Saturday, September 30, 2017

A people without understanding will come to ruin!

Hosea 4:1-19
But let no one bring a charge,let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledgeI also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God
I also will ignore your children.

A people without understanding will come to ruin!
Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! Even when their drinks are gone,they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
From now on there is no further mention of Hosea's family. But the experience is there, and it colors the rest of the book.
Real faith in God finds expression in loving obedience, delight in his laws. The prostitution of Israel's religion led to literal prostitution.
Pagan religion with its temple prostitutes brought in its wake sexual defradation and the breakdown of law and order in society. The prises, who failed to make God's laws known and feathered their own nests into the bargain, and the men of Israel are responsible for what has happened. God holds them accountable.
Why?
When lost the heart and lost the understanding, lack knowledge, God will leave him alone.
How?
Real faith in God finds expression in loving obedience, delight in his laws.

Friday, September 29, 2017

Unfailing love of God

Hosea 3:1-5
Hosea's reconcilliation with his wife.
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.
For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods.
Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Gomer, now seemingly the slave of another man, is bought back and put on probation. Again, Hosea's action and his continuing love provide an object lesson. For a while, Israel too will be deprived of the things they counted on - their king and their religious emblems (徽記) - but in time they will turn back to God.
Why?
God let Hosea deeply imitate the feeling of God when his loved people, wife,  went away with other man. 
Israel will be destroyed and defiled to foreign country, so they lose their king, and any religious emblems. They will live along in other places.
We need more love and strength to love the unloved men, like Hosea and like God.
How?
God has unfailing love so we do not give up to love others, let them may really know the Lord id love and turn to the Lord.

Thursday, September 28, 2017

God who betroth me in love forever

Hosea 2:16-23
In that day,” declares the Lord“you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master'.
I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassionI will betroth you in faithfulness,  and you will acknowledge the Lord.
In that day I will respondI will respond to the skies,  and they will respond to the earth; and the earth will respond to the grain,  the new wine and the olive oil,  and they will respond to Jezreel.
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’;   and they will say, ‘You are my God.
In the infinity tender language of love, God speaks of a better future, a new covenant protecting his people from all danger (both from wild beasts and from military aggression), a people betrothed and faithful to him.
Why?
In that day is definded by the Lord.
God's infinity love will come over to his people in that day.
Betroth : It is the Lord who loves his people first, then his people will acknowledge Him.
God responds to the sky, sky responds to the earth, then earth responds to the grain, new wine and the olive oil. All of the crops and archivement from the land is the grace of the Lord. Without God's blessing there is nothing may grow up from the land.
How?
God, the lover, is my master, my husband and my savior. God who betroth me in love, righteousness, justice, faithfulness, and compassion forever.

Wednesday, September 27, 2017

Unfaithful wife means faithless nation.

Hosea 2:1:15
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife,  and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baalsshe decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord.
Therefore I am now going to allure her;  I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youthas in the day she came up out of Egypt.

Unfaithful wife - faithless nation.
Hosea's voice, pleading with his unfaithful wife, because one with the voice of God addressing Israel. The people are worshipping Baal, the Canaanite fertility god, thinking he is the one who gives good crops and plentiful harvests; when all the time it is God. They will be punished.
Why?
Israelite forgot that the Lord is the provider of their living. God had led them out from Egypt and entered the promised land. But now they turn away to Baal. it makes the Lord angry and let them go their way, let them be destroyed by their lover, foreign countries.
But God is full of mercy, when Israel is be rooted and moved to other places, God's mercy and grace will come over them again.
How?
God's love is everlasting love to those who love the Lord. 

Tuesday, September 26, 2017

基督徒職場

你的職場教會在那裡?
你的獵場在那裡?
如果文明是要我們卑躬屈膝,那我就叫你們看見野蠻的驕傲…
我年輕的時候是英雄,我現在仍然是個英雄!
以賽亞書結構:
ㄧ,審判
   1. 罪惡。2.結盟
二,救恩
   1. 安慰。32. 僕人
三,國度
   1. 新的國民。2. 新天新地
Key
為何花錢買那不足為食物的?
當趁耶和華可尋找的時候…
但以理 6:1-10
大利烏隨心所願,立120個總督…
Q1.美好的靈性?
隨心所願…神的安排!靈恩的賞賜

忠心辦事,毫無錯誤過失…
Q2. 知道這是世界的陷阱?
1. 禱告感謝,與素常一樣…

2. 但以理對王說:願王萬歲!

