Spirituality? How important? 属灵对我有何重要？

How important is spirituality in your life?

十分重要。是我的真实生命啊！当然重要。这是我真正的生命。为什么？我相信永生。我是一个灵魂，住在身体里。身体是暂时的居所，总有一天会被丢弃。唯一不朽的部分是魂和灵。灵是上帝按照他的形象所生，是永恒的。当身体完成它的用途后，灵将回到造物主天父上帝身边。永不分离。

Very important. It’s my real life.  Why? I believe in eternal life. I am a spirit with a soul living in a body. The body is a temporary abode and will one day be discarded. The only incorruptible part is the spirit with the soul. The spirit is born of God in His image for eternity. When the body has completed its usefulness, the spirit will return to God the Creator Father. Never to part again.

这博文在姐妹播客 发表于24/06/2025  https://wp.me/pCgmS-55Z

Destined to run! the apostle Paul and his friends: a marathon of faith

They are destined to run! There are many athletes with super human strength, endurance and running abilities recorded in the Bible. Paul and his friends are simply amazing as we read some of their record.

The Apostle Paul and his friends: a marathon of faith for a crown of victory

Anyone interested in sports would have noticed that Paul describes Christian life as a life-long race and a boxing that requires preparation in the form of regimented boot camp training, keeping and staying fit.  He describes himself as an example. He runs and finishes his race course and urges his disciples and friends to do the same. Read his travel journey : mostly done by foot, scheduled by tight deadlines, over cross country terrains, frequently on the run from city to city, fleeing from and outrunning enemies right behind (on their heels).  The New Testament delineates at least fifty cities visited during his (at least) five major travels or missionary journeys. Paul’s timeline from his encountering the resurrected Jesus to his martyrdom spanned over a mere thirty years. His three missionary and related follow up travels took twenty years.  We could not find another equivalent traveler with that kind of mileage recorded in such details. 

Often he did not travel/run alone. He was accompanied with his Christian friends and co-workers. How did he run so well and so consistently? In his letters to Timothy specifically, and to a number of Christians in various churches, The Corinthians, Philippians, Thessalonians, and in the Book of Hebrews, he gave them the key to his resilience, consistency, endurance, and the secret to finishing well. 

Careful readers of Paul’s letters cannot help but marvel at his passionate running the race, as a true athlete does.

Read the following Bible verses to find his motivation and goal. Let us all be encouraged to run our own Christian race and finish the course well!

2025-09-07 (first draft)

Bible verses: Acts 14:19-21, Hebrews 12:1-3, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, Philippians 2:15-17, Philippians 3:12-14, 2 Thessalonians 3:1-3, 2 Corinthians 11:22-28 (hardships and perils)

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Striving for a Crown

24 Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may [a]obtain it. 25 And everyone who competes for the prize [b]is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. 26 Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. 27 But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

Footnotes

1 Corinthians 9:24 win

1 Corinthians 9:25 exercises self-control

Philippians 2:13 New King James Version

13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

Note: I posted this same article in WordPress blog: https://wp.me/pzRwB-9OA

I SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR

Written around Easter in 1932, in the Great Depression, and also when a Jewish student bluntly challenged Ackley – ‘why worship a dead Jew?’ Ackley’s prompt response presaged the title of the hymn he later wrote. This hymn has impacted my own life since young. When confronted of my faith by various external factors beyond my control, I always thought of this hymn. I have learned that our circumstances do not make the man. The test of my CHRISTIAN FAITH is in my internal personal life. Am I living by the Spirit of Christ? I have learned that inner strength can only come from a supernatural living God with whom I have my daily relationship and communion. 

Our life is our proof that our Savior really lives. 

Romans 8:14 New King James Version (NKJV)

14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

HYMN: I SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR

1

I serve a risen Savior
He’s in the world today.
I know that He is living,
Whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer;
And just the time I need Him
He’s always near.He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.

2

In all the world around me
I see His loving care,
And though my heart grows weary,
I never will despair;
I know that He is leading,
Through all the stormy blast;
The day of His appearing
Will come at last.

3

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian,
Lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs
To Jesus Christ the King!
The Hope of all who seek Him,
The Help of all who find,
None other is so loving,
So good and kind.

Lyrics and Music: Alfred Henry Ackley (1887-1960)

Now we live with great expectation, and we have a priceless inheritance

1 Peter 1

New Living Translation (NLT)

Greetings from Peter

1 This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

I am writing to God’s chosen people who are living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.^{[a] 2} God the Father knew you and chose you long ago, and his Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed him and have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.
May God give you more and more grace and peace.

The Hope of Eternal Life

³ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, ⁴ and we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. ⁵ And through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.

⁶ So be truly glad.^[b] There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you have to endure many trials for a little while. ⁷ These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
⁸ You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. ⁹ The reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
¹⁰ This salvation was something even the prophets wanted to know more about when they prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you. ¹¹ They wondered what time or situation the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ’s suffering and his great glory afterward.
¹² They were told that their messages were not for themselves, but for you. And now this Good News has been announced to you by those who preached in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.

A Call to Holy Living

¹³ So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. ¹⁴ So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then. ¹⁵ But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. ¹⁶ For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”^[c]

¹⁷ And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as “foreigners in the land.” ¹⁸ For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver. ¹⁹ It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God. ²⁰ God chose him as your ransom long before the world began, but he has now revealed him to you in these last days.
²¹ Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And you have placed your faith and hope in God because he raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory.

²² You were cleansed from your sins when you obeyed the truth, so now you must show sincere love to each other as brothers and sisters.^[d] Love each other deeply with all your heart.^[e]
23 For you have been born again, but not to a life that will quickly end. Your new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God. ²⁴ As the Scriptures say,

“People are like grass;
    their beauty is like a flower in the field.
The grass withers and the flower fades.
²⁵     But the word of the Lord remains forever.”^[f]

And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Footnotes:

1. 1:1 Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia were Roman provinces in what is now Turkey.
2. 1:6 Or So you are truly glad.
3. 1:16 Lev 11:44-45; 19:2; 20:7.
4. 1:22a Greek must have brotherly love.
5. 1:22b Some manuscripts read with a pure heart.
6. 1:24-25 Isa 40:6-8.

Sin is dethroned, and Christ takes its place -today's hymn

 

Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too

1. Buried with Christ, and raised with Him too;
   What is there left for me to do?
   Simply to cease from struggling and strife,
   Simply to walk in newness of life.
       Glory be to God!
2. Risen with Christ, my glorious Head,
   Holiness now the pathway I tread,
   Beautiful thought, while walking therein:
   He that is dead is freed from sin.
       Glory be to God!
3. Living with Christ, who dieth no more,
   Following Christ, who goeth before;
   I am from bondage utterly freed,
   Reckoning self as dead indeed.
       Glory be to God!
4. Living for Christ, my members I yield,
   Servants to God, for evermore sealed,
   Not under law, I'm now under grace,
   Sin is dethroned, and Christ takes its place.
       Glory be to God!
5. Growing in Christ; no more shall be named
   Things of which now I'm truly ashamed,
   Fruit unto holiness will I bear,
   Life evermore, the end I shall share.
       Glory be to God!

Source: http://www.hymnal.net/hymn.php/h/483#ixzz28iaZK4bA