Thursday, July 31, 2014

DAY 800 - The Lifestyle in Heaven (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

This blog/podcast has people from 111 countries visiting and more than 1/2 million visits.

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: Revelation 4:6b-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 Revelation 4:6b-11

Bible Study

     Following John's seeing the glorious scene in heaven is the hearing. Everyone are singing praises to God and worshipping Him. Worship and praising always go together.   

Let's take a look at what Bishop N.T. Wright says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     These short songs of praise are the beginning of one of the most remarkable features of the book.  Revelation contains several passages which, like these ones only often considerably longer, offer praise and prayer to the creator God.  They grow out of the worshipping life of ancient Israel, often echoing the psalms, the prophets, and other worship songs such as the song of Moses and Miriam in Exodus 15.  Many have guessed, probably rightly, that these songs and prayers are similar to those which the earliest Christians used, though the logic of John's vision is not that what he sees in the heavenly dimension is merely reflecting what is going on in the life of the church, but rather that what he sees in heaven is what ought to be going on here on earth
     There is much more to learn about heaven, and about worship, in the passages which follow at once.  But perhaps we should pause here and reflect carefully.  Do we, in our private prayers and worship, and in our public services and liturgies, give sufficient weight to praising God as the creator of all things? 

N.T. Wright. Revelation for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.49.

      How often do you sing praises to God? How can you sing more praises to God each day?  

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: The lifestyle in heaven

    What I got from Jesus today is an invitation to us to enter into a powerful and beautiful lifestyle in heaven. May be you do not like to sing or may be you like to sing but singing secular songs. The message Jesus wants to give you is that you need to start enjoying more to sing praises to God because that's what everyone in heaven are doing and that's what we people on earth needs to follow now, not until we die.

    So, can you start to develop this new lifestyle? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be able to develop the lifestyle to sing more praises to you so that we are prepared and ready to live out this heavenly lifestyle while we are on earth.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -


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): 
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/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

DAY 799 - Open Our Eyes to See (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

This blog/podcast has people from 111 countries visiting and more than 1/2 million visits.

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: Revelation 4:1-6a

** 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 Revelation 4:1-6a

Bible Study

     Today we start the real part talking about what did John see when he was being taken to heaven while still living. 

Let's take a look at what Bishop N.T. Wright says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     Now we realize that the three opening chapters have only been preparation.  Chapter 4 is where the story really starts.  This is where John is given the 'revelation' that gives the book its title.  Everything from this point on is part of the vision which is granted to him as he stands there in the heavenly throne room.
     This short opening passage tells us, with every line, a wealth of detail about where John has been taken, and what it all means
     'Heaven' and 'earth', as I have often said, are not, in biblical theology, separated by a great gulf, as they are in much popular imagination. 'Heaven''. God's sphere of reality, is right here, close beside us, intersecting with our ordinary reality.  It is not so much like a door opening high up in the sky, far away.  It is more like a door opening right in front of us where before we could only see this room,..Suddenly, there is an opening leading into a different world - and an invitation to 'come up' and see what's going on….It is about a prophet being taken into God's throne room so that he can see 'behind the scenes' and understand both what is going to take place and how it all fits together and makes sense.    

N.T. Wright. Revelation for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.42-43.

      Do you think sometimes life doesn't make sense? Would you like Jesus to open your eyes to see things you are unable to see so that life make sense? Well, not so as in John's experience, but still Jesus can open our eyes to see lots of thing. Do you agree? 

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: Open our eyes to see

    What I got from Jesus today is something we always experience. When Jesus opens our eyes, then we can see things in a new angle that we have never thought of.

    Jesus leads me to think of the glory and power of heaven is something we need to see and experience constantly. You may ask, "How come we can be able just like John to be taken to heaven?" Of course not that experience. But, lots of time, we really can feel like in heaven when we are in our time of daily devotion or to go to a wonderful place in nature or a magnificently built Cathedral, like St. Paul's Cathedral in London or St. Peter Basilica in Rome.

