DAY 681 - The Hidden Secret to Enjoy Contentment Daily(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 4:10-13

** 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 4:10-13

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians 4&version=ESV

Chinese:http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=腓 立 比 書 4&version=CUV 

Bible Study

     Most people feel they are lacking something. They work hard, try all their best to build up relationships, but at the end, they can not get what they want and they are living in a state of discontent, sadness, loneliness and emptiness. Here in today's passage, Paul gives us the hidden secret of how to enjoy contentment daily. Do you want to hear about that? 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     After what had seemed a long time, as Paul sat there in prison in Ephesus with only a few friends and colleagues looking after him, suddenly Epaphroditus had come to town looking for him. He brought news of the church in Philippi; they were facing suffering and various difficulties, but they were firmly loyal to Jesus, and still deeply grateful to Paul for all that he had given them in bringing the gospel to them.  As a token of it, they were now sending him this gift of money - presumably a quite substantial gift, since it would hardly have been worth while sending a messenger with a small amount…
     Paul is quick to say, as well, that his deep gratitude for the money didn't mean he was the sort of person who would grumble or moan at God if he wasn't kept well supplied with creature comforts all the time.  On the contrary: God has put him through a tough school in which he has learned one of the most important lessons of life: contentment (verse 11).
      May other philosophers of the time spoke of contentment.  They usually, though, developed the idea in terms of self-sufficiency.  You should find resources within yourself, they said, so that you could smile at the fluctuating fortunes which life threw at you.  Paul has a different view: I am strong enough for anything, he says - because of the one who gives me strength (verse 13). 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:The Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.133-134.

     What have you learned from this passage and what Bishop N.T. Wright says? Have you found the hidden secret yet?  
     

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: The hidden secret to enjoy contentment daily

    The message I got from Jesus today is very important:
1. We need to follow Paul's hidden secret to be content at all time. No matter what we are facing. And the secret is, to be with Jesus at all time.

2. We need to try our best to use our money wisely and according to God's purpose and instruction. You can never imagine the power of your tithing and extra offering may do. It may just like what the church of Philippi and Epaphroditus  did to Paul, refreshing him and giving him strength to do God's work in a new paradigm while he was in prison. If you do not use your money in this way, there will be other people God uses to encourage God's servants, but you will miss your chance to be a partner to extent His mighty Kingdom.

    So, I guess you know the hidden secret long time ago but just do not know how to live it out. Very easy, a daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus!

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be with you daily in a most intimate and personal way so that we can live out Paul's hidden secret. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -

從心合一

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJWZQyLzDRQ

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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