Sunday, June 30, 2013

DAY 407 - When And How Can You Receive Your Macedonia Vision? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)



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Today's Reading: Acts 16:1-10

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Please click this link to read Acts 16:1-10

Bible Study

      Today's passage is very important for all Christians. Why? Because we all need to be able to discern God's will, especially some important vision. Lots of Christians call that Macedonia vision.  Here we can get a glimpse of how Paul, Silas and Timothy got their Macedonia vision.  
Bishop N.T. Wright's says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright):

     This must have been something of a testing time for all of them, with Paul and Silas establishing a partnership, and Timothy, as the younger colleague, getting to know them but wondering what on earth he had let himself in for.  It's one thing to trust God's guidance when it's actually quite obvious what to do next.  It's something else entirely when you seem to be going on and on up a blind alley.
     It got worse.  They came to north-west Turkey, and concluded that maybe God wanted them to go into Bithynia, the Roman province that ran along the north edge of Turkey, on the south shore of the Black Sea.  Wrong again: 'The spirit of Jesus', says Luke, 'didn't let them.' Well, there was only one way left: down to the coast at Troas.  What are we doing here? Troas is in the province of Asia, and we've been told not to preach here.  It seems that at this stage they had all been thinking of developing the work within Turkey which was after all where two of them, Paul and Timothy, came from in the first place.
    And then it happened.  A vision at night. Paul sees a man from - Macedon! Northern Greece! Across the sea and into a totally new area!

 N.T. Wright. Acts for Everyone, Part 2. Louisville,KY:Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, p.59.

     What have you learn from this passage that you can have a better discernment next time and have a better opportunity to receive your Macedonia vision from the Holy Spirit?
                                    
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: When and how can you receive your Macedonia vision?

    What I got today from Jesus is a very simple and practical way for us to follow the example of Paul to receive God's Macedonia vision:
1. You need to be going through a testing time with a group of leaders like what Paul did with Silas and Timothy.

2. Your group should be able to know the YES or NO from the Holy Spirit.

3. Your group should be able to do what the Holy Spirit instructs.

4. Your group needs to learn the importance of waiting. Until you receive a clear YES, then you go.

    Actually Richmond Emmanuel Church is in this stage the past few months and will continue for may be at least a year. Our five years rental contract will be completed at the end of next October and we need to have a discernment of what the Holy Spirit wants us to do. I think we have been experiencing from point 1 to 3 and now waiting for point 4 to happen. No one knows what would happen, the only thing we know is that we need to do our best and God will do the rest. We have been trying our best and still trying to do all possible ways we can. At the same time, we wait! Can you pray for us?

    Do you have a similar situation? Have you learned something new today?
  
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be able to receive your YES or NO and are willing to obey. Help us to have the patient to wait when you ask us to wait. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.



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