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Day 10 : 禁食日记 / Fasting Diary

 

第十天1012(三)

今天自己在读约翰福音12章时,有一股莫名的兴奋、感动和喜乐,因太多地方都在跟我说话。。。
所以鼓励你们今天也认真的看约12章。

其中在带中午祷告时让我联想到的是:
“耶稣说:“人子得荣耀的时候到了。
我实实在在地告诉你们:一粒麦子不落在地里死了,仍旧是一粒;若是死了,就结出许多子粒来。”(约12:23-24)

当然这经文讲的是耶稣将为我们死在十架上,但我今天的其它领受是,要荣耀耶稣,我们生命的一些东西也需要“死”;所以求主在这40天里面帮助我们把老我旧人全然钉死,不再复活!

Day 10 : Oct 12th (Wed)

Today while I was reading John Chapter 12 myself, I had this inexplicable excitement, prompting and joy, because many places were speaking to me…
So I encourage you to seriously read John 12 today.

Among those that reminded me while leading the noon-time prayer is:
Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. (John12:23-24)

Of course these verses are talking about Jesus going to be crucified for us on the cross, butmy other enlightenment today is, to glorify Jesus, some things in our lives must “die” too, so may God help us within these 40 days to crucify our old man and self and not let it come back to life again!

 

另,主说:
“若有人服事我,就当跟从我;我在哪里,服事我的人也要在那里;若有人服事我,我父必尊重他。”(约12:26)

太多时候,我们要主跟从我们,而不是我们跟从主,譬如:我们做了某些决定,然后要他赐福,或自己选择去某个地方,然后要他保守等等。。。

但 有时候我们确实希望自己所做的或决定的是神的旨意,有神的喜悦,有神同在与恩宠,可是却不确定有没有听到他的声音。今天中午有感动带领大家,祷告神膏抹我 们的思想和感觉,就是在我们不太确定神的声音的时候,让我们感觉和认为对的决定的那个感觉与思想是从神而来的感觉与思想。因此,在不知不觉的情况之下,爱我们的天父引领我们进入他旨意里面。

最后那一句,"我父必尊重他"也让人深感无比的荣幸,竟然能蒙受全能上帝的尊重!我们何德何能啊!可见,正确的服事主是何等重要和特别!英文的"尊重"(honour)也让人联想到在一个重要典礼,你被点名记念,被叫上台领奖一样!所以你可想像天父若"尊重"你是何等隆重的一件事!

Another thing, Jesus said:
Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John12:26)

Too many times we want the Lord to follow us instead of us following the Lord, for instance, we made some decisions, then we asked God to bless those, or we chose to go somewhere ourselves and we asked Him to safeguard us etc…
But sometimes we do really hope what we do or decide is God’s will, and is pleasing to God, with His presence and favour, however we are not sure whether we actually hear His voice. This noon I felt led to lead all to pray for God to anoint our thinking and feeling, that is when we are not very certain about hearing His voice, let our thinking and feeling a certain decision is right be the thinking and feeling from God. Therefore, we are unconsciously guided by our loving Father into His will.
That final phrase, “My Father will honor the one who serves me” also makes me feel incomparable privileged, that we can be honoured by the Almighty God! Who are we, what good or talent do we have to deserve that! That is why to serve God correctly is so important and special! The word “honour” makes one think of a very important ceremony, where you are specially remembered and called to the stage to receive an award! So, can you imagine how grand it would be if our Father God honours you!

Day 9 : 禁食日记 / Fasting Diary

第九天1011(二)

自我星期日醒来之前的那一个跟“妖魔鬼怪”争斗的梦,我相信上帝要我们加强为那些还被迷信捆绑的人祷告。
很多时候,我们会抓住一个经文而宣告要得着那经文里面的应许,却没看上下文、来龙去脉,就瞎祷告相信,后又没看到效果,就灰心、怀疑神。。。

Day 9 : Oct 11th (Tue)

Since that dream about fighting with the “monsters” before I woke up on Sunday morning, I believe God wants us to strengthen our prayers for those who are bound by superstitions.
Many times we will hold on to some Scripture and declare that we will receive the promises in that Scripture without studying the context and source of that verse. Then when we do not see result, we get discouraged and doubt God…

 

其中很多人常抓住的经文是使徒行传16:31:
“他们说:“当信主耶稣,你和你一家都必得救。””

可是,日等、夜等,却还没看到家里的人得救!
当然,有时候是时间还没到,祷告不够或种种因素,但我相信我们也要考虑到徒16章的禁卒为什么会信主,而他的这个信怎么会影响到全家也信?
我相信,他一定是看到保罗和西拉在极其辛苦时还能赞美祷告神,并看到痛苦中的赞美带来的力量,过后这“大有能力”的保罗又怎样怜恤他、帮助他,因而他和全家也被感动,信主得救了!

