Friday, February 6, 2015

OT DAY 152 - Giving, Not Stealing (請按此處收聼廣東話 )

On Feb. 18 Ash Wednesday(first day of Lent), I am going to put my newly revised 40 days Break.Build blog and podcast to this blog and podcast for 40 days. This is to encourage you to find one to two friends to be their discipler to walk with them for 40 days having daily devotion. Hopefully they can establish a lifestyle to have a daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus from then on. There will be a blog written in Chinese that I have never tried before. Please pray for this 40 days Break.Build and be willing to be raised up by our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of the disciplers to lead people to Him daily.

Let us praise the Lord:

Bless our God, O peoples;
    let the sound of his praise be heard,
who has kept our soul among the living
    and has not let our feet slip.
                                             Psalm 66:8-9
Today's Reading: Exodus 20:15

** 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:

Bible Study

      The eight Commandment forbids stealing. We may not think that this commandment has any relationship to us. Why? Most people do not steal, right? 

      Well, let me give you just one example from the Bible:

From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. 10 Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.
                                                                                         Malachi 3: 7-10


       That's what God says to all people, not only those Jews 2,500 years ago who lost their nation and as slaves in the Persian Empire but also to us. According to statistic, there are only less then 10% of Christians giving 10% of what they have to their home church, the house of the Lord. How about you?This is just one example of stealing! 

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 Felix Mendelssohn's On Wings of Song played by one of the greatest violinist Isaac Stern:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Yj3RSxZmBQ

Spiritual Journal

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: Giving, not stealing

    What I receive from Jesus today is an invitation and a warning. Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount stresses on giving when He teaches a new understanding on the Ten Commandments. Matthew 6: 1-4 


 “Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you."

     The best way to prevent us from stealing God's money and other things is to give. Giving will surely transform our lives to be a different person, a person more like Jesus, Christlike. 

     But, you can't start a life of giving because of our human greediness and selfishness. We need to ask Jesus to help us and take our first step to give according to what Jesus commands. Tithing is your first baby step and if you can't tithe, I don't think you can change from stealing to giving!  
    
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to practice more giving so that we can be more like you who gives your life to us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.


    Please click this link to the app. Andy Ng wrote. You really need to use that if you have an Android cel. Andy said he is going to do the App. for iPhone later:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app


Please click this link to worship with us -
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): 

Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 

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): 

This blog:
Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year

主一出手,風浪止住,平靜了!

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