DAY 647 - Do you have the seal and the deposit? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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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: Ephesians 1:11-14

** 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 Ephesians 1:11-14

English(NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+1&version=NIV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians+1&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Paul continues his love story telling of God in today's passage. He concludes his praise and worship declaring the wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit in us as the seal and the deposit as the 'guarantee' of the promised inheritance. 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
      The spirit is actually part of the promised inheritance  because the spirit is God's own presence, which in the new world will be fully and personally with us for ever.  The spirit marks us out, stamps us with God's official seal, as the people in the present who are guaranteed to inherit God's new world.
     We see this in verse 14 in particular.  The word Paul uses for 'guarantee' here is a word used at the time in legal or commercial transactions.  Suppose I wanted to buy a plot of land from you, valued at 10,000 dollars.  We might agree that I would pay you the first 1,000 dollars as a 'down payment', guaranteeing the full sum to come in the future when the details were complete.  The spirit is the 'down payment': part of the promised future, coming forwards to meet us in the present.

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Te Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.13.

     So do you have the Holy Spirit as the seal and the deposit in your life recently so that when the day comes you can receive the inheritance? 

     

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: Do you have the seal and the deposit?

    What I got from Jesus today are two very practical questions:
1. The seal: This word is to other people seeing you, your lifestyle and your life witness of whether Jesus is your Lord. 
    When someone received a sealed envelope hundreds of years ago they knew it right away who sent the letter. Usually the seal is from someone's signeted ring. If you have the seal of the Holy Spirit, then people knows that you belongs to God and from God. What does the seal of the Holy Spirit means? It's all about whether you have the fruit of the Holy Spirit and your lifestyle of Christlikeness.

     Have you got that seal?

2. The deposit: This word is to you personally. You should know whether you are walking in the same step with the Holy Spirit and filled by the Holy Spirit. If you are, then no matter what kind of critical condition you are in, you would never lose hope and you would have total trust in the Lord that you are going to receive your inheritance and that is your eternal salvation. Today I received a bad news that Archbishop Kolini's son, John died of brain cancer yesterday and he was only 40 years of age. I know that the Archbishop and his wife Freda must be in mourning. But I am sure that they won't lose hope because they are spirit-filled children of God. They have that deposit in the midst of deep loss and sorrow. 

     So, do you have the seal and the deposit? How do you know you really have that? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Leads us to be able to live out a lifestyle of Christlikeness so that people can recognize your seal in us. Help us to be sure of the presence of the Holy Spirit as the deposit that we would never lose hope even in deep loss and sorrow. 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

Open Our Eyes/Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7M5lcxDD3Y

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/