DAY 629 - Don't Be Tempted by The Tempter (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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Confirmation from John Stott in 2009: 
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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 Thessalonians 3:1-5

** 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:

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Please click this link to read 1 Thessalonians 3:1-5

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1 Thessalonians 3&version=ESV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=帖 撒 羅 尼 迦 前 書 3&version=CUV

Bible Study

     This passage shows Paul's worry of the Thessalonians being tempted by the Tempter, Satan, that they would go back to their old route and worship the pagan gods. 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     'Faith' is, for Paul, partly about our personal trust in God and the gospel; partly about our belief in the central gospel events; and partly about our continuing faithfulness to the God who has revealed himself in these events and in the gospel message about them. And it is this central, if complex, quality that is likely to be under attack, particularly of course when the church is being persecuted. 'Can you really', whisper the voices inside your head, and perhaps the voices of friends or family, 'can you really trust a God who lets such things happen?…
     Paul knows that they will hear these voices.  He knows that behind such whispers there lurks 'the tempter', testing them and perhaps undermining their faith.  He doesn't know how they will respond.  He can't bear the thought that all his work in Thessalonica might be destroyed, that he would go back one day and find the church disappeared, with its members looking back on their brief encounter with him like people emerging from a strange, powerful, but short-lived infatuation.  
    

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Galatians and Thessalonians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.109-110.

      Paul is talking about whether we as Christians understand that we can't avoid sufferings. But, the tempter always come in when we are deep in suffering and he will tempt us using all kinds of possible voices to pull us away from Jesus or Jesus' servants. Have you been tempted like this? 

      
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage 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

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: Don't be Temped by the Tempter

    What I got from Jesus today is another warning following yesterday's warning that Satan is at work. Satan has quite a number of names, Tempter is one of his names, the other is Deceiver, then Destroyer, Lier and more.

    Have you ever met those Tempter, Deceiver, Destroyer and Lier in your church, in your working place or among your friends. What do they usually do? 

    Beware, don't be tempted by the Tempter!  

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us to be able to discern your voice and the voice of the Tempter. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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從心合一

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10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman

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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): 

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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)

http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/