DAY 667 - A Beginner, Partner and Finisher (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: Philippians 1:1-11

** 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 Philippians 1:1-11

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians 1&version=ESV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=腓 立 比 書 1&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Paul wrote this letter in prison in Ephesus to his beloved disciples in Philippi, a city in northern Greece and was the first place in Europe that heard the Good News. You can read the story of Paul's first visit there in Acts 16.

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
      The confidence Paul has throughout this letter is that God himself is a 'finisher' as well as a 'beginner'.  The particular work which he has begun, and will finish, is the work of grace, through the Gospel, in the hearts and lives of the Philippian Christians.  Verse 6 sums it up, as a kind of motto or theme for the letter: the God who began a good work in you will complete it by the day of King Jesus…

     In fact, this letter is all about 'partnership' - one of the big, important words in Paul's vocabulary.  It's sometimes translated 'fellowship', but it clearly has a practical, even financial, implication which our word 'fellowship' doesn't always carry.  In fact, though it develops particular Christian meanings, including the delighted sharing of worship, prayer and mutual support and friendship which is what 'fellowship' normally means today, in Paul's world it was the normal word or a business partnership, in which all those involved would share in doing the work on the one hand and in the financial responsibilities on the other. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Te Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.83-85.

     How do you experience God as the beginner and finisher? How are you willing to have the partnership with your fellow brothers and sisters to begin God's work and to finish it with the true beginner and finisher? 
     

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: A beginner, partner and finisher

    The message I got from Jesus today is just what we need in today's church. Why? Well, because it is so easy that we do not have the courage to begin a piece of work for Jesus. We have all kinds of questions, fear and worries.

     Second, so many Christians do not want to enter into a true and loving partnership with their fellow brothers and sisters. We like to say that we love the fellowship of a church and that's why we join that church. But, we do not understand fellowship means partnership. We need to support every bit we have, with prayers, with our money, with hard work. Ask yourself how much have you been involved in the partnership of your home church?

    Third, most Christians stop doing the good work long before the work is completed. So, there are so many works can not be finished!

    Remember, God is the true beginner, partner and finisher. He wants you to be a good beginner, partner and finisher too! 
    
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to follow your good example to be a good beginner, partner and finisher.  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

All to Jesus I Surrender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x2IpLSfqp8&feature=related

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/