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Today’s Reading: James 5
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 disciple. 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 disciple to walk with you daily to enrich your spiritual journey. So, shall we start this journey with Jesus Christ our Lord now!
Please read James 5 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 the links below to James 5:
Be patient, then, brothers, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. Don't grumble against each other, brothers , or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door! James 5: 7-9
To conclude the central theme "faith without deeds is dead", James gives two examples of "doing". For many people, "patience" and "prayers" do not mean action. "I wait too long!", "I don't have patience with you anymore!", "Don't just sit there and doing nothing!", "He has not done a thing yet!"...I can write many more of what I have been hearing through my years of ministries. Grumbles and judgements happens since Moses' time of his people and our people and sometimes we are those people who grumble and judge!
There are four "patient", one "waits" and two "perseverance" from verse 7 to 11. James gives us a vivid picture of how the farmer waits! Since the establishment of AMiA (Anglican Mission in the Americas) in 2000, Archbishop Ping Chung Yong gave each of the AMiA bishop a beautiful stole with eight Chinese words from Psalm 126: 5 "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy".
"Patience", "waiting" and "perseverance" are the "doings" and not the "not doings"!
And "prayers" are the very important "doings" but usually lots of people stop praying and praising in two conditions: trouble and happy.
I have seen that quite a number of Christians do not want anyone to pray for them in the time of trouble. They just close every possible doors for the prayers of others to enter into their lives! People rarely confess their sins to each others and wearing lots of "masks". Many do not believe the power of prayers, prayer walks, prayer runs, healing prayers...
I need to be more patient like a farmer and pray more! What about you?
Dear Lord Jesus,
Help me to be a good farmer so that I can try my best to sow in tears and wait for the joy of harvest to come. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
Prayer items today:
For ACiC/AI
Bishop: Rt. Rev. Silas Ng
Network Leader: Rev. Peter Klenner
Network Leadership Team: Rt. Rev. Silas Ng, Rev. Peter Klenner, Rev. Ed Hird, Rev. Simon Neill
Bishop’s Chaplain: Rev. Ed Hird
Clergy Formation Advisor: Rev. Ken Bell
Administrator: Mrs. Zenia Cheng
Pray for one AMiAs bishop one day at a time
The Rt. Rev. Charles Hurt (Chuck) Murphy, III
Pray for one ACiC/AI church one day at a time
Immanuel Church
Rector/Senior Pastor: Rev. Simon Neill
Record for our 1st phase of 100 days of prayers(1st part 40 days): http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AbI_guJWaO4DZGRnYjNqZzRfMTRmZHFndjMzZA&hl=en
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