所以,我们当反省,我们身边的人有没有看到我们在患难中依然有信心,会赞美、会祷告,还是看到比较负面或绊倒他们的态度和行为?另,我们的生命有没有因这样的信心,而流露神的大能和怜悯?倘若如此,相信我们家人有朝一日必定全然悔改归向神!

Among these verses, many often hold on to Acts16:31:

“They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved–you and your household.””

But they have been waiting days and nights and yet not seeing their family members saved!
Of course, sometimes it is because of timing, insufficient prayer or other reasons, but I believe we have to consider as well as to why the jailer in Acts 16 ended up believing in the Lord, and how this “belief” of his resulted in his entire household to believe as well?
I believe, he must have seen how Paul and Silas continued to praise and pray to the Lord in their suffering, and he saw the power that came with praising in the midst of your suffering, and after that how this “powerful” Paul was so merciful to him and helped him. So, he was moved and he and his entire household believed in the Lord and were saved!

So, we must examine ourselves and ask whether people around us see our faith in the midst of suffering, and that we can still praise and pray, or are they seeing the adverse or attitude and actions that stumble them? Also, do they see the power and mercy that flow from us because of such faith? If so, I believe one day our entire household will certainly repent and return to the Lord!

 

Day 8 : 禁食日记 / Fasting Diary

 

 

第八天1010(一)

今天教会没有午祷,所以自己在同样时段12:15-1:15pm在家也有一小段祷告和敬拜。敬拜时,有感动唱禁食第一天,即上个星期一,所写的新歌“欢迎你来”。。。唱着,唱着,忽然发现也能够很顺的以英语唱完整首歌!我感觉这意义重大,想必上帝真的是以这首歌提醒我们他同在的重要性,而且他真的渴想来到我们生命、家庭、教会、城市与国家中。。。

这以英语唱出,也能服事到及启示我们教会讲英语的族群,可见虽然歌的旋律不怎么样,但上帝确实是要透过这首歌跟我们教会说话!

Day 8 : Oct 10th (Mon)

We did not have noon-time prayer today, so I used the same time frame 12:15-1:15pm to have my own short prayer and worship time at home. During the worship, I felt to to sing the song “I Welcome You”, which I wrote last Monday, i.e on our 1st day of fasting… As I was singing and singing, suddenly I realized it could be sung in English smoothly as well! I feel this is very significant, God must be wanting to use this song to remind us of the importance of His presence, and to tell us how He longs to enter into our lives, families, church, city and country…

To sing it in English can also minister and speak to the English-speaking members of our church. This shows that even though the melody is not that great, God does really want to speak to our church through this song!

 

这首歌主要是以马太福音21章1-11节为背景,百姓们欢迎耶稣进入耶路撒冷的情景,愿我们也欢迎主来到古晋。

至于“众城门,抬起头来啊”则是诗篇24:7-10。。。当我又再看诗篇24的时候,突然又有灵感把诗篇24:1-6写成一首新的轻快赞美歌!这让我感觉到,这一次的40天禁食,上帝在我们当中一定会降下新的恩膏,做一些新的事情,给我们更多创意能力。。。
所以,昨天宣布的这40天内的诗歌创作比赛,绝对会有一些人从神领受创作的恩赐,阿们!

那你还在等什么?快动笔、动脑、动心写歌吧!

The background of this song is basically Matthew 21:1-11, the scene which the people welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem. May we also welcome Jesus into Kuching.

As for “Lift up your heads, O you gates!”, that is from Psalm 24:7-10… And as I was reading Psalm 24 again, I was suddenly inspired to write Psalm 24:1-6 into a lively praise song! For this I felt, for this 40-day fast, God will surely shower new anointing on us, He will do some new things, give us more creative power…
Therefore, with the announcement yesterday of the song-writing competition within these 40 days, definitely some will receive the gifting from God to compose new songs, Amen!

So what are you still waiting for? Move your pen, your brain and your heart to start writing!