Wednesday, July 24, 2013

DAY 431 - Secure And Protected (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)


Update  for Leslie Friday July 19, 2013:
Leslie will be going home next Wednesday. There will be a thanksgiving gathering at Richmond Emmanuel Church on his birthday, August 23, 6p.m. to 7p.m. All are welcome!




Today's Reading: Acts 23:23-35

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Bible Study

      Today's passage gives us another strange and unusual situation. Paul was being protected and escorted by two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen. What kind of escorting team was that? What was really happening? 

Bishop N.T. Wright's says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright):

     We cannot stress too strongly, or too often, that the 'theology' which Paul worked out in his various letters was not the product of someone sitting at a desk and working out a jigsaw of abstract concepts - though his concepts and doctrines do fit together remarkably well.  They were the result of someone struggling with the huge questions of what God is doing right now in the midst of a turbulent world where many different answers to that question were on offer.  Paul clung to the sheet-anchor: the God he had worshipped from boyhood, the God whose glory he had seen in the face of Jesus Christ, was faithful to his promises, and would go on being faithful to those who kept faith with him, even if he often seemed to have surprising ways of showing it. 

N.T. Wright. Acts for Everyone, Part 2. Louisville,KY:Westminster John Knox Press, 2008, p.179.


     Have you been in such kind of severe crisis that you asked the same question: What God is doing right now? What is your answer?   
               
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: Secure and protected
   
    What I received from Jesus is a confirmation of His love and protection. The feeling of being insecure is a killer. How would you feel if you were Paul facing with all kinds of hardship and suffering. On the other hand, how would you feel when you saw the "kingly" escorting team marching towards you?

    Wow! God is good, right? He is always faithful to those who are faithful to Him. Always! So, do not let insecurity hurt your soul again. Remember, you are secure and protected! Jesus is Lord! 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be sure that we are secure and being protected.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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誰能使我們與基督的愛隔絕呢?

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