DAY 755 - Be Ready And Willing to Be Refined (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: 1 Peter 1:1-9

** 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 1 Peter 1: 1-9

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

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=彼 得 前 書 1&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Peter wrote this letter to Christians scattered over the country we know today as Turkey. He wants to tell to those Christians that they are image bearers of God. And it is because of that they had to go through lots of trials like gold refining by fire. That's God's purpose for their lives as well as our lives. 

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

      
      This is God's purpose: to set people aside from other uses so that they can be signposts to this new reality, this new world.  The new world has in fact already come into being through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah.  Through that sacrificial death on the one hand and the indwelling of God's spirit on the other hand, God has set people apart to be living signals of this new world.  They are therefore to be 'holy', both in the technical sense that God has set them apart for this purpose and in the practical sense that their actual lives have been transformed.   

N.T. Wright. The Early Christian Letters for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.50.

      Do you know how much God wants to transform you to be His image bearer?  In Bishop Wright's words: signposts and signals. 

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: Be ready and willing to be refined

    The message I got from Jesus today is a word of encouragement to all those who are under suffering and hardship.

    In the eyes of our Heavenly Father, we are like gold and need to be refined. Without sufferings and hardship, there is no way for us to be refined like pure gold, no way to become more holy.

    I am still giving thanks to what happened to Mr. Lo, the one we baptized yesterday. He sold his restaurant and retired a year ago. But, he had a fall and broke his spine. This kind of suffering leads him to receive Jesus as His Saviour, Lord and King. This kind of hardship helps him to experience the love of God and the care of Christian brothers and sisters. 

    No one wants suffering and hardship. But, without those we might not be able to be refined as pure gold.

    Are you ready and willing to be refined? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be ready and willing to be refined like pure gold. 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

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