Q3. 信仰內涵 自我檢視
1.你的生活圈…融入你的教會?
   喜樂,平安+智慧創意
   牧養更多。圈外…能進入的羊群
2. 你的教會步調…變成你的社交?不滿教會
    自我,比較+團契智慧。    團契互動卻無教會的實質
    訓練新世代,披羊皮的豺狼?

認清自己的角色,做好自己的角色
勿將耶穌當檔箭牌
勇於承擔,恢復及調整次序
勿做有勇無謀的人,不要只做一半以斯帖。死就死吧!她請大家先禁食禱告,三天後才去見王。
上帝沒有要求我們要找週休二日的工作
多聽多溝通!
這世界往往人情重於是非。若重是非,好友會變不好。



A prophet of the Lord, Hosea 1

Hosea 1:1-11
The Lord said to Hosea, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
1st son: Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.  In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.
2nd son: Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.
3rd son: Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
This is the first and longest of the "Minor' prophets. Chronologically, Amos is a few years earlier.
Hosea was one of Isaiah's contemporaries, a prophet of God in the 8th century BC. He was a northerner and his message was for Israel, the northern kingdom, although he occasionally refers to Judah.
Hosea prophesied for the next 40 years, until just before Samaria fell to Assyria in 722 BC. During that time the country went rapidly downhill. Rejection of God and the wholesale adoption of pagan religious  practises brought about a moral and political landslide.
Hosea's great themes are love - God's covenant- relationship with his people judgment and hope.
What Israel's unfaithfulness meant to God - how he continued o love his covenant people and long for their return to him - the prophet learn through bitter personal experience, as the wife he loved betrayed and deserted him. His message comes straight from the heart. This is what makes his book so moving, so universal and so special.
God instructs Hosea to marry Gomer, a woman God knows will prove unfaithful.
This seems to be the meaning of v2, which reads, literally, 'Marry a woman of harlotry淫亂(whoredom). Harlotry in Hosea has a double meaning, describing both illicit sexual relations and religious acts of unfaithfulness.
Why?
Three children are born, and each is given a name which speaks God's message to Israel: 'Jezreel' (standing for bloodshed and punishment), 'Unloved' and 'Not my people'. Thorough the prophet, God is giving his people a last opportunity to repent before judgment breaks on the land. Yet even though they refuse, his loving purpose is not thwarted. Those punished will be blessed. 'Not my people' will become God's own again. 'Unloved' will once more be loved.
This message are come from the Lord, not from men.
How great the patient and obedience Hosea is to implement the mission of the Lord.
How?
God may give us some unreasonable lesson, we have to accept and love out the honor of the Lord and deliver God's mesage to others.






Monday, September 25, 2017

Put on the full armor of God and keep praying for all God's people

Ephesians 6:10-24
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.  Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,  and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Final Greetings: Peace , love with faith from God, Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying(不朽) love.
Paul does not pretend it will be easy to maintain thes standards. There is a need for 'body building'. The fight is on. We are up against powerful forces in a spiritual struggle. We need spiritual weapons - and these God provides. 
Like the Roman sholdier, we have a belt and breastplate, shoes and shield, helmet and sword. God fits us out with all the armour we need for defence and protection. With these we can make our stand against all-comers.
Most important of all, is the unseen weapon of prayer. The prayers of his readrs can help Paul keep up his courage and speak up for God in that faraway prison. So the letter closes on a personal note. Tychicus, paul's 'postman' here, also carried the letters to the Colossians and Philemon. 
Paul's closing ptayer for his brothers and sisters in Christ matches and expands on his opening greeting: may  God grant peace, love and faith to all - and his grace be with them.
Why?
We need spiritual weapons to against spiritual fighting. 
Most important weapon is the unseen weapon of prayer. Pray to God's people and missioners.
Peach, faith, love and grace are come from the Lord. It is nice greeting to brothers and sisters.
How?
Keep praying in spirit for all the Lord's people. Do not need pray for myself for grace frm the Lord is fulfillment to me.


