desperate prayer, in the anguish of his heart, and to those who would read and sing his poem.  Paul remains faithful, and speaks in prayer and thanksgiving to the God who raised the Lord Jesus…

      Paul has taken the whole psalm, has lived through its experience himself, has reflected deeply on it in the light of the gospel of Jesus, and has now made it the instrument of his appeal to the Corinthians not to despise his sufferings or regard him as a failure, but to share his gratitude to God and turn the whole experience into praise.   

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:2 Corinthians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.42.

     Do you think you can turn your deep sufferings into praise? 

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":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    What I heard from Jesus today is: Turn your sufferings into praise

    What I got from Jesus today is a command for me to just read Psalm 116, the whole Psalm 116! Jesus wants to comfort you, or if you do not need this comfort, read this to those who need Jesus' comfort. Here it is: 
116 I love the Lord, because he has heard
    my voice and my pleas for mercy.
2 Because he inclined his ear to me,
    therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
3 The snares of death encompassed me;
    the pangs of Sheol laid hold on me;
    I suffered distress and anguish.
4 Then I called on the name of the Lord:
    “O Lord, I pray, deliver my soul!”
5 Gracious is the Lord, and righteous;
    our God is merciful.
6 The Lord preserves the simple;
    when I was brought low, he saved me.
7 Return, O my soul, to your rest;
    for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.
8 For you have delivered my soul from death,
    my eyes from tears,
    my feet from stumbling;
9 I will walk before the Lord
    in the land of the living.
10 I believed, even when I spoke:
    “I am greatly afflicted”;
11 I said in my alarm,
    “All mankind are liars.”
12 What shall I render to the Lord
    for all his benefits to me?
13 I will lift up the cup of salvation
    and call on the name of the Lord,
14 I will pay my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people.
15 Precious in the sight of the Lord
    is the death of his saints.
16 O Lord, I am your servant;
    I am your servant, the son of your maidservant.
    You have loosed my bonds.
17 I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving
    and call on the name of the Lord.
18 I will pay my vows to the Lord
    in the presence of all his people,
19 in the courts of the house of the Lord,
    in your midst, O Jerusalem.
Praise the Lord!



Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to be able to read Psalm 116 and be able to praise you in the midst of our deep sufferings.  Lead us to be able to read this Psalm to those brothers and sisters who are in deep sufferings so that they can receive your comfort. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman
You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 
Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 
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Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/
Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 
http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)
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大能的勇士啊，耶和華與你同在!

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