Anna Zhou

3/16/2024  Interpersonal Relationships in Christ’s Heart

1 Pet 3:8-13

Interpersonal Life Principles for All (1 Pet 3:8-13)

• Intention is of one mind, empathy, love, tenderhearted, and courteous. Be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous. 8
• Speak no bad word, only blessings. 9-10
• Conduct: shunt evil, do good, seeking harmony, pursuing peace. 11-13

Meditate and Pray: Lord, give me Christ’s heart.

• So we may enjoy our family and fellowship loving life: harmony, pursue the same with be free of insignificant things; compassionate, responsive to each other’s needs, love one another, treat each other as family; tenderhearted, have feelings, watch out and be eager to help; humbly encourage each other. 8-10, Phil 2:5
• Let us rejoice in relations, be simple in one mind, have compassion towards each other, love as brother/sister, be kind with empathy, humble and tolerate, not bad mouth, bless only, godly shunt evil and do good, seek peace, and ensure it. 8-13; Job 1:1

(Bible in One Year：Judges 10-12)

3/15/2024  Lord’s Word Save Souls

James 1:19-25

1. God’s Word Saves Our Souls 

So then, my beloved, let everyone be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. 19-21

2. We receive blessings by keeping God’s word

But being doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 22-24

3. Careful study and  keep in mind  God’s Word for doing it by heart

But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. 25

Reflect and Renew

• Lord, help me be swift to listen, slow to speak, receive with meekness implanted Lord’s Word, reflect and repent to do the Word, cleanse my soul and be close to You, and live by Your Word.
• Lord, help me look into the Lord’s perfect Word to serve my Lord and be Lord’s beloved, often reflect and repent to follow my Lord’s Word and do it. 

(Bible in One Year: Judges 7-9)

3/13/2024 Full of Joy in God’s Presence

Ps 16: 1-11

In God’s presence the whole person is full of joy

• My heart says to the LORD, you are my Lord; apart from You I have no good thing. (1-2)
• Lord’s holy people are the noble ones. (3-4)
• LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. (5-6)
• I have set the LORD always before me; for He is at my right hand I shall not be moved. Therefore, my heart is glad, and my glory rejoices; my flesh also will rest in hope. (7-9)
• You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (10-11)

Meditate:

• My portion is the Lord. Lord’s saints are the noble ones. My thoughts are with my Lord, my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my flesh rests in hope. (1-11)
• Lord Christ Jesus is the only way to God, the new and living way with eternal pleasures and blessings; those who trust in the Lord will never be put to shame. (Heb 10:20; 1 Pet 2:6)
• In Christ, the secret of great joy is daily, prayerful reading of the scripture, the spiritual revelation and enlightenment; writing to saints to share Lord’s gracious words to build each other up. (Phil 2:2; 1 John 1:4; 2 John 12)

(Bible in One Year: Judges 1-3)

3/7/2024 Lord’s Love: Long Sufferings’ Patience

John 11:3-6, 11-14; Mark 10:27; 1 Cor 13:4-8; 1 Tim 2:4

1. The Lord loves those who belong to Him. (3, 5)

• Sickness symbolizes the abnormal state of believers’ spiritual life. (3)
• In Death, the Lord shall be glorified through those who are of Him. (4)

2. The Lord won’t start till the man has truly died. The Lord won’t do, until the old-self has died.  (Mark 10:27)

• The Lord stayed two more days while hearing Lazarus’s sickness. (6)

Meditate：     

• The Lord usually does not heal minor insignificant illness, but the deadly disease. He does not act until man is dead to establish men’s faith. (11-15)
• Pray: Lord, help me understand Lord’s love: long suffering patience. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.  Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. (1 Cor 13: 4-8)
• Thank God for seeing friends restored.  The Lord loves all people to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Tim 2:4)

(Bible in One Year: Joshua 7-9)