Friday, February 4, 2011

DAY 534 - Trust in God's Timing
















Please click link to see a sample of my second blog to create a momentum for the launching of Discipler 123 on the first Sunday of March, March 6, 2011:
http://discipler123.blogspot.com/



What is Discipler 123?
A campaign starting on the first Sunday of March for three months. It is for one Discipler gathering two friends to meet once a week to have devotion with them and encourage them to have daily devotion all through the three months from March through May.


Praise the Lord that we completed our 500 days/24 hours Prayer Campaign! We have a new link for you to sign for the new stage. You really need to join us now to pray! The easiest way is to take one hour slot for the whole week. We need you to join us! Trust in the power of prayers!

Please sign up for the 6th stage - 600 days
**NEW link for the 6th 100 days 24 hours prayer campaign(January 3 to April 12, 2011)

Today's Reading: 2 Samuel 7
Please read 2 Samuel 7 and listen to what the Lord Jesus Christ would like to tell you before reading my Spiritual Journal below. If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from this blog. You may click this link directly for the method: Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf. (You may begin with a song to praise the Lord and complete you devotion by singing another praise song.)

Please click this link to worship with us - How Great Is Our God

Please click the links below to 2 Samuel 7:
The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 2 Samuel 7: 11-13




God has His own timing! Do you believe that?
David's heart was to build a house for the Lord. Even the prophet Nathan thought that was good and that would be done. But God said, "No, not yet. After you die, then your offspring will build a house for me. I will establish a house for you first."

This coming September will be our church, Richmond Emmanuel Church's 15th anniversary. For the past 15 years our brothers and sisters have kept on asking and praying for our own land and own church building. We don't know when is the time for God to give us a piece of land and to build a church building. But for the past 15 years many miraculous things happened and He raised up many leaders and mature Christians. God used REC to establish a new network of the Anglican Mission and we planted a new church in 2008, Toronto Emmanuel Church. TEC has their own piece of land and is going to build their own church building. God raised me up to be a bishop of theAM and I have seen how wonderfully He leads our 16 churches. I just received the good news of one of our churches, Jericho Road Church, has received a large piece of land that was a middle school. I visited the new church building, and I could not believe what I saw a month ago when I drove by. I said to myself, "This is where the GPS shows but this seems a high school. No, can't be our church building. Drive on."

To my dear brothers and sisters of Richmond Emmanuel Church, I have something from our Lord Jesus Christ to tell you today, "Trust in God's timing!" God told David that He was going to establish David's house first, which means first to establish his own family, his people. Then when God's time came, his offspring would build God's house. We all know that David did not do a good job in establishing his own family. Solomon built a house for God at last but because of many other things that he did, God said "No" and Solomon's kingdom was divided and later perished!

We really need to build up our people first before thinking of building God's house. If we have less than 10% of Christians having daily devotion, how can we build God's Kingdom and house? I was in total surprise when I was in Rwanda asking almost all Rwanda bishops the same question which I asked in many countries, "What is the percentage of Christians having daily devotion?" All their answers were less than 5% or even 1%. All of them told me that this is the biggest problem worldwide but nobody is doing anything about it. Bishop John gave me an example,"It's like our water in Rwanda is not drinkable but many people still drink it. They don't care!" We need to know that they are one of the most fast growing churches in their nation. They have 1.5 million Anglicans in Rwanda with only one Archbishop and ten bishops! And yet they acknowledge the reality of the devastating situation regarding daily devotion!

Yes, we don't care whether we have daily devotion or not because we never taste the sweetness of having a daily intimate relationship with God! If we do, how can we not have daily devotion?! Let's build our "house" first, to nurture each of our people into being mature Christians who has taste the sweetness of what a daily intimate relationship with God means. Then everything will and can happen!

Let me share with you some photos of our new church sites in Toronto(Toronto Emmanuel Church) and Jericho Road, Port Alberni, Vancouver Island.

Trust in God timing!

Dear Heavenly Father,
Help us to trust in your timing and try all our best to build up mature Christians first before building anything. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
** I would like to share with you two write-ups by the Rectors of Toronto Emmanuel Church, Rev. Edmund Ho and the Rector of Jericho Road Church, Rev. John Cox too see how great God is and in His time He makes everything beautiful!


Toronto Emmanuel Church - Rev. Edmund Ho

Eight years ago, a few Chinese Anglicans sharing the same experience as care-givers for their elderly parents and recognized the importance for the seniors to continue to live healthy, independent lives in the comfort and dignity of their own homes. Their vision was to adopt a holistic approach to meet the spiritual and physical wellness of the aging community. Their objective was to develop a Christian community for seniors. They acquired a parcel of land and formed a non-profit corporation. In their development plan, the 620,000 sq. ft. building project will be anchored by an 18,500 sq. ft. Anglican Church.

