Friday, October 25, 2013

DAY 524 - When The Bible Says "NO" (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)


**NEW link for the  15th: 13th 100 days 24 hours prayer campaign (We are going to use this 13th list leads up to the 15th. 13th from March 15 to June 22, 2013. 14th from June 22 to August 31, 2013, 15th from Sept. 1, 2013 to Dec. 9. 2013)

                               Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
** If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from my Devotion on Fire blog:
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html
To use this simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:
 .Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf

Please click this link to read 1 Corinthians 6:9-11

Bible Study

     Paul starts to put forward another problem the Corinthians have -  the problem of sexual immorality and other sinful behaviour.  There is one area that we need to be certain in today's passage. Some people ask, "Where can we find in the Bible that homosexuality is wrong?" You can clearly find one of those places here in today's passage. 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     The terms Paul uses here include two words which have been much debated, but which, experts have now established, clearly refer to the practice of male homosexuality.  The two terms refer respectively to the passive or submissive partner and the active or aggressive one, and Paul places both roles in his list of unacceptable behaviour.  As with everything else on the list, these are practices that some people find they deeply want to engage in, so much so that in our own day we have seen the rise of the words 'homosexual' or 'gay' as an identifying label, a sign of a hidden 'identity' which can be 'discovered' or 'recognized'.  Biblical witness and pastoral insight alike suggest that this is deeply misleading - as is the implication that all humans need active sexual experience, of whatever sort they prefer, in order to be complete, to be fully alive...
     It isn't that God has an arbitrary list of rules and if you break them you won't get in.  It is, rather, that his kingdom will be peopled by humans who reflect his image completely; and behaviour in the present which distorts and defaces that image will lead in the opposite direction. The whole New Testament joins in warning of the real possibility of this happening.
     But the whole New Testament also joins in announcing that it needn't - because God has himself provided the way in which people can leave their past, and indeed their present, behind, and move forward into his future.  You can be washed clean, whatever has happened in the past...The way Paul says this probably echoes the early Christian practice of baptism.  The point is that when you become a member of the Christian family, with baptism as its mark and faith as its inward reality, you receive a new identity, and are launched on to a new lifestyle. 
     
N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:1 Corinthians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.69-70.

      What kind of lifestyle are you practicing? Is it a lifestyle of Christlikeness? When the Bible says "NO", are you listening? 



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":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    What I heard from Jesus today is: When the Bible says "NO"

    What I got from Jesus today is a warning to those who think that the Bible does not says clearly about a "NO" to homosexuality. Bishop Wright's words give us a clear picture of what does the Bible says. People may use their new way to interpret but you should know what is right and what is wrong. 

     We as human beings are so sinful and we need the blood of Jesus to cleanse us so that we can be able to be closer to Jesus and that we can receive from Him, modelling like Him to have His lifestyle according to what He teaches in the Bible and what He teaches us through our daily intimate personal relationship with Him.

      Don't do it when the Bible says "NO"! Don't do it when Jesus says "NO"! 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be closer to you each day so that we can live out a lifestyle of Christlikeness.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman
You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 
Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 
http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/
Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/
Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- First Baby Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 
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