Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 14:17-19   "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.  Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification."   Paul said that "the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking."  In other words, the Kingdom of God is not about matters of the outside.  People are often weak and like to judge others from the outside, even when it comes to spiritual matters.  We may debate about things of the outside, like how the early church debated about what they ought to eat and drink.  They debated issues surrounding food such as whether food sacrificed to the idols can be eaten, whether eating it would secularize us, and how much freedom we have in the truth.  That's why in Romans 14:1-6 Paul wrote a lot about food.  Perhaps we no longer discuss so much about food, but we can still debate many other things.  For example, we debate about which style of worship pleases God the most.  Actually, all styles and traditions of worship are beautiful, and like John 4:24 says, "God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."  We, however, often pay more attention to things of the outside, and when we see someone doing something different, we wonder why.  As soon as focus on the differences, we will start to categorize people as them and us.  Just like back in the church of Corinthians, where some people followed Paul, some followed Apollo and others followed Cephas.  Everyone thinks they are right and defends themselves, causing God's Kingdom to become divided.   Kingdom of God is based on righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit; the righteousness is of God, not people.  We need to turn back to God, ask the precious blood of Jesus to cover us so that we can live in the righteousness of God every day.  Kingdom of God also values peace, people Jesus came to tear down all the walls between people and to restore the relationship between people.  We need to ask the Lord to fill our life with His love every day because His love can melt all icebergs and soften all hardened hearts.  His love can turn back our hearts towards God, and also turn back to love our family, our brothers and sisters, and everyone in the world.  Kingdom of God also values joy in the Holy Spirit, because when the Holy Spirit moves in our heart, the power that releases us will bring forth joy.   Our faith is joyful, like someone once said that the heaven wouldn't mean anything if it wasn't full of joy.  Indeed, we can have joy of satisfaction before God and in the Holy Spirit.  Are you filled with joy from God in the Holy Spirit?  Are you enjoying the righteousness and peace in the Kingdom of God?   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, may the righteousness, peace and job of your kingdom will our hearts.  May the Lord help us not to keep on looking at the outside, but to focus on the Lord yourself.  Let us obey your will and act according to your word in our daily life.  May you have all the glory!  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Forward email This email was sent to devotion1.08u7403jeij3g@blogger.com by edevotion@rolcc.net |   Update Profile/Email Address | Rapid removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. River of Life Christian Church | 1177 Laurelwood Rd. | Santa Clara | CA | 95054

Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 14:14-16   "As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that no food is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for him it is unclean.  If your brother is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy your brother for whom Christ died.  Do not allow what you consider good to be spoken of as evil." There are three principles that Christians should follow in how we live our daily life: First is the principle of freedom.  Verse 14 says that "no food is unclean in itself."  In other words, in Christ we are free.  No authority of darkness and sin can oppress us and we don't need to live under any tradition and rules.  We have tremendously amount of freedom in choices that don't concern morality.  In the past, men would wear three-piece suits to church, but now jeans are perfectly acceptable; in the past, it was shameful for women not to cover their heads, but now any hairstyle is permissible.   Second is the principle of love.  Although we have freedom of choice in all things unrelated to morality, we must make decisions on whether to do something based on our love for people.  The Bible says that the standard of our conscience should be the conscience of those who are weak.  If our freedom causes other believers to stumble, then we might as well not do those things because of the Lord.  For example, the Bible never says that pastors cannot watch DVDs.  One time an elderly lady came from Taiwan and I lent her some videos of TV programs from home, but her reaction was "how could a pastor watch these things?"  Afterwards I felt guilty because I caused someone to stumble, so I decided to throw away all the secular videos.  It was certainly my personal decision, not the law; however, by the principle of love, I'd rather choose to give up some of the rights that I deserved.   Third is the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Not all things must follow the principle of love, else you'd be living under all sorts of different expectation and you won't be able to do anything.  One time I sat beside a child during a meal; he saw me eating and was surprised: "how come pastors need to eat?"  I didn't know what to say, and obviously I wouldn't stop eating because of what he said.  Besides the principles of freedom and love, we must also follow voice of the Holy Spirit.  If Holy Spirit prompts us to do something, we must obey; if the Holy Spirit is silent, then we have absolute freedom and we don't need be bound by the judgment of others, because the confirmation from Holy Spirit is actually right in our heart.   May the Lord give us wisdom to know when to exercise the principles of freedom and love, and when to follow the prompting of the Holy Spirit, so that we can always make the right decisions.    Pray with Pastor Tong            Lord, grant us spiritual wisdom so that we are receptive to the voice of Holy Spirit.  In this age of wickedness and disobedience, let us live for you with absolute freedom inside.  Give us a merciful and loving heart so that our actions will not make our brothers and sisters stumble.  Let us know that you are guiding us so that we may follow your prompting in our daily life.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Forward email This email was sent to devotion1.08u7403jeij3g@blogger.com by edevotion@rolcc.net |   Update Profile/Email Address | Rapid removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. River of Life Christian Church | 1177 Laurelwood Rd. | Santa Clara | CA | 95054

Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english   Romans 14:12-13   "So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.  Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."   In this passage, Paul said that we ought to give an account of ourselves, not account of others, to God.  We like to talk about others people, don't we?  When we talk about other people, we became enthusiastic and articulate.   One day, however, when we come before God, we can no longer talk about what happened with other people, and even though we enjoy blaming others for everything, we can no longer do that.  In the Olympic Games, when a skater falls on ice, he cannot tell the referee, "I was distracted by the noisy audience!"  We need to individually give account of ourselves to God and we can't blame anyone else.   Paul continued to say here: "let us stop passing judgment on one another."  In the future, it will be God, not people, who will judge us, and we should give thanks for it because people can only see us from the outside, but God knows our heart.  Since it will be God who judges us, we don't need to waste any effort on passing judgment on people behalf of Him.   In the future, we might be greatly surprised when we are in heaven, because many things may turn out different from what we thought.  Therefore, we don't need to waste any time on passing judgment, but rather we should work hard on not becoming stumbling block for others.  Brothers and sisters, this is something we really need to learn in our faith - Not only should passively refrain from judging others, we should also actively remove anything that stumbles others, so that the grace of Jesus Christ can continuously flow out from our lives.   Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you because you are our  God who has mercy on us.  One day we will all stand before the judgment seat, and you will judge us according to your righteousness, faithfulness and mercy.  May the Lord help us to accept our brothers and sisters more and not to judge them.  May the love of Christ flow from our hearts so that the grace of God will be manifested from us.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Forward email This email was sent to devotion1.08u7403jeij3g@blogger.com by edevotion@rolcc.net |   Update Profile/Email Address | Rapid removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. River of Life Christian Church | 1177 Laurelwood Rd. | Santa Clara | CA | 95054

Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 14:7-12   "For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  If we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.  For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.  You, then, why do you judge your brother?  Or why do you look down on your brother?  For we will all stand before God's judgment seat.  It is written: '"As surely as I live," says the Lord, "every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God."'  So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God."   Back when Paul was writing the book of Romans, the society allowed selling of servants, so servants were the properties of their masters and master could trade the servants.  When a servant was sold to a new master, he knew that he belonged to the new master and must serve him no matter he liked it or not.  That is the historical background under which Paul used the relationship between master and servant as analogy for our relationship with the Lord.   When Jesus was nailed on the cross and sacrificed Himself for us, He redeemed us from the curse of law with the price of his precious blood, much like how a master bought a servant from the market.  Therefore, when the early church heard this analogy, they immediately understood that becoming a Christian is a major event because they would be getting a new master.  The ways they lived, spoke and behaved must change from the ways of the old master to those of the new master.  That's why Paul said here, "whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord."    We belong to the Lord and Jesus is our new master.  We used to belong to the world and we were influenced by the world in everything we did.  Our cultural affiliation and values were from the world.  Since we belong to Jesus now, we can no longer follow our old ways of life and we must go through a fundamental shift.  The Kingdom of God represents new culture and values that are completely different from those of the kingdom of the world.  Those who belong to the Lord must follow the new ways of the Kingdom of God in our daily life.  Do you understand that you belong to the Lord now?  Do you understand it just as a knowledge, or are you actually practicing it in life?  We can only seek His will and follow Him in everything that we do if we truly understand that Jesus is the Lord of our life.            Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you because not only you are our Savior, but you are also the Lord of our life.  Please open our hearts to understand that you are still sitting on the throne and ruling our daily life.  Let us seek your will and follow your commandments, so that your righteousness and love will be manifested.  I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Forward email This email was sent to devotion1.08u7403jeij3g@blogger.com by edevotion@rolcc.net |   Update Profile/Email Address | Rapid removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. River of Life Christian Church | 1177 Laurelwood Rd. | Santa Clara | CA | 95054

Daily Devotion

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 14:5-6   "One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God." There are actually many traditions and conventions for spiritual things, depending on people and culture. For example, Christmas is a holiday observed worldwide. Most churches would celebrate the birth of Jesus on this day. We also use this holiday preach the gospel and serve the community, such as helping the poor, visiting orphanages and senior centers, so that they can feel the love of the Lord. But actually we are never so sure about the exact date on which Jesus was born. It may or may not be in December. In addition, since the world is celebrating Christmas more and more secularly, many churches are now against observing Christmas. We can understand their point, for the true Christmas should be observed in our heart. "Where was Christ supposed to born?" Actually it was not in Bethlehem, but in everyone's heart. Outward celebration might distract people from Christ to activities and works of people. But on the other hand, since everyone in the world is observing Christmas, it becomes a common topic in preaching the gospel. By observing it, we can naturally tell the world around us the true meaning of Christmas. Therefore, to celebrate or not, both parties have their points. It is hard to judge which one is more right.    In Verse 5 Paul said: "One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind." In other words, do not judge each other, and don't be self-righteous. Many churches made a big deal out of these dates and even attach each other. They are not actually defending the truth. Instead, they just tried to be self-righteous. The so-called self-righteousness is to prove their righteous deeds and attitude through attacking others. When you have to attack others to prove yourself, you already become self-righteous. On the other hand, may God help us stand firm in ministries he entrusts us to, and do not be blown and tossed by the wind. For in God's garden, there is supposed to be different kinds of flowers. You need to take hold of what God gives you, so that the Kingdom of God may be diverse. So don't be discouraged, and frustrated, just serve God with gratitude.            Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you for giving us so much grace to reveal your richness through diversity of each person. If we have anything self-righteous in our heart, in the victorious name of the Lord we pray that you cut it off so we can be set free in Christ. If we are discouraged by others' attacks, may the Spirit strengthen our faith. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Forward email This email was sent to devotion1.08u7403jeij3g@blogger.com by edevotion@rolcc.net |   Update Profile/Email Address | Rapid removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. River of Life Christian Church | 1177 Laurelwood Rd. | Santa Clara | CA | 95054