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Let God Do It God’s Way

2024-11-17 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 26:1-12.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Samuel 26:1-2 (NIV) 
1 The Ziphites went to Saul at Gibeah and said, “Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which faces Jeshimon?” 
2 So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand chosen men of Israel, to search there for David. 

On verses 1-2:   Previously in chapter 24 Saul had an emotional encounter with David and with God where his sinfulness was exposed and Saul seemed to be repentant.  Yet here in chapter 26 we find Saul returning to his old ways, hunting David down again.  How did Saul’s bad habit restart?  Verses 1-2 give us a clue: The Ziphites, who had previously committed to helping Saul hunt down David (1 Samuel 23:19), were still acting as informants to Saul, telling Saul where David was hiding. 

加利利海的风浪

2024-11-17 in , /by

马可福音 4:35-41
35 当那天晚上，耶稣对门徒说：「我们渡到那边去吧。」 36 门徒离开众人，耶稣仍在船上，他们就把他一同带去；也有别的船和他同行。 37 忽然起了暴风，波浪打入船内，甚至船要满了水。 38 耶稣在船尾上枕着枕头睡觉。门徒叫醒了他，说：「夫子！我们丧命，你不顾吗？」

加利利海低于海平面213公尺，是世界上海拔最低的淡水湖，海拔第二低的湖泊（仅高于其南侧的盐水湖死海）。

加利利海东边的高原比西边的山地高，夜间高原的地表空气比加利利海湖面空气冷却得快，较冷和密度较大、较重的空气从高原边缘吹向加利利海，形成一股局部性沉降气流，称之为「下降风」(Katabatic Wind)。

这股强劲的下降风就是耶稣和门徒在加利利海上所经历的风浪，十七世纪著名荷兰画家林布兰的作品《加利利海上的风暴》描绘了福音书记载，耶稣与门徒在加利利海的风暴中航行，耶稣平息风暴的海难情景，这是林布兰唯一以航海为题材的作品。

加利利海的生命

2024-11-15 in , /by

约翰福音 4:13-14     耶稣回答说：「凡喝这水的，还要再渴，人若喝我所赐的水，就永远不渴。我所赐的水要在他里头成为泉源，直涌到永生。」

约翰福音 7:37-39      节期的末日，就是最大之日，耶稣站着高声说：「人若渴了，可以到我这里来喝！信我的人就如经上所说，从他腹中要流出活水的江河来。」耶稣这话是指著信他之人要受圣灵说的。那时还没有赐下圣灵来，因为耶稣尚未得着荣耀。

耶稣对生命饥渴的撒玛利亚妇人说：「…人若喝我所赐的水就永远不渴。我所赐的水要在他里头成为泉源，直涌到永生。」（约4:13-14）也在住棚节最后一天取水浇奠的仪式中，对着众人站着高声说：「人若渴了，可以到我这里来喝。信我的人就如经上所说：『从他腹中要流出活水的江河来。』」（约7:37-39）

活水是有源头常流不断的水，带来新鲜的养分，死水则滞留不动，容易滋生细菌和微生物。巴勒斯坦的加利利海有源自黑门山融雪的约旦河流入，再加上有地下泉水补给，加利利海富含渔产。约旦河经由加利利海流出，继续流向南端的死海，死海只有水流进去的河道，却没有流通到大海的出口，成了一摊死水；

What a Christ-like Woman Can Do

2024-11-15 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 25:23-44.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Samuel 25:23-27 (NIV)
23  When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground.
24  She fell at his feet and said: “My lord, let the blame be on me alone. Please let your servant speak to you; hear what your servant has to say.
25  May my lord pay no attention to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name–his name is Fool, and folly goes with him. But as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my master sent.
26  “Now since the LORD has kept you, my master, from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, as surely as the LORD lives and as you live, may your enemies and all who intend to harm my master be like Nabal.
27  And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my master, be given to the men who follow you.

