Please click this link for the video version of this blog: https://youtu.be/kU3ULiIIqyU
Bible in one year by Nicky Gumbel:
Nicky Gumbel's Bible in one year today:
https://preview.mailerlite.com/e0n7s1y6b5/1978035272373246414/u9c5/
Silence
1. Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence
2. Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.
Praise and Thanksgiving
1. Think through your day, all the times that made you smile
2. Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people
3. Sing a song to praise God (you are welcome to use "Father, I adore you" which I have been singing every morning for the past 20 years or your own choice to praise God)
Father, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.
Jesus, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.
Spirit, I adore You, lay my life before You, how I love You.
Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html
1. Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:
“Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
"Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."
“Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
2. Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:
"Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."
3. John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)
(Please click this link to see how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/
"Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.
Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.
Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."
The link to today's Time with Abba passages: http://api.pastoralcareschool.org/twa/
Time with Abba passages: (Psalm 137:1-9, 2 Kings 4:18-5:27; Acts 15:1-35; Proverbs 17:23)
Today's key passage:
Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3 The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. 4 When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
23 With them they sent the following letter:
The apostles and elders, your brothers,
To the Gentile believers in Antioch, Syria and Cilicia:
Greetings.
24 We have heard that some went out from us without our authorization and disturbed you, troubling your minds by what they said. 25 So we all agreed to choose some men and send them to you with our dear friends Barnabas and Paul— 26 men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.27 Therefore we are sending Judas and Silas to confirm by word of mouth what we are writing. 28 It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: 29 You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things.
Farewell.
30 So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. 31 The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message.
Acts 15:1-4, 23-31
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 to Jesus as you listen to him.
My Listening The topic I received today is:How can the church changes from sharp dispute to all agreed?
Today's Acts 15 is the first Council of the Early Church, the Jerusalem Council. This Council solved a big crisis concerning with whether the gentiles needed to have circumcision in order to be saved. This big problem caused sharp dispute and might cause the separation of the Early Church.
Thanks to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the leaders of Jerusalem listened to Barnabas and Paul who came from Antioch telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. (Antioch was the centre of Christians spreading Gospel to the Gentiles and Jerusalem was the centre of the Early Church.)
During the discussion, Peter and James(the younger brother of Jesus) who were the two main leaders of the Early Church in Jerusalem spoke and led leaders all agreed to a decision to accept Paul and Barnabas testimony that Gentiles does not need to have circumcision. A crisis became an opportunity of spreading the Gospel in unity of the Early Church!
The major work of Satan is to separate the church and to break our families. May we learn from the Council of Jerusalem to listen to each others of all those signs and wonders God has done through us so that we can accept each others and our church can be in unity!
Dear Lord Jesus, Help us to listen to each others of all those signs and wonders you have done through us so that we can accept each others and our church in unity. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen. Reflect on these questions: 1. How can we listen to each others of all those signs and wonders God has done through us so that we can accept each others and our church in unity? 2. What is your next step to make this happen?
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 to Jesus as you listen to him.
My Listening
The topic I received today is:How can the church changes from sharp dispute to all agreed?
Today's Acts 15 is the first Council of the Early Church, the Jerusalem Council. This Council solved a big crisis concerning with whether the gentiles needed to have circumcision in order to be saved. This big problem caused sharp dispute and might cause the separation of the Early Church.
Thanks to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the leaders of Jerusalem listened to Barnabas and Paul who came from Antioch telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. (Antioch was the centre of Christians spreading Gospel to the Gentiles and Jerusalem was the centre of the Early Church.)
During the discussion, Peter and James(the younger brother of Jesus) who were the two main leaders of the Early Church in Jerusalem spoke and led leaders all agreed to a decision to accept Paul and Barnabas testimony that Gentiles does not need to have circumcision. A crisis became an opportunity of spreading the Gospel in unity of the Early Church!
The major work of Satan is to separate the church and to break our families. May we learn from the Council of Jerusalem to listen to each others of all those signs and wonders God has done through us so that we can accept each others and our church can be in unity!
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to listen to each others of all those signs and wonders you have done through us so that we can accept each others and our church in unity. In Jesus Name we pray, Amen.
Reflect on these questions:
1. How can we listen to each others of all those signs and wonders God has done through us so that we can accept each others and our church in unity?
2. What is your next step to make this happen?
Family Corner:
Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message.
To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link: https://www.pastoralcareschool.org
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