DAY 640 - Trap! Trap! Trap! (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

Want to know why I have been writing and recording my blogs and podcast daily since August 10, 2009? Click these three links:

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 Thessalonians 2:1-12

** 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 Thessalonians 2:1-12

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2 Thessalonians 2&version=ESV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=帖 撒 羅 尼 迦 後 書 2&version=CUV

Bible Study

     In the midst of persecutions and uncertainty, Paul gives a clear picture that the idolatrous world and its wicked leaders would be unveiled. No one really knows this passage is about a prophecy about the near future or at the end time. The main point is that Paul warns his readers, including us, not to fall into the trap of the man of lawlessness. 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     Most of us have met people who create a web of lies around themselves, and come to believe in the false world they have invented.  Sometimes, alas, such people are deeply religious, and their devotion convinces them that they cannot possibly be mistaken.  The Christian gospel, of course, includes the Lord's Prayer, with its regular petition for forgiveness; we Christians are called to search our consciences daily for the lies which we, too, can easily create and come to believe.
     Paul describes people in this self-blinded condition in verses 11-12.  He is alluding once more to the story of God's rescue of Israel from Egypt: Pharaoh, king of Egypt, began by hardening his own heart against the Israelites, but in the end God himself hardened Pharaoh's heart (Exodus 4.21; 7.13; 9.12; etc.).  There comes a point, it seems, when someone sinks so deeply into lies and wickedness that they pass beyond any further ability to recognize truth and goodness.  At that moment the only possibility is for them to be brought swiftly to complete error and so to judgment. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Galatians and Thessalonians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.146-147.

      Have you experienced this "sinks so deeply into lies and wickedness" situation? Is that you or the other people who has a hardened heart? How can you deal with that darkness? 

      
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage 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

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: Trap! Trap! Trap!

    What I got from Jesus today is a very, very serious warning to all of us.

    I have seen too many similar situations happened. When it happens, lots of innocent people are being blinded and hurt. When it happens, lots of people will be deceived to accuse, persecute and even kill their own leader(s) who loves them, care for them, pray for them and nourish them. When it happens, you would say, "How can that happen? How can they be so blinded? How can their hearts be so hardened?"

    When that happen? Don't worry. Why? Because when God allows this kind of painful thing to happen, there must be a reason. At least, it is a test to you personally, are you blinded like those people? Is your heart hardened like those people? 

     Don't fall into this kind of trap! 
    
Dear Lord Jesus,

Open our eyes so that we are able to see what you want us to see. Help us not to fall into those traps. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -

從心合一

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJWZQyLzDRQ

Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWxb6VvPrkE

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): 

http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/

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)

http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/