On verses 23-27:  As I read these verses I see Abigail as a picture of our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Here are 5 ways Abigail reminds us of Jesus Christ:

我宁愿有耶稣

2024-11-14 in , /by

马太福音 16:26      人若赚得全世界，赔上自己的生命，有什么益处呢？人还能拿什么换生命呢？

「我宁愿有耶稣」诗的作者密勒夫人（Rhea F. Miller, 1894-1966）生平不详，但作曲者谢伯伟（George Beverly Shea, 1909-2013）却是现代著名的福音圣诗歌唱家。

谢伯伟出生在加拿大，父亲是卫理公会牧师，母亲虔诚爱主，他虽生长在基督化家庭，常在教会献诗，却不肯接受耶稣为救主。大学毕业后在保险公司工作，他有一副嘹亮的歌喉，经常被邀演唱，颇享盛名。

他的母亲不住为他灵命祷告，1933年某日，谢伯伟在家练琴时，母亲将密勒夫人的诗交给他，希望他能为它谱曲。谢伯伟诵读后，心受感动，就在琴上记写曲调，一面弹，一面唱，内心深处自问：「我终日忙碌，到底是为了什么？我若赚得全世界，赔上自己的生命有什么益处呢？」那一刹那，是他人生的转捩点，就此决心将自己奉献。

Don’t Take God’s Grace for Granted

2024-11-14 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 25:1-22.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

1 Samuel 25:1 (NIV) 
1 Now Samuel died, and all Israel assembled and mourned for him; and they buried him at his home in Ramah. Then David moved down into the Desert of Maon. 

On verse 1:  Chapter 25 begins with the death of Samuel.  It was fitting that all Israel assembled and mourned for their leader Samuel, whom they bury in his hometown of Ramah.

1 Samuel 25:2-11 (NIV)
2  A certain man in Maon, who had property there at Carmel, was very wealthy. He had a thousand goats and three thousand sheep, which he was shearing in Carmel.
3  His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband, a Calebite, was surly and mean in his dealings.
4  While David was in the desert, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.
5  So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal at Carmel and greet him in my name.

Forgiving and Trusting Are Not the Same Thing

2024-11-13 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 24:1-22.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

1 Samuel 24:1-4 (NIV)
1  After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.”
2  So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.
3  He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave.
4  The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.'” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

On verses 1-4: What was the significance of David cutting the corner of Saul’s robe?  It showed how easily David could have killed Saul if he wanted to.  This grace and mercy David showed Saul foreshadows the grace and mercy God would show us.  God could easily have killed us in His wrath, yet in His loving self-control, He withheld and instead laid His wrath upon His own Son Jesus so that we could be forgiven and set free.

祂为我开路

2024-11-13 in , /by

但以理书 6:21-22     但以理对王说：「愿王万岁！ 我的神差遣使者封住狮子的口，叫狮子不伤我，因我在神面前无辜，我在王面前也没有行过亏损的事。」

近代印度的大传道人孙大信（1889-1933）有次到西藏的拉隆，这个充满喇嘛教徒市镇的教长不欢迎基督教，他无法在那里传道。但孙大信依著惯例，无论到何处、遇到什么逼迫，都把传福音当做他的使命。因此，他马上被抓并带去见教长，经过询问，竟然非法地被判应受极刑。

在旧约时代，耶利米被投入泥水井里，但以理被投入狮穴，现在孙大信也被投进一口放尸体的空井里面。刑吏押他到井口，剥去他的衣服，将他推进井里，因为颠落下去，右臂受到挫伤，在井里黑天暗地，只有等待着死。井穴里尸臭扑鼻，骸骨累累，充满了恶臭与死毒，手足所触摸，莫非腐肉与朽骨，真像一个活狱。在此时此境，他如同十字架上的耶稣，呼求神说：「我的神，我的神，为什么离弃我？」

Jesus Is the Rock Between You and the Enemy

2024-11-12 in /by

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is 1 Samuel 23:15-29.  As usual, I encourage you to open your Bible and read the passage yourself first.  See what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help. Then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go! 

1 Samuel 23:15-18 (NIV)
15  While David was at Horesh in the Desert of Ziph, he learned that Saul had come out to take his life.
16  And Saul’s son Jonathan went to David at Horesh and helped him find strength in God.
17  “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “My father Saul will not lay a hand on you. You will be king over Israel, and I will be second to you. Even my father Saul knows this.”
18  The two of them made a covenant before the LORD. Then Jonathan went home, but David remained at Horesh.

On verses 15-18:  When David was hiding from Saul in the desert, Jonathan went to David and helped him find strength in God.  He spoke encouraging words to David and reminded David of God’s calling on his life (v17).