Sunday, September 24, 2017

Be a right Chrisitan among family and working places

Ephesians 6:1-9
Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.  “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.
Fathers, do not exasperate(惡化) your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not people.
Masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
In the family, children owe their parents respect and obedience.
Parents must exercise discipline - notbehave like petty tyrants; Christian slaves serve theirmasters as willingly and well as they serve christ. 
Christian masters will not bludgeon or bully, knowing that they must answer to a Master themselves.
Why?
God is the Lord of my house, so to be a Christian should obey the instruction of bible to teach our children, and processing the relationship between master and slaves, parent and children.
How?
God has given us the good commands to lead us live out life of Christian and honor God's holy name.

Saturday, September 23, 2017

Christian relationships: family and household

Ephesians 5:22-33
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her  to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,  and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
For we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
So the Christian wife gives her huomplete respect and loyalty; the Christian husband cares for his wife with unselfish, undemanding love. Each depends on the other, and both model themselves on Christ. Their relationship , in turn, reflects the relatioship Chris has with his church.
Why?
Paul taught how to care the household and the relationship between husband and wife. They are one body, love each other, husband is the head of wife like Christ is the head of church. But husband should love wife, caring his wife as love the church and give himself up for her to make her holy.
If married with a non-Christian, it is uneasy to live out the relationship of Christian couple. But it is possible to become Christian couple.
How?
Follow the word of bible and love my wife as my own body. My wife and me is one flesh.

Friday, September 22, 2017

Live as children of light

Ephesians 5:1-21
But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. Nor should there be obscenity(意淫), foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. Such a person is an idolater—has not any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light  (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness,righteousness and truth)  and find out what pleases the Lord.
Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spiritspeaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit.
Always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In a word, we are to copy God's own character, living lives of sacrificial love which will bear the searching light of God. Once we belonged to the dark: now we are 'children of light'.
Submit yourselves to one another, 'Paul says, speaking to all his readers, men and women alike.
Why?
We are the children of light do not doing the thing when we were in the darkness. Everything should giving thanks to God the Father, if we find it is not honor the Lord, it is the evil thing. Be wise and find out what pleases the Lord.
Imitate the Lord, for we are his sons, follow God's way and do the right things.
Let the Spirit fill us in stead of drunk. 
Forbid any sexual immorality,  impurity, greed, obscenity, foolish talk, coarse joking. 
How?
Great! I am son of light, giving thanks to the Lord! For God is holy, and righteousness. 



Thursday, September 21, 2017

Living as Children of Light

Ephesians 4:17-32
So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.
That, however, is not the way of life you learned  when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus.
You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your mindsand to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry,  and do not give the devil a foothold.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling(爭吵) and slander(誹謗), along with every form of malice.  Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
Salvation is God's free gift, but it carries with it the obligation to live and behave from that point on as God wants. 
This means deliberately discarding the old. selfish way of life, shedding former habits - and letting the new life change our thinking and remold our pattern of behavior. Paul does not stop at generalities: he is quite specific in his 'dos' and 'don'ts'. The new life calls for truth and honesty; no harbored grudges(結怨), no spite and bitterness - instead kindness and a new readiness to forgive.
Why
In Jesus Christ we are free from sins, but put off our old self, and made new in the attitude of our minds and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.
We have the image of God so do the right thing and be kind and compassionate to one another. Let the love of Jesus Christ could be known to others.
How?
Say the word benefit to others and don't let any unwholesome talk come out of my mouth.


Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Unity - in practice

Ephesians 4:1-16
Live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in loveMake every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Christian unity is a fact. Christian are bound together by a common faith, a common life, common loyalty, common purpose. 
They serve one Master. He is the head, they are the limbs(四肢) of a single body. But they not all identical in temperament, personality or gifts.
The bond must constantly be cemented(凝成) by a loving, forbearing attitude to one another, and by using the different gifts for the common good. We have to grow up together until we are all Christ wants us to be.
Why?
Attitude of a Christian should be 1)humble, 2)gentle, 3)be patient, 4)bearing with one another in 5)love, and 6)keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. each element is needed and important.
All in one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God for he is over all and through all and in all. We are very little one.
How?
Can I use my gift that God gave me to built the body of Christ on the earth? Do my best and follow the way of Jesus Christ.