Oh well there are a few reasons to why I always take so long to update.
- lazy
- too busy with my own stuff to even bother logging on to update my daily activities.
- assuming that she doesn't have much follower so doesn't bother. *cough*
Well I think rather then me cracking my brain thinking of what should I blog each day, I come up with the idea of posting what I've read each day here. It's some how a kind of sharing. xD Though it's kinda religious, I hope you guys still carry on reading. I think there's no harm reading it xD This post would be a long one as I'm gonna post what I've already read.
Day 1
Extracted from the book 'Our Daily Bread'
A Life-And-Death Matter
For reading and meditation
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation - but it is not the sinful nature, to living according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you have to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs - heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. (Romans 8:12-18)
Nature is violent. Life and death are the law of field, stream, and jungle. A lion stalks a gazelle. A heron stands motionless at the edge of a pond, its sharp beak poised and ready to kill. High overhead a red-tailed hawk holds its deadly talons close to its body, watching for movement in the grass below. A leopard family exists at a zebra's expense. Each survives on another's demise. This sounds natural enough but it's more graphic than most of us care to watch. The principle that nothing lives unless something else dies extends beyond nature to our daily walk with God. Interests of the flesh must succumb to the interests of the Spirit, or else the interests of the Spirit will succumb to the interests of the flesh (Romans 8:13 - the words in bold on top). In the jungles and fields and streams of our own heart, something must always die so that something else can live.
We can't be committed to Christ and to the world at the same time. We can't be filled with His Spirit if we are protecting the life of selfish interests. That's why our Lord said so pointedly that we will need to die daily to ourselves if we are going to walk with Him (Luke9:23-24). We must continually choose what will have to die so that Christ can live freely in us - Mart De Haan
Is there any life so blessed
As one lived for Christ alone.
When the heart from self is emptied, And instead becomes His throne? - Anon
As one lived for Christ alone.
When the heart from self is emptied, And instead becomes His throne? - Anon
Then he said to them all: " If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me, For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it." (Luke9:23-24)
To live to Christ, we must die to self.
Extracted from Every Day with Jesus written by Selwyn Hughes.
A new look at Calvary
For reading and meditation
The Crucifixion
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"
In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. "He saved others." they said "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said 'I am the Son of God.' " In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. (Matthew 27:32-44)
Once again we come to the season of the year when we focus in particular and special way on the fact of our Lord's death and resurrection. This year our theme is The Cries from the Cross - the seven separate utterances which fell from the lips of Christ during His grim six-hour ordeal on Calvary.
Although you may have meditated upon the cross many times since you became a Christian, you will approach Christ's crucifixion differently this year from any other year of your life. This is because , although the power and the meaning of the cross never change, we do. One of the great questions of history is this : How can we know anything with certainty when everything changing? A famous philosopher expressed the matter in this way: 'If you were to step into a river, step our, and then step back in again, it would not be the same river, for the river into which you stepped, even moments before, has flowed on. Nothing is the same - everything changes.'
In relation to the earthly realm, that philosopher has a point. You and I, because of the changes that have taken place in us over the past days, weeks and months, cannot come to the cross in exactly the same manner as we did before. Life has opened us up to new things and affected us in many different ways, and because of this our spiritual apprehension is perhaps more heightened and more sensitive. Maybe our defences have come down and we are less self-reliant and self-centred. The cross and the power that flows from it have not changed, but we have changed. The old will become new - not in the sense of being a new revelation, but we will discover a new application.
O Father, over these next few weeks, as I sit in quiet contemplation before the cross, grant that the changes that have taken place in me will make me more open to seeing the changeless love that flows from Calvary. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
A new look at Calvary
For reading and meditation
The Crucifixion
As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means The Place of the Skull). There they offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but after tasting it, he refused to drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. And sitting down, they kept watch over him there. Above his head they placed the written charge against him: THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS. Two robbers were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by hurled insults at him, shaking their heads and saying, "You who are going to destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God!"
In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. "He saved others." they said "but he can't save himself! He's the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said 'I am the Son of God.' " In the same way the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults on him. (Matthew 27:32-44)
Once again we come to the season of the year when we focus in particular and special way on the fact of our Lord's death and resurrection. This year our theme is The Cries from the Cross - the seven separate utterances which fell from the lips of Christ during His grim six-hour ordeal on Calvary.
Although you may have meditated upon the cross many times since you became a Christian, you will approach Christ's crucifixion differently this year from any other year of your life. This is because , although the power and the meaning of the cross never change, we do. One of the great questions of history is this : How can we know anything with certainty when everything changing? A famous philosopher expressed the matter in this way: 'If you were to step into a river, step our, and then step back in again, it would not be the same river, for the river into which you stepped, even moments before, has flowed on. Nothing is the same - everything changes.'
In relation to the earthly realm, that philosopher has a point. You and I, because of the changes that have taken place in us over the past days, weeks and months, cannot come to the cross in exactly the same manner as we did before. Life has opened us up to new things and affected us in many different ways, and because of this our spiritual apprehension is perhaps more heightened and more sensitive. Maybe our defences have come down and we are less self-reliant and self-centred. The cross and the power that flows from it have not changed, but we have changed. The old will become new - not in the sense of being a new revelation, but we will discover a new application.
O Father, over these next few weeks, as I sit in quiet contemplation before the cross, grant that the changes that have taken place in me will make me more open to seeing the changeless love that flows from Calvary. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
