Today's Passage - Romans 15:16-17

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 15:16-17   "...To be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God." Paul said here that he gloried in something not for himself, but in serving those Gentiles who were accepted by God through Jesus Christ, even thought they were unworthy by their nature. Why God accepted them is not only due to Christ, but also due to our participation in the evangelical ministry. It was not easy for Paul, because the Jews didn't socialize with the Gentiles at that time. Some Jews even looked down on the Gentiles. Nevertheless, Paul could still transcend the racial and ethnic barriers to take the gospel to different groups. Likewise, God also wants us to take the gospel to different ethnic groups now. Those who are the Gentiles to us might be people with different nationality, language and culture. Or they might share the same language, but come from different background and with different social status. We always would feel distant and hard to communicate with others just due to the difference in between. But for the sake of the gospel, may God put the compassion in our heart so that we are willing to overcome the ethnic barrier and bring the great gospel, the great news, to the needy people. It was very important that Paul became a slave of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Gentiles.     When you serve God, or spread the gospel, don't help those needy people with the mentality of a savior. May God give us humility and the heart of a servant to serve people around us. Many years ago I attended a conference in a Taiwanese-speaking church. When they introduced the speaker for the day, they said he was God's "turnip". I was shocked, wondering "how come there is turnip in God's ministry?" Then I realized that he was God's "servant". That day I realized that someone serving God is actually God's servant. May God give us this mentality so that we are willing to become God's servant and serve Him with the heart of a servant. In addition, Paul said that he was given the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God. A priest is a mediator between God and people, taking God's gospel to people and people's needs to God. Today God also sends us to become the bridge between this unfortunate world and God. Do we have the compassion to intercede for others like a priest? Are we willing to bring God's great gospel to people around us?     Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, may you give us the compassion so that we are willing to become servants of Christ and priests of God's gospel, for the sake of many different people around us. Help us stand in between as a bridge to bring this great news to many needy people around us, starting from today. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Romans 15:14-15

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 15:14-15 "I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me." To instruct one another is to remind each other with the Words of the Lord. If we still talk about the weather, stocks, work and ball games when we come to the church, what a pity it is! Some people even came to the church and nobody ever bothered to greet him after he was there for a long while. Therefore, someone once said that when Christians attend the church service, they are just like taking a train, for they can only see the back of the other people's heads without any chance of communication.     We need to learn how to instruct one another at church. Since it is to instruct one another, we cannot mumble ourselves. Rather, we have to make ourselves heard. It is not for us to instruct one another with anything, either. Only instruct one another with God's Words. During the great revival in Shandong, when believers met one another, instead of greeting with "Have you had enough to eat?" they reminded each other with "Have you read God's Words?" We don't have to copy their greetings. But we can naturally bring God's promise into our life. The simplest way is to say: "Jesus loves you!" Everyone still needs the love of Jesus no matter how long he has been a believer.    Once I was preaching somewhere. After the sermon, an old lady came to me and said: "Pastor, did you really mean it when you said it just now? You said that Jesus loves me. Does Jesus really love me?" I told her: "Yes, Jesus loves you very much!" Tears started to roll down her face. Such a simple sentence has given her great encouragement. We need to instruct one another by faith in the church, for what you say may be exactly what the other person needs to hear. Needless to say, you don't have to say it orally all the time. Just a card with instructive words may also be very helpful. I remember that I came home exhausted after service one Sunday. But I got a card from mail the next day. It was from a sister in the church, telling me that my sermon that Sunday was very helpful to her. I was greatly comforted by it. Such a short message can always bring great encouragement to others. Are you willing to instruct one another every day so others can get encouraged and helped?          Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, may your love start to flow in our life. May you use our speech to instruct one another with your Words, so that people around us can be edified and blessed by us. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Romans 15:9-13

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 15:9-13   "...and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: 'Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of your name.' Again, it says, 'Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.' And again, 'Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles; let all the peoples extol him.' And again, Isaiah says, 'The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; in him the Gentiles will hope.' May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."   Do you know our God is the God of hope? This world always disappoints us, for everything secular is always temporary and limited. The Bible says that "this world and everything in it will pass", unable to truly meet the need of our heart. Even people who love keep changing, too, for their love is selfish. When many people talk about "love", they only think about their own satisfaction, without satisfying others. Our love is limited and conditional, subject to the circumstances. Only God's love is never-changing.    The Bible also says that "God loves us with his eternal love." God's love is without measure, and never subject to circumstances. Romans 8:38 says: "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angles, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." God's love for us is unconditional to give us hope. But we have to come to him by faith. Paul said "you are to be justified through faith." Faith is receiving, not by reasoning that you believe God gives us hope in your mind, but by receiving this truth in your heart and proclaiming this truth every day. When you feel weak and frustrated, just proclaim: "My God is the God of hope." Then rebuke the spirit of frustration inside of you in the victorious name of Jesus. When you receive like that, you will start to experience the delivering power of the Spirit. The Spirit will fill you with God's great joy, just like what is written in 1 Peter 1:8 "you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy."    God's joy is inexpressible, yet glorious, and it is great. You need to believe in him, take hold of his promise and proclaim like this every day.          Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we praise you, for you are the God that gives us hope. May your Spirit set us free in our heart, regardless what circumstances we are in, so that by receiving this truth by faith, we are set free from frustration, anxiety and burden by the Spirit, and filled with the great joy. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Romans 15:4-8