As a result of the 2007 Canadian CoGS (Council of General Synod) resolutions, these faithful members believed that the COGs had chosen to walk apart from the Anglican Communion and felt there was an urgent need to realign to the teachings of the Holy Scriptures. They left the Church they helped to start 35 years ago and the Anglican Church of Canada.

Yet God’s blessings never cease for those who honor Him. With the encouragement from Bishop Silas, a longtime friend and mentor from their homeland Hong Kong, they accepted God’s challenge to start a new church planting process immediately by using their office space for weekly Bible studies. In September 2009 Toronto Emmanuel Church was established to reach the unchurched in Toronto. Rev. Edmund Ho was ordained by Bishop Silas and became their first incumbent. Two months later, they started regular weekly worship in a rental facility.

God has also brought in all kinds of support and blessings from the greater Christian community. Phrase 1 of the senior building project, which consists of 170+ units, is now at the pre-sale stage with a target completion date of Spring 2014.

From a handful of members in 2008, Toronto Emmanuel now has more than 30 attending their Sunday services, and is actively seeking ways to share the Good News of our Lord through words and deeds to people of all ages.

Jericho Road - Rev. John Cox

To declare that Jericho Road is a miracle is a testimony to God’s grace and faithfulness, utterly and completely.

Fifteen years ago two hundred people left St. Alban’s Church in Port Alberni and the Anglican Church of Canada with great reluctance and began Alberni Christian fellowship in a local Gym. Within two years their pastor of 12 years (John Cox) left with a personal breakdown and over the next 8 years the church was led by Elders and two pastors from other traditions. During that period the church acquired a middle school and while the venue was welcome the leadership and health of the church was under severe strain.

Five years ago the Elders requested John Cox (who the Lord had brought back into ministry after years in the wilderness) to help them navigate their leadership crisis. The situation disintegrated resulting in a large number of the congregation leaving another building and forming Jericho Road under the leadership of John Cox. The hope was always for restoration and reconciliation but that was not to be. Eventually six months ago with a very small congregation left the remaining Elders requested to be reconciled with Jericho Road. They were embraced with open arms and the two churches were restored into one fellowship and the middle school facility (65,000 square feet) was returned to the community of Jericho Road.

Please click this link to worship with us - In His Time



Prayer items today:

For ACiC/AI
Bishop: Rt. Rev. Silas Ng (Michelle)
Network Leader: Rev. Peter Klenner (Jenny)
Network Leadership Team: Rt. Rev. Silas Ng, Rev. Peter Klenner, Rev. Ed Hird (Janice), Rev. Simon Neill (Jo), Rev. Ken Bell (Sonya)
Bishop's Chaplain: Rev. Ed Hird (Janice)
Clergy Formation Advisor: Rev. Ken Bell (Sonya)
Administrator: Mrs. Zenia Cheng (Clarence)


Pray for one Rwanda and Anglican Mission bishop one day at a time:

The Most Rev. Yong Ping Chung (Julia)

The Rt. Rev. Augustin Ahimana

Pray for one ACiC/AI church one day at a time:

Jericho Road Church, Port Alberni

Rector/Senior Pastor: Rev. John Cox (Sheryl)

Assistant Pastor: Rev. Brad Frey (Julia)

Pastoral Assistant: Rev. Dave Dejong (Megan)



Welcome! The purpose of this blog is to encourage Christians to have daily devotion - a wonderful and intimate time with Jesus.

There are three reasons for you to use this blog as your daily devotion:
  1. A healthy spiritual diet - One chapter of the Bible daily. We really need at least one chapter of Bible daily so that we are well fed.
  2. A good example of Spiritual Journaling - What I have committed for 1,189 days(the Bible has 1,189 chapters) to write this daily post is not for teaching purposes but this is my daily spiritual journal - I write down what I hear from Jesus and how I experience His intimate relationship with me each day. I have launched a wide-spectrum research on daily devotion and have found out that there are less than 10% of Christians that are having daily devotion. Out of that 10%, many having daily devotion are doing so because of guilt (they know that they are Christians and need to have daily devotion and feel guilty if they don’t do that), duty (they need to fulfill their duty as a Christian) or study(lots of Christians primarily use their daily devotion as a time to study the Bible). I do pray and hope that you will make up your mind to have a relational daily devotion so that you can have an intimate time with Jesus. I pray that you will write your own spiritual journal as well.
  3. An online discipler – One of the reasons that so many Christians do not have daily devotion is because they do not have a discipler. A discipler can help them build up this basic element of discipleship when they first become Christians. The best way for you is to have a discipler to walk with you for a certain period of time so that daily devotion become a good habit. Or, you may have a small group of two to three people to encourage and be accountable to each other so that you won’t stop your daily devotion. I offer myself as your online discipler to walk with you daily to enrich your spiritual journey. So, shall we start this journey with Jesus Christ our Lord now!
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