Today's Reading: John 7: 10-18
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read John 7: 10-18
Bible Study
In this passage, people were challenging Jesus' teaching. Whether his words came from God or came from himself. Did Jesus just want to seek for his own glory like all the other famous people and just as Jesus' brothers who wanted him to perform miracles in Jerusalem to make himself famous.
The key to this passage is verse 17:
If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.
N.T. Wright says:
The two issues come together into the question: is Jesus from God, or is he acting on his own authority? This is the question to which verses 16-18 are the answer. In verse 16 Jesus states his response baldly: his teaching comes from God, and he didn't make it up himself. Verse 17 then expands this with a challenge; maybe the reason you can't see it comes from God is that you've already closed your mind against what God really wants from you...Verse 17 is important here, too: people often accuse Christians of advancing their own ideas rather than God's when the people concerned don't really want to hear what God has to say to them. Blaming the church is a convenient way of ignoring God's costly and demanding call. But verse 18 still forms as much a challenge to today's church as to today's world. If the church is really living out the sacrificial love of Jesus, for God and the world, it will become clear that it is not seeking its own glory, but the glory of the one who has called and sent it.
Well said by N.T. Wright about this important message. So, have you already closed your mind on what Jesus wants to say to you through the Bible, your pastors, family members and friends. Or, do you have an open mind to receive what Jesus wants to tell you today?
Have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to God as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: Have you already closed your mind?
Today Jesus reminds me that a lot of time in my life I have closed my mind so I can't listen to what He wants to say to me or what other people want to say to me. It is so wonderful that since three years ago I accepted Jesus calling and challenge to write my first blog "Devotion on Fire" and then last March with this blog "Discipler 123" and two podcasts. Since then, my mind has been opened more and more. More receptive to Jesus' voice and to the voice of others. And my life has been transforming to a more and more Christlike state and lifestyle.
Yes, you can't cheat anyone especially God. If you follow God's will to do the things He wants you to do then you will be more clear to know whether it is from God or not. And, you will live more for Him and His glory rather than your own.
Have you already closed your mind against what God really wants from you?
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us never to close our minds against what you really wants from us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Chinese praise song - 祢讓我生命改變 You Transform My Life
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