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 17: 20-37
**For a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:
Please click this link to read Luke 17: 20-37
Bible Study
This passage seems to lead us to think of the end of the world. No, it is not. Let's hear what N.T. Wright says to give us a correct understanding of Jesus real message:
The passage does not refer to an event in which natural or supernatural forces will devastate a town, a region, or the known world; rather, like so many of Jesus' warnings in Luke, it refers to the time when enemy armies will invade and wreak sudden destruction...
The phrase Jesus uses in verse 21 is sometimes translated 'within you', and people have often thought it meant that the kingdom is purely spiritual, a private, interior relationship with God. But Jesus never uses 'God's kingdom' in that sense. It always refers to things that happen in the public world, not to private experience. Others have suggested that the phrase means 'in your midst'; God's kingdom, in other words, is present but secret, hidden, waiting for them to discover it. That is closer, but still not quite there. The phrase is more active. It doesn't just tell you where the kingdom is; it tells you that you've got to do something about it. It is 'within your grasp'; it is confronting you with a decision, the decision to believe, trust and follow Jesus. It isn't the sort of thing that's just going to happen, so that you can sit back and watch. God's sovereign plan to put the world to rights is waiting for you to sign on.
So, nine lepers who were Jews got healed but not signed on, they missed the chance to go into God's Kingdom. The one, not Jew but a Samaritan, not only got healed but came to Jesus, he signed on and right into the Kingdom.
How about you? How far or how close are you with Jesus lately? How much have you done to help more people to sign on?
The passage does not refer to an event in which natural or supernatural forces will devastate a town, a region, or the known world; rather, like so many of Jesus' warnings in Luke, it refers to the time when enemy armies will invade and wreak sudden destruction...
The phrase Jesus uses in verse 21 is sometimes translated 'within you', and people have often thought it meant that the kingdom is purely spiritual, a private, interior relationship with God. But Jesus never uses 'God's kingdom' in that sense. It always refers to things that happen in the public world, not to private experience. Others have suggested that the phrase means 'in your midst'; God's kingdom, in other words, is present but secret, hidden, waiting for them to discover it. That is closer, but still not quite there. The phrase is more active. It doesn't just tell you where the kingdom is; it tells you that you've got to do something about it. It is 'within your grasp'; it is confronting you with a decision, the decision to believe, trust and follow Jesus. It isn't the sort of thing that's just going to happen, so that you can sit back and watch. God's sovereign plan to put the world to rights is waiting for you to sign on.
So, nine lepers who were Jews got healed but not signed on, they missed the chance to go into God's Kingdom. The one, not Jew but a Samaritan, not only got healed but came to Jesus, he signed on and right into the Kingdom.
How about you? How far or how close are you with Jesus lately? How much have you done to help more people to sign on?
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: God's Kingdom is waiting for you to sign on!
What I received from Jesus today is a question of how well are we doing our job as His disciples. Toronto Emmanuel Church is doing a God-size plan of a 150 million dollars building project(http://english.vintagegarden.ca/). I just finished our weekly prayer meeting with all our board members and we prayed from Toronto, Vancouver and Jerusalem thanking God for His wonderful provision and praying for the blessing of God to the actual building stage started a month ago after ten years of planning. We have so many contracts to sign on and sometimes it is scaring to sign on with those contracts that involved lots of money and responsibilities. To sign on is not an easy thing!
So, the message today is God's Kingdom is waiting for us to sign on and to help more people to sign on. Signing on or not signing on means live or perish!
Please look at the pictures below that I took yesterday in Masada(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada) and En Gedi, where David hid from King Saul(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Gedi). All people in Masada killed themselves before the Roman soldiers came in to kill them, a horrible historical event. David hid from those caves who got a chance to kill King Saul but he did not do it. David signed on with his relationship with God and see how he experienced the great power of God! That's what it means by the Kingdom is within your grasp(N.T. Wright's translation).
Let's help more people to sign on and to make sure that you sign on everyday to be with Jesus! It is a daily signing on, a daily grasping of the Kingdom!
So, the message today is God's Kingdom is waiting for us to sign on and to help more people to sign on. Signing on or not signing on means live or perish!
Please look at the pictures below that I took yesterday in Masada(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada) and En Gedi, where David hid from King Saul(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Gedi). All people in Masada killed themselves before the Roman soldiers came in to kill them, a horrible historical event. David hid from those caves who got a chance to kill King Saul but he did not do it. David signed on with his relationship with God and see how he experienced the great power of God! That's what it means by the Kingdom is within your grasp(N.T. Wright's translation).
Let's help more people to sign on and to make sure that you sign on everyday to be with Jesus! It is a daily signing on, a daily grasping of the Kingdom!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be with you each day and help more people to sign on to be with you each day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
Please click this link to worship with us -
Here I Am Lord, Send Me
Chinese praise song -
这一生最美的祝福 The Most Wonderful Blessing of My Life
Israel Study Tour Highlight DAY 8 :
Masada(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada), En Gedi, where David hid from King Saul(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Gedi), Dead Sea beach
Masada(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masada), En Gedi, where David hid from King Saul(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ein_Gedi), Dead Sea beach
