DAY 283 - Had Abraham Prepared for This?

Today's Reading: Genesis 23

Please read Genesis 23 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.)

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Please click the links below to Genesis 23:

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 23&version=CUV

NIV: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 23&version=NIV

ESV: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 23&version=ESV

Message: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 23&version=MSG

Sarah lived to be a hundred and twenty-weven years old. She died at Kiriath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep over her. Genesis 23:1-2

Altogether, Abraham lived a hundred and seventy-five years. Then Abraham breathed his last and died at a good old age, an old man and full of years. Genesis 25: 7

Abraham passed his test of not withholding his son to have a total obedience to God. Lots of people do not understand why God could be so 'cruel' asking Abraham to kill his own son. What people don't know is that there was this kind of evil tradition in Old Testament times that people offered their first son and burnt the baby alive to please their gods. But God never ask for that for He loves us! Right after Abraham passed the test, his wife died in the beginning of the next chapter. What come to my mind today is Abraham prepared to offer his son Isaac but how about his wife Sarah? What kind of test it could be to record a whole chapter of mourning and having another preparation from God for Sarah's burial site. Do you see how wonderful it was for this preparation? God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. Praise the Lord, Alleluia!

I have seen a number of Christians lose faith and become atheists or worship other gods after their wives, children or loved ones died. The first thing I asked myself when I knew Michelle had leukemia was: 'Can I live without Michelle?' No one is prepared for this to happen but life is not in our control. In our life time we are going to have lots of tests challenging us whether Jesus really is our Savior and Lord of life. Jesus is my all in all!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help me to be prepared that I can lose anything or any one but I can't lose you. You are my Savior, my Lord and my King. Teach me and lead me in your path to have a daily intimate relationship with you and to be in total obedience to you. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

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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 AMiA bishop one day at a time

The Rt. Rev. Philip Hill Jones

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

St. Barnabas Mission, Waterford, Ontario

Rector/Senior Pastor: Rev. Susan Zakamarko (Husband, Peter)

Face book version: http://www.facebook.com/silastyng?ref=profile

Twitter version: http://twitter.com/bishopsilasng

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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