Saturday, August 6, 2011

DAY 155 - See You in Heaven, Uncle John! (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)













You can subscribe to my podcast feed here:http://feeds.feedburner.com/discipler123



You may choose to follow my first blog which I started in July 2009:http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/



Today's Reading: 2 Corinthians 5

Please read 2 Corinthians 5 and listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ would like to tell you before reading my Spiritual Journal below. If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method you may click this link directly for the method:Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.


Please click this link to worship with us - Change My Heart Oh God



Please click this link to read 2 Corinthians 5:


What I heard from Jesus today is: See you in Heaven, Uncle John!



Tonight I had the honor of being invited by the Rt. Rev. Stephen Leung to say a prayer in a memorial service of the Rev. Dr. John Stott at Church of the Good Shepherd. We had Dr. J.I. Packer to preach and Dr. James Houston to have a prayer after mine. We praise God for this great man. I praise God when I heard from Dr. Houston that Uncle John was being accompanied by two of his best friends on his bed side. They were playing Handel's Messiah and reading 2 Timothy to John. When John passed away the Messiah they were playing was right on the the most beautiful Soprano Air: I know that my Redeemer liveth, which is taken from Job 19. How wonderful, powerful and beautiful it was when Uncle John went to Heaven.



The last time I met Uncle John was July 2009. I should have another chance to meet him again on June 10, just two months ago in his London retired home. But two weeks before that his secretary Ms. Francis Whitehead gave me an email:


Dear Bishop Silas,

Thank you for writing again about your possible visit to Uncle John next month. I have been meaning to write to you soon but was waiting until I could be more definite about his present state of health. The situation is that although he was able to put in a brief appearance in his wheelchair among the residents on his 90th birthday on April 27, he is no longer able to get up but spends his time in bed. He has become very frail, drowsy and weary, and almost blind, and he often now has difficulty in articulating what he wants to say. He is really now near the end of his earthly journey and longing to reach his heavenly home.

I am afraid all this means that Uncle John is no longer able to receive visitors other than just one or two close personal friends. He sleeps most of the time, and when awake is sometimes unable to articulate what he wants to say. So I feel sure you will understand that it is not possible for you to make this visit to see Uncle John on June 10 - I am so sorry to disappoint you.

Yours sincerely,

Frances Whitehead


It is how Uncle understood his earthly journey as Paul says "earthly tent"(v. 1) and how Uncle John used his whole life as an example to preach the message of reconciliation(v. 18), to bring people to Christ and to teach thousands and thousands Christian leaders to bring people to Christ.

Let me share with you my prayer in tonight's service:


Dear Heavenly Father,

We give thanks to you for Uncle John's life. For how you touched his life to be your faithful and humble servant. For how you touched thousands and thousands of lives through him to experience and live out a life of Christlikeness. Come, Holy Spirit, come, anoint each one of us that we can learn from this great man of yours to live out the most important word of his life, that one word - Christlikeness. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.


The first time I met Uncle John that I could be with him 12 hours a day for two weeks in Hong Kong and God used him to change my life to a "subject shifting lifelong journey" is 1992. The last time I saw Uncle John in July 2009 he told me, "Silas, if you want me to conclude the most important thing I've got in my whole life, it is just one word, and that is - Christlikeness!"


Uncle John, thank you! We all miss you! See you in Heaven!



** For details of my visit to Uncle John in July 2009 please click this link: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html




Please click this link to worship with us - Turn Your Eyes upon Jesus
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfr5rOfimnU&feature=related



The sermon "The power is from within" by Rev. Eric Liddell(Chariots of Fire)




No comments:

誰能使我們與基督的愛隔絕呢?

  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,...