Today's Reading: Luke 7: 1-10
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf.
Please click this link to read Luke 7: 1-10
Bible Study
Today's passage is on a very important theme - Faith and love.
We can see how great faith this centurion had and how much he loved his dying slave. Nobody knows where did his faith come from. What we know here in Luke's record is that because he had great faith, he lived out the fruit of his faith and that was the great love he had for his people and the slave.
Centurion was a middle-ranking military officer who commanded a unit of a size about one hundred soldiers. N.T. Wright says:
Often soldiers in that position would despise the local people as an inferior race, but this man didn't. He had come to love and respect the Jewish people, and had even paid for the building of the local synagogue...
This centurion grasped the very centre of the Jewish faith: that the one true God, the God of Israel, was the sovereign one, the Lord of heaven and earth. And he had grasped it in its shocking new form: this one true God was personally present and active in Jesus of Nazareth...
Contrast the prayer of this centurion with the prayers we all too often pray ourselves. 'Lord,' we say, 'I might perhaps like you to do this...but I know you may not want to, or it might be too difficult, or perhaps impossible...' and we go on our way puzzled, not sure whether we've really asked for something or not. Of course, sometimes we ask for something and the answer is No. God reserves the right to give that answer. But this story shows that we should have no hesitation in asking. Is Jesus the Lord of the World, or isn't he?
How much faith do you have really?
Let's 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 Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"
Spiritual Journal
What I heard from Jesus today is: No hesitation in asking!
What I received today from Jesus is a reminder to all of us that we need to have the faith of the centurion so that we can love more people. See how much he was loved by the Jews and you know how much he loved those who were not Romans especially he loved a slave liked that was just impossible.
Do you have that kind of faith to ask without hesitation?
Do you have that kind of love to prove that you have great faith?
A special message I receive today is that the greater faith we have, the greater love we can demonstrate to other people, even to those who don't think they deserve to be loved by us.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to have great faith in you that we can demonstrate your great love to other people. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
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Create in Me A Clean heart
Chinese praise song - 我的心你要稱頌耶和華 Praise the Lord, O My Soul
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