Please join our new Mentor 123 campaign starting this coming Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013!
What you need to do is to find two more people meeting once a week for three months, encouraging each others to have daily devotion - a daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus!
To create a momentum to this new yearly campaign I am going to start a new blog and podcast on that day. I will direct my two blogs and podcasts to that new site to have a 40 days BREAK.BUILD daily devotion. For a preliminary format please go to this site: http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/ .
You can see the layout and titles of all 40 days. Come on , let's get two more people to start a daily tasting of Jesus wonderful banquet specially prepared for us!
Today's Reading: Luke 15: 25-32
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:
Please click this link to read Luke 15: 25-32
Bible Study
Yesterday's passage Jesus wants to show us the love of the father to the younger son. Today's passage He wants to show us the love of the father to the older son. N.T. Wright says:
This story reveals above all the sheer self-centredness of the grumbler. The older brother shows, in his bad temper, that he has had no more real respect for his father than his brother had had. He lectures him in front of his guests, and refuses his plea to come in. Once more the father is generous, this time to his self-righteous older son. At this point we sense that Jesus is not content simply to tell the grumblers that they're out of line; he, too, wants to reason with the Pharisees and the lawyers, to point out that, though God's generosity is indeed reaching out to people they didn't expect, this doesn't mean there isn't any left for them. If they insist on staying out of the party because it isn't the sort of thing they like, that's up to them; but it won't be because God doesn't love them as well...
Which role in the story do you and your church find comes most naturally to you? How can we move towards becoming people through whom 'resurrection' happens to others? How can we celebrate the party of God's love in such a way as to welcome not only the younger brothers who have come back from the dead, but also the older brothers who thought there was nothing wrong with them?
Yes, if you are one of those grumbling self-seeking older brothers, it's up to you to stay like that for the rest of your life blocking people to become a loving and generous father, or you come in to celebrate the joy of finding the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost younger brother.
What kind of new awareness have you got from Jesus today?
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: Don't be a grumbling self-seeking older brother!
What I received from Jesus today is a warning as well as a plead for us not to become a a grumbling self-seeking older brother. As we are all Christians and many of us have been in the church for so many years, it is so easy for us to become a grumbling self-seeking older brother without knowing it.
How do we know if we are one of those group of "older brothers"? Well, when we do not have that acceptance, love and generosity to find, search and bring more "younger brothers" home. When we insist on pouring down negative comments, grumbling to our pastors and leaders in our home church. In one word, when we become one of the grumblers!
I was one of those grumblers many years ago but no more!
Let's follow Jesus and His way to become a loving and generous father! That's what Chrislikeness truly means!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to stop playing the role of the older brother but to follow You and Your way to become a loving and generous father to extend your Kingdom. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Please click this link to worship with us -
Shine Jesus Shine
Chinese praise song -
Stream of Praise 赞美之泉
Israel Study Tour Highlight DAY 2 - Capernaum-Jesus home and his synagogue, Korazin, See of Galilee- Jesus boat, Mount Beatitude
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You may choose to follow my other daily blog:
Devotion on Fire 2: http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/
Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.co.il/
Break.Build: http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.co.il/