DAY 793 - Conquering Death (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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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: Revelation 2:8-11

** 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 Revelation 2:8-11

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+2&version=ESV

Chinese: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=启 示 录 2&version=CUV

Bible Study

     After reading the letter to Ephesus and to feel the pain of their fallen away from their faith, we come to the second letter. The church in Smyrna did not have anything wrong. The Lord was giving them warning of their future sufferings so that when that time came they could be able to get through even facing with martyrdom. 

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

     In this church the Lord finds nothing to criticize.  His main task is to warn that fierce persecution is on the way; and he does so as the one who is First and Last, who was dead and came to life.  Whatever happens, the times and the fates of the Christians in Smyrna are safe in his hands.  The devil may well imprison and 'test' some of them…
     There are, it seems, two forms of death.  The first is the bodily death to which all will come except the generation still alive when the Lord returns… But the 'second death' is the ultimate fate of those who steadfastly and deliberately refuse to follow Jesus, to worship the one God who is revealed in him.  This 'second death' will, it seems, do for the entire personality what the 'first death' will do for the physical body…
     To 'conquer' - to face that martyrdom in faithful patience - will mean that you will have nothing to fear from the 'second death'.  Be content to go with Jesus through the first death.  He was dead, and came to life; and so will you.       

N.T. Wright. Revelation for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.18-19.

      Do you think Jesus will find you to have nothing to criticize just like the church in Smyrna? Do you think you can be able to conquer death? 

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: Conquering death

    What I got from Jesus today is a very positive way to think about death. One of my high school classmate's wife died just two days ago and I feel his pain. Death seems impossible to conquer! There are three plane crash already in the past few days killing more than 400 people. If you are on board a Malaysian Airline or any Airline in a few weeks time, would you have a kind of fear that you can't control? 

     What Bishop Wright's words is the secret to deal with death:
Be content to go with Jesus through the first death.  He was dead, and came to life; and so will you. 

     Conquering death, would that happen to you? 

Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us each day that we will be content to go with you through the first death and be sure that we will have the crown of life and not the second death.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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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