Monday, March 31, 2014

DAY 680 - How to Deal with Quarrelling in Your Church? (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: Philippians 4:2-9


** 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 Philippians 4:2-9

Bible Study

     Here in today's passage, Paul wants to deal with a particular situation. Two women, both leaders and servants of God, disagree with each other and quarrelling with each other. Do you have such kind of things happening in your church recently? How can you help your church to deal with that? 


Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     You never know when it's going to happen.  Two people who one day are good friends, working alongside each other in the church or community  can suddenly get across each other… I remember my grandfather, a pastor himself, telling me of such things.  I in my turn have had to deal with a few such incidents, and I guess most pastors have done the same.
     It is particularly sad and tragic when it occurs within a Christian community where the whole ethos ought to be one of mutual love, forgiveness and support…
     Two women in Philippi, Euodia and Syntyche, have fallen out, and Paul is appealing publicly for them to come to agreement.

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:The Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.129.

     So, it happened in Bishop N.T. Wright's grandfather's time, it happens in Bishop Wright's time since he was a pastor, later a Bishop. It happens since I become a priest quite a few times. No one can escape this tragedy! What can you do?  
     
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: How to deal with quarrelling in your church

    The message I got from Jesus today is a good way to deal with quarrelling in churches:
1.  We need to acknowledge that this kind of sadness and tragedy happen quite frequently.
2.  We need to have someone like Paul in a higher position to deal with those people.
3.  We need to put back three things to maintain that church in good order so that the quarrelling won't cause even worse situation, like division and destruction:
     a. Lots of prayers and fasting, for joy and peace to replace anxiety and darkness. (vv. 4-7)
     b. Think of goodness rather than let those bad thought and actions corrupt your church. (v.8)
     c. Follow the good examples of those faithful servants of God (v. 9)

    So, that's what Paul wants to say to the Philippians and also you. Do you think you can follow Paul's wisdom to help your church to remove all those darkness away and to reclaim peace and joy back to your church through many, many prayers and fasting?  

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to have Paul's wisdom to help our church to get rid of all kinds of quarrelling so that our church can be full of joy and peace again. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.



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)
http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy

Sunday, March 30, 2014

DAY 679 - (English podcast click here)

DAY 679 - Watch & Copy, Stand Firm (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: Philippians 3:17-4:1


** 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 Philippians 3:17-4:1

Bible Study

     Paul talks about God's grace to help us to be Christlike in yesterday's passage. In today's passage, Paul talks about how God use Paul as a model for them to watch and copy so that they can have a chance to know what Christlike really is and to start to live out a life of Christlikeness. It is only in that way that they can stand firm in their faith.  


Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     Standing firm doesn't mean remaining constant in faith.  It means giving allegiance to Jesus, rather than to Caesar, as the true Lord. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:The Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.127.

     Who is your true King? Is it this world, or any king controlling you, your lifestyle and your everything? What kind of passport do you really have as citizen of heaven?  
     
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: Watch & copy, stand firm

    The message I got from Jesus today is the key for us to have a better chance to be Christlike.
1. We need to have someone like Paul to follow and copy
2. Then we'll know our passport has been changed.  We are no more a citizen on earth but a citizen of heaven. What we are looking for, what surrounding us and everything have been changed.
3. Then we have a better chance to stand firm when those severe tests come.

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be able to know who are those servants of you that we can watch and copy so that we can stand firm to face with trails and tribulations.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.



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)
http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy

Saturday, March 29, 2014

DAY 678 - (English podcast click here)

DAY 678 - God's Grace to Help You to Be Christlike (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: Philippians 3:12-16


** 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 Philippians 3:12-16

Bible Study

     Verses 13-14 of today's passage is perhaps one of the top ten golden verses in the Bible. Most of us just like this verse, but don't want to spend some time to dig out the complete message. 


Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     Paul ended the previous paragraph with talk of the resurrection which lies still in the future, and towards which, therefore all Christians are drawn like athletes sprinting towards the end of the race.  As he stresses in verse 13, it's important to concentrate on the one aim in view: keeping on going forward towards that goal…
     What then is the goal, the finishing line?  Paul describes it in verse 14 with an interesting phrase: the prize that is waiting there, like a silver cup or medal for the winning athlete, is 'the upward call of God in King Jesus'.  This has often been seen as simply 'heaven', the place 'up there' where Christians aim to go at the end.
     But this can't be what Paul means.  In verses 20 and 21, which we shall come to in the next section, he speaks not of our going up to heaven, but of the Lord, King Jesus himself, coming from heaven to earth, in order to transform the world and change our bodies so that they are like his own resurrected and glorified body.  Living in 'heaven' isn't the goal we are aiming at; rather, it's living in God's new world with our new bodies.  So the 'upward call' seems to be the resurrection life itself.  Straining forward towards it, like an athlete aiming at the finishing line and the prize that waits beyond it, means living in the present in the light of that future…
    When he's talking about what Jesus has done to and for him, the word means 'has laid hold of me', 'has grasped me and taken control of me'. But it's the same word, and that's the point.  All Paul's efforts after holiness, after the work of the gospel, after the eventual goal of resurrection, are not a matter of his unaided effort to do something that will make God pleased with him.  They all take place within the context of God's grace:  King Jesus has grasped hold of him, and all that he now does is a matter of responding in love to that firm hand on the shoulder. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:The Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.123-124.

     Wow! So this passage is not telling you to work hard so that you can finish well and then have a place in heaven. It is not about the future. Do you understand what this passage is about now?  
     
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: God's grace to help you to be Christlike

    The message I got from Jesus today is a total paradigm shift of our understanding of this passage. Most people used to take this passage as in the future, especially after we die and we get the prize and that is living in heaven.

    But, it is all about the present. It's all about how do we respond to God's love because of His grace so that we dare to strive our best like a 100 metres sprinter to dash through the finishing line to be Christlike.  So that we can be grasped by Jesus and be willing to be controlled by Jesus. If that really happen, then we win the prize. Not after we die, but in our lifetime. 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be able to run that race so that we can be more like you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.



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)
http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/


Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year
http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy

神救拔我們脱離困苦,因他的慈愛永遠長存!

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