Wednesday, January 1, 2014

DAY 592 - Are You Going to Be A Runaway Bride? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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: 2 Corinthians 11:1-6
** 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 2 Corinthians 11:1-6

Bible Study

     The problem Paul wants to bring up is the deceiving plan of those false teachers in Corinth. They want to show to the Corinthians that Paul is a fool, ignorant man lacking basic social and cultural skills. If they succeed, what Paul has been working on would be destroyed. So, Paul asks the Corinthians a very important question: Are you going to be a runaway bride? 
Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
      Paul imagines himself as the father of the bride, arranging a marriage for his daughter.  Everything has been agreed; the husband-to-be is delighted, and so is the bride - or at least she was;  but the father is suddenly worried that she's going to get itchy feet, and run off with someone else.  The bride, of course, is the church in Corinth; the bridegroom is the Messiah himself; here as elsewhere, Paul has taken the biblical theme of Israel as the bride of God and has transposed it into the theme of the church as the bride of the Messiah (see, e.g., Romans 7.4; Ephesians 5.25-33).  But while his back is turned, the bride starts eyeing other men instead…
       At which point Paul draws on another well-known stock theme in Jewish and Christian thought: the temptation and rebellion in Genesis 3…  Paul seems to be worried about the danger of a second 'Fall': the 'new creation' which he spoke of in 5.17, which is after all at the heart of the whole gospel (see Galatians 6.15), might be followed by a 'new fall'. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:2 Corinthians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.113.
     
     So, what kind of bride you are to Christ? Are you going to be a runaway bride too? 

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: Are you going to be a runaway bride?

    What I got from Jesus today is a painful question being asked by a husband-to-be: Are you going to leave me, runaway to be with another man?

     You may think that it would never happen to you, right? Wait a minute, are you sure? If you have been reading the passages in the past few days, you should aware that the running away from Christ starts with the running away from God's servant, Paul in this case. Satan has all kinds of plans to blind people's eyes so that they break a good relationship with God's servant first, and then the relationship with Jesus later.

      It is so difficult for us as pastors to build up trustworthy relationship with our people. The pain is that some time when you feel that some people have a trustworthy relationship with you, they have been your good friends, even your best friends for years, but suddenly everything changed and they become strangers or even enemies. How can that happen? Well, if it can happen to Paul it can happen to you and me. And, I have experienced this kind of most painful experience many times! Every time, Jesus comforts me and say, "It's fine, son. Blindness happens only to those who are in darkness. You are in the light, you are in me. It's fine, son." 

      May you have a better relationship with Jesus in this New Year and never become a runaway bride. May you be able to help some runaway bride to come back to the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ our Lord.

      Happy New Year!

      By the way, Richmond Emmanuel Church starts our 100 days fasting today. We fast and pray for our church building project that we can be able to experience God's provision greatly. 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us never to become a runaway bride running away from your love and protection.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Happy New Year!

Please click this link to worship with us -


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- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 
http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)
-

親親爸父，唱詩歌頌!

  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 G...