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 15:4-8     For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jew on behalf of God's truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed.     The love Jesus expressed was the love of acceptance. When he was on earth, his first ministry was to accept the needy people. He accepted not only the unpopular tax collector Zacchaeus, but also the honorable intellectual Nicodemus. He not only accepted the ordinary fisher Peter, but also the well-educated Paul who used to persecute the church. He never avoided the Samaritan woman because of her sins, neither did he reject Peter because Peter disowned him three times. As unworthy as we are today, he still accepts us so we can become God's children.     Since the Lord accepts us, we should learn to accept each other in the same way. Why is it so difficult for us to accept each other? There are two basic reasons: 1. We like to judge others by appearance. James 2:2 says that if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into our church, we would give him a good seat, while if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes, in, we would ask him to sit on a stool. But God judge us by the heart instead. 2. We are always self-righteous and think it is okay for us to go to heaven, but it will be impossible for "those people" to go to heaven as well. We like to judge for God. John 8 talks about an adulterous woman being brought to Jesus and Jesus was asked whether it was okay to stone her. Jesus didn't say a word. He just wrote with his finger on the ground. They kept asking, so the Lord told them: "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Then he resumed writing with his finger on the ground. What was described in the Bible is very interesting, for they all went away one by one, beginning with the elders. Why they began with the elders is probably because the elders knew they were not holy, either, after living in the world for a long time. Only those young people still lived by their flesh and tried to be self-righteous. But the more Jesus wrote on the ground, the more they realized they were sinners, not any better than the adulterous woman. The Bible says: "All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory." If the Lord still accepts us, there is no reason why we cannot accept others.      Brothers and sisters, we really don't have to judge others inside the church. All we need is acceptance by the Lord. May the Lord put the spirit of acceptance in our heart so that we can spread the Love of Christ to others around us.           Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, we thank you, for you accepted us first. May you put the spirit of acceptance in our heart so that we no longer judge each other inside the church. Instead, we can accept each other so that your healing spirit may flow freely among us. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Romans 15:1-3

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 15:1-3    We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please our neighbors for their good, to build them up. For even Christ did not please himself but, as it is written: "The insults of those who insult you have fallen on me."     Paul said here that "even Christ did not please himself", which is a very important feature of our belief. We are after all a group of people who do not please themselves, for even Jesus did not please himself, either, by coming to this world for us and setting an example for our conducts.     Not pleasing oneself is not to fight for the right one is entitled to. We always would fight with others in great detail just to make it clear what is yours and what is mine, making it hard to become the help of others. Even if we help others, we would think right away: "What about me? If I help him this time, will he remember to return the favor? If not, will what I have done be in vain?" This is definitely not what a Christian should do to bear testimony for Jesus. A true Christian is someone who is willing to sacrifice for the Lord, someone who is willing to walk a second mile, and someone who is willing to offer undergarment to others, otherwise we cannot bear the weakness of those who don't stand firm. A person who doesn't stand firm may be weak now and then, blown and tossed by the wind. Those who always need other's patient support will not return the favor. If your care is not enough, they will complain instead to accuse you. By flesh you and I might not want to care for those people. But Jesus came to this world to look for and save those who are lost. If the Lord came for them, what reason do we have to reject them? Even though the favor will not be returned, and there are many difficulties, we should still serve them without any complaint, just for the sake of the Lord.         Brothers and sisters, this is the character of a Christian. This is also the true belief people in the world are looking for. Is there any of such people who don't stand firm around you? Don't complain. Care for him with the love of Christ instead, for Jesus didn't please himself!         Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, may your love pour down into our heart. We thank you, for you didn't please yourself, either. For our sake, you gave up all the heavenly honor and came to this world in order to save us. May you give us the love so that we can love people around us with your love, bear the weakness of those who cannot stand firm, empathize for their burden, pray and bless them from the bottom of our heart, serve them in their life, and bring them back to you. We thank you and we pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Romans 14:20-23

River of Life Christian Church ︳www.rolcc.net/english Romans 14:20-23   "Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble.It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves.But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin."   What is the "work of God"? It's the work that God wants to do on His people. The work of God is to shape our life to be more and more like Jesus Christ. In the process of growing the spiritual life, salvation takes place instantaneously, but our life takes a lifetime to grow. That's why some Christians aren't really Christ-like in any aspect of His life. It doesn't mean that they don't have God's life inside, but the life is much like one of a baby, who still needs to grow into maturity. No infant can walk since birth; babies begin in the mothers' arms, gradually start to crawl, then sit, and finally walk. When children first learn to walk, they need support from the parents and they will stumble and fall, but that's how all children slowly grow up.   In the same manner, our spiritual life often grows while we stumble and fall; therefore, during the process of our spiritual growth, we ought to edify and support one another. Paul repeatedly reminded us not to make brothers and sisters stumble because of food; actually, not only can food cause people to stumble, the words from our mouths can often weaken people, therefore we must be cautious of what we say. Sometimes a word of criticism and judgment can hurt some tremendously.   That's why Paul told us, in Ephesians chapters four and five, not to lie and but to speak the truth in love, not to speak unwholesome language but to speak to build up others and to give thanks. That's how we can truly support and encourage one another in Christ. In additional, our behavior in life may also stumble people. What would you think if you run into me, who's a pastor, in a casino? Sometimes we hold pastors to higher standard, but we forget that our own action and behavior will also affect the non-Christians around us.   May God have mercy on us, not to hinder anyone from accepting our faith. Have you ever forsaken brothers and sister in words or action? If so, ask God to forgive you and proactively seek their forgiveness.     Pray with Pastor Tong           Lord, please pour down your love on us; give us a sensitive heart to watch what we say and do, so that no one would stumble in their faith because of us. If we have forsaken others in the past, please give us courage and love of Christ to seek forgiveness from you and from those we have forsaken. Help us and give us courage to discipline ourselves. I thank you and I pray in the victorious name of Jesus, amen!

Today's Passage - Romans 14:17-19

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!