DAY 744 - What Is Going to Last? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

I would like to invite you to join us in a 100 days of prayer (From April 9 to July 17) for Michelle, our family and my ministry. Please click this link to join us to pray:
New 100 Days Prayer Campaign (2014.04.09-2014.07.17)

What you need to do is very simple. Choose one hour slot for the whole week to pray for Michelle, our family and my ministry. You may use the whole hour in prayer or you can still do you work in your office but use as much time as you can to pray and the other time work prayerfully that hour to pray for us. I encourage you to participate. We need you to join us! Trust in the power of prayers!

This blog/podcast has people from 111 countries visiting and more than 1/2 million visits.

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: James 1:9-18

** 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 James 1: 9-18

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

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=雅 各 書 1&version=CUV

Bible Study

     After challenging this readers of trusting God totally and not turning a problem into a crisis, the author turns our eyes towards God and His Word. 

Let's take a look at what Bishop N.T. Wright says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :

      
      What the author is saying is that we must learn to trust God and his word rather than the snares of the world.  He has two kinds of snares in mind: the snare of wealth, and the snare of actual temptation.  (The two often go together of course, as when someone is tempted to cheat or steal to become rich.) And he is warning that these powerful impulses are deeply deceptive.  They are like the wonderful wild flowers which spring up out in the open country: here today, gone tomorrow, or even sooner if the sun is hot.  The question is, what is going to last?  What is permanent?  And his answer is clear: God and his word. 

N.T. Wright. The Early Christian Letters for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.7.

      Yes, God and his word is the only thing going to last, nothing else. And yet, we waste so much time in worries and in all those things that are not going to last. Why?  

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: What is going to last?

    The message I got from Jesus today is a confirmation of what Jesus told me to do the last five years. You can click the link to read how this all started at the top of this blog of how Jesus used one of my spiritual fathers, Rev. Dr. John Stott to confirm my catch in July 2009 and then start my blog. From then on, I used 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours each day in the Word of God and to prepare my blogs/podcasts.

     When Michelle and I were in London a month ago having a precious time with Nicky Gumbel and Pippa, Nicky told me that he started to use 2 1/2 hours a days since December 2008 to write his Bible in One Year daily devotion the first four years and then the last year one hour each day till now. 

     On December 3, 2008 Nicky wrote to all seven churches under Holy Trinity Brompton: 

Wednesday, 3 December 2008: 1.21pm

Nicky Gumbel launches new daily online forum.

HTB congregation members are to be offered the opportunity to join together in reading the same Bible in One Year passages on a daily basis during 2009.

The initiative will be launched at all seven of the church’s Sunday services on December 7.

A new page on the HTB website will offer the opportunity for members to post their reflections on the daily passages – one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, a psalm and a proverb.

Nicky Gumbel said, ‘It would be wonderful to think that hundreds of us could all be involved in this One Year Bible project during 2009.

‘I hope it will be a fun thing to do together as a community – and in the process achieve two things.

‘Firstly, it will give added impetus to all of us to read at least one passage of the Bible every day.

‘Secondly, it will help create a deeper level of community because we’re all doing the same thing at the same time and able to discuss and exchange thoughts on similar biblical themes.’

   
    I am so thankful to the Lord at that time when Nicky shared his story that we almost started to write our daily devotion blog at the same time. Nicky is half a year ahead of me and we are both doing that faithfully each day without stopping.

     As one of the top Christian leaders on earth, he has been using 2 1/2 each day in the Word of God since December 7, 2008. Do you know the growth of HTB and the growth of the yearly Leadership Conference after December 2008? I know because I went to London almost every year except the year that Michelle had leukaemia in 2010. It's a growth of at least five to ten times in everything.

    Have I made my point clear? How much time are you going to spend each day to the Word of God which is going to last, and how much time we have been spending each day to those things that are not going to last?

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to have more time with you and your Word so that we do not waste our time on those things that are not going to last.  In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

     Please click this link to watch Rev. Dr. Paul Chun Chi Ng's encouragement to Richmond Emmanuel Church, Richmond, BC, Canada:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_h9VFwnVcU&feature=youtu.be 

     Please click this link to watch Dr. Kuhn's encouragement to Richmond Emmanuel Church, Richmond, BC, Canada:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZ4tk08Gsz8&feature=youtu.be

Rev. Nicky Gumbel and Mrs. Pippa Gumbel's greetings to the Anglican Mission Canada's National Conference May 15-16, 2014:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHpAEv_kl3c&feature=youtu.be

Please click this link to worship with us -

從心合一

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

Amazing Grace (My Chains are Gone)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbe7OruLk8I&noredirect=1

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