You foolish people, bewitched by others!

    

 

Please click this link for the video version of today's blog :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9rvSV8WA7w

Bishop Silas conducting Vancouver Oratorio Society, VOS Chamber and Schola Cantorum singing Parry's I was Glad:

https://youtu.be/Qr4RThsdEjY?si=wh3sT_i3QE8kTgX6

Bishop Silas conducting Schola Cantorum Emmanuel and Vancouver Oratorio Chamber Choir singing Palestrina's O Beata Trinitas:

https://youtu.be/O4wiyr8oa_Y?si=l_cp4aRfVMRzaL6b

Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

      2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. Exhale your worries.

     Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile. 

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.          **Sing a song to praise the Lord

      Please click this link to worship with us - 

      

       Be with You: City Harvest Church, Singapore

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Epkh71WTUFs&list=RDEpkh71WTUFs&start_radio=1

      10,000 Reasons

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3K3roEF36k

      

     Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method) 

      https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God and having Jesus as my Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sins to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

**Please click this link to read how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Today's Time with Abba: Psalm 104:31-35, Isaiah 22:1-24:23; Galatians 2:17-3:9, Proverbs 23:15-16

Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link:http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

Key passage:  

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? After beginning by means of the Spirit, are you now trying to finish by means of the flesh?     

                                                                     Galatians 3:1-3

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through today's TWA passages we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to Him.

The topic I received today from Jesus is: You foolish people, bewitched by others!

      Paul explains clearly in the last two chapters that non-Jews do not need to have circumcision because being Christians is not being justified as righteous by law, not by work but by faith. That means not working and using your own effort to be justified as righteous and can go to heaven later, but to be with the Lord and to walk with the Lord each day that you are already in heaven(God's Kingdom) at presence and you will surely be in heaven on high when you die.

Paul in today's Chapter 3 explains more clearly that if we really experiencing justification by faith, really believe in Jesus, really having Jesus in our life each day as Lord and King, then we will be filled with the Holy Spirit each day and have the fruit of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit! That's a natural changing of our lifestyles and character and can exercise various gifts of the Holy Spirit.

It is what John Stott told me and my son Ignatius when we visited him in England in 2009. He looked at us and told us very seriously, "If I want to conclude my whole life using one word and that word is "Christlike"! 

But, Paul says the Galatians are being "bewitched"! Wow! Cast a spell on someone by a witch!

Wow! For two thousands years many Christians have been bewitched by this world as being bewitched by witches! Terrible! 

We so often live each day's life by means of flesh and not by faith! "Me", "I" as lord and not "Jesus is Lord"!

World-like but not Christlike!

If you have not been bewitched, then just as Paul says in today's Galatians that you will begin your new life in Christ by the Holy Spirit and being filled with the Holy Spirit each day. Your life should be more and more Christlike! Agree?

      Dear Abba,

Help us not to be bewitched and that we will be more and more Christlike each day. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:    

1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?

     2.  What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus, to be holy - that is to do what Jesus wants you to do and not to do what Jesus wants you not to do?

    

     Family Corner:

     Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message. 

       

       Please click this link to Old Testament Psalm 104 blog: 

       https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2021/05/day-104-2021-may-your-meditation-be.html

       

     

       Please click this link to today's Old Testament Isaiah 22:1-24:23 blog and video:

https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningenglish.blogspot.com/2025/09/the-consequence-of-our-worldly-behaviour.html

       Please click this link to today's Old Testament Proverbs 23 blog:  

       https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2021/08/day-173-2021-money-will-fly-off-to-sky.html

   For the Chinese version of this daily blog and video, please click this link (中文版請按此連結):

    https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningchinese.blogspot.com

     

     

       My first blog "Devotion on Fire"  was written in English only  (July 17, 2009年7月17日至November 22, 2012年11月22日). Each day one chapter of Bible, from New Testament and then Old Testament. Completed in four months and three years:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/blessings-from-rev-dr-john-stott.html

My second blog "Discipler 123"  was written in both Chinese and English (March 6,2011to December 31, 2016 ):

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-1-choose-light-away-from-darkness.html

and "Time with Abba" blog and video (January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2024): 

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2017/01/1-2017.html

 

 

Connecting Workshop 2025(Session 2)

Bishop Silas Ng on Three Streams

 https://youtu.be/xiSOSFF9Iw0?si=puDWFD9Cx01ADm-o