     There are quite a number of time I feel like in heaven worshipping at Richmond Emmanuel with brothers and sisters, feeling the angels and archangels were surrounding us praising God with us. That's how Jesus can open our eyes and souls to see heaven. That's what it means by Holy, Holy, Holy!

Dear Lord Jesus,
Open our eyes that we are able to see those things you want us to see so that we can worship you with everything we have got. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -


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): 
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/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

DAY 798 - Conquering Luke-warmness (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

This blog/podcast has people from 111 countries visiting and more than 1/2 million visits.

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: Revelation 3:14-22

** 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 Revelation 3:14-22

Bible Study

     Today we come to the last of the seven letters of John to the churches of seven cities, and perhaps the most famous of all seven letters. Verse 15 about the "luke-warmness" and verse 20 about Jesus knocking on the door are two very famous verses in the Bible. Laodicea was the banking centre of the whole region, boasting a fine medical school specialized in ophthalmology, the healing of the eyes and also a fashion centre of having clothes made from black sheep of a kind high quality black wool. Jesus uses that three success namely rich, eye sight and black clothes to say that they were poor, blind and need white clothes rather than black one. Jesus uses the situation of this city having lukewarm water supply due to the chemically charged water came bubbling out of the ground far away to warn them of their luke-warmess. It made Jesus sick. There are two strong pictures that Jesus wants to give to them and all of us. 

Let's take a look at what Bishop N.T. Wright says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     'Look! I'm standing here, knocking at the door.'…The echoes of stories in the gospels suggest that the one knocking on the door is the master of the house, returning at an unexpected hour (as in the warning to Sardis in 3.3), while the one who should open the door is the servant who has stayed awake.  It is, then, Jesus' house in the first place; our job is simply to welcome him home
     "I will come in to them and eat with them, and they with me.'  No early Christian could have heard those words without thinking of the regular meal, the bread-breaking, at which Jesus would come powerfully and personally and give himself to his people.  Such meals anticipate the final messianic banquet.  They are advance 'coming' of the one who will one day come fully and for ever.
     Those who share this meal, and who are thereby strengthened to 'conquer' as Jesus 'conquered' through his death, will have the most extraordinary privilege… They will share his strange, sovereign rule over the world, the rule to which he came not by force of arms by by the power of suffering love.  This is what it means to be 'a royal priesthood'.    

N.T. Wright. Revelation for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.40-41.

      Do you think you have the problem of this kind of luke-warmness that you are unprepared, unable or unwilling to open the door to welcome Jesus when He comes back? 

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: Conquering luke-warmness

    What I got from Jesus today is an eye opening as well as a paradigm shift to a well-known picture and message most Christians have in our minds. Most of us think that we need to open our hearts to Jesus when He knocks on the door of our hearts and welcome Him in and give us light so that we can see.

     Bishop N.T. Wright tells us clearly that this is a wrong understanding of the passage. It is Jesus house! We are just stewards and servants and when the owner returns we need to be able and willing to open the door to welcome the owner of that house. But, the reality is we take it as our house, our lives, our time, our wisdom, our money and our everything inside us is "me, me, me". A steward and servant becomes the owner. A soldier or captain guarding a castle becomes the king!

     How can that happen? Because of our thinking we are rich and do not need anything. Because we are blind, not able to see. Because of our luke-warmness wearing the 'black clothes" and not the 'white clothes' signifying our new lives in Christ.

     Are you able to conquer this kind of luke-warmness to admit that you are poor in spirit, repent so that you can put on the white clothes and get rid of the luke-warmness so that you can live out the royal priesthood? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to conquer our luke-warmness so that we can see and be able to live out the royal priesthood under your daily presence to be our King. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -


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): 
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/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy

神啊,求你不要耽延,救我啊!

  大齋期四十日 "破。立"每日靈修,請按下面連結: http://breakbuild.blogspot.com/   楊平忠大主教領受 "使命113"異象之見證 Archbishop Yong’s MISSION 113 videos,...