Friday, November 15, 2013

DAY 545 - You Belong to Jesus, Not to Your Church! (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)

Want to know why I have been writing and recording my blogs and podcast daily since August 10, 2009? Click these three links:

Confirmation from John Stott in 2009: 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
My MicroMacro Discipleship, A missing DNA in Discipleship Development: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/introduction-micromacro-discipleship.html
Subject Shifting Devotion Method(Inspired by John Stott in 1991: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

                               Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:12-20
** 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 12:12-20

Bible Study

     Today's passage is the one usually being thought of as all Christians have gifts which they have to give to the church and that no Christian should look down on another because they don't have the same gifts. But, there is more. 
Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     First, when Paul talks about a human being, a human body, he is writing as a Jewish thinker for whom, with Genesis 1 and 2 in the background, the question of God creating a new, true humanity in and through the Messiah, Jesus, was all-important...So for him to choose the image of a human body to express what those who belong to the Messiah have now become, and how they are to live, is deep with significance.
     Second, it is significant that he doesn't speak of the church as the body of Jesus, but of the Messiah.  In some Jewish ways of thinking about Israel's king, we find the belief that the king, and particularly God's ultimate king, the Messiah, would represent Israel, would sum them up in himself, so that what was true of him would be true of them...those who belong to Jesus as Messiah, those in whom the Holy Spirit lives, are the true people of God, the renewed Israel...
     Third, Paul is marking out an identity for the Christians as a new and different sort of community owing allegiance to a new and different 'Lord'. ..How do people come to belong to this community of the Messiah-and-his-people?  Here, as elsewhere(Romans 6:2-11;Galatians 3:27), Paul sees baptism itself as the means of entering the family...First, the spirit is at work to introduce people into the Messiah's family in the first place; second, the same spirit is at work to sustain Christians day by day in that membership. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:1 Corinthians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.159-162.

      So, do you belongs to this new creation and community to have Jesus as your King and Lord? Have you been filled by the Holy Spirit each day to function as a full and good member of this new community? 

 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: You belong to Jesus, not to your church!

    What I got from Jesus today is a very, very important message. There are quite a number of Christian leaders asking the same question: Why the church cannot hold people because many come and go? Why there are more and more pastors burn out and having all kinds of problems?

     When I was being asked of this same question, I told them I know the answer. Because those people do not have a true daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus. They belong to the church but not Jesus! They have entered into the church but have not entered into the new community as a new creation to have Jesus as King and Lord. So simple!

     If they have entered into the new community as a new creation to have Jesus as King and Lord, then they are being filled with the Holy Spirit and they have the various spiritual gifts to build up the body of Christ.

     Well, do you belong to Jesus or just your church? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us each day that we can follow you as our King and Lord. Holy Spirit, fill us now so that we can receive the fresh anointing to enjoy our being in this new community as a new creation in Jesus.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -

一首愛歌


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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是時候回頭轉向神了!

   今日博客的錄影: Nicky Gumbel  牧師今日靈修博客: https://us17.campaign-archive.com/?e=590b90010b&u=607cd553028b55c8cfb706e8a&id=94c5e0eae4 Nicky ...