DAY 817 - Don't Make Compromise to Non-Christian Values (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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                               Today's Reading: Revelation 13:11-18

** 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:

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Please click this link to read Revelation 13:11-18

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation 13&version=ESV

Chinese: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=启 示 录 13&version=CUV

Bible Study

     This passage is being wrongly interpreted by various kind of books and movies. Something like "don't use credit cards because that's what verses 16 means. You can't use cash later unless you have credit cards or some kind of special card", or "when the anti-Christ comes you can find in his head a scar of 666". So, what is the correct understanding of this passage?  Actually it is all about whether we make compromise to something we called "grey" areas now.   

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

    

     Is it a compromise if I put my stall out by the side of the road during one of the great imperial festivals, to catch the crowds as they are going to the temple, even if I don't go myself?  Will it matter if I buy a slab of beef in the market, even though I know it will have been offered in sacrifice in Caesar's temple just up the road?  For us, does it matter if we buy a newspaper which openly mocks the Christian faith and promotes every other way of life imaginable except the Christian one - even if all I'm going to read is the sports news? Should I be worried that my bank is a major investor in companies that work in parts of Latin America where labour laws are practically non-existent, allowing them to get away with virtual enslavement of local populations?...

     The final verse of the chapter is one of the most famous in the whole book.  It is more or less certain that the number 666 represents, by one of many formulae well known at the time, the name NERO CAESAR when written in Hebrew characters.  The monster who was, is not, and is to come looks pretty certainly to be Nero. 

N.T. Wright. Revelation for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.121-122.

      Do you have a better understanding of this passage now? How can you learn not to make compromise to non-Christian values? 

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: Don't make compromise to non-Christian values

    What I receive today is a warning to us not easy to discern or obey. Why? Because there are so many "grey" areas around us. We can have all kinds of excuses to make compromise. And, we can have all kinds of reasons accusing our leaders making compromise. How can we tackle this big problem?

    Actually this passage is talking about the theme of worship since many chapters before. Worshiping Jesus or worshiping Satan, the world, Nero or any emperors. 

     This is a challenge to us whether we are really worshipping Jesus. Because if we really worship Jesus, our Lord Jesus Christ will have His own way to tell us whether we are right or wrong. This is beyond what is lawful because quite a number of lawful decisions are not compatible with Christian value. 

     Our close relationship with Jesus should be able to lead us not to step in a trap of making compromise. 

    

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to have the discernment according to your will so that we won't make compromise with non-Christian values.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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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): 

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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