Weekly Guide：Week 101
December 29, 2019
Foreword
We will soon complete the reading of the last Book in Bible, the Book of Revelation. God’s sovereignty is fully displayed through opening the seals. God is behind all seemingly incidental events in history. God’s word is true and alive and above our own will. In the ever-flowing river of time, eternal peace is found by following God. We need to rely on God to face challenges of times as He has full control of history. In fact, there’s nothing God does not control and only by obeying His commands may we live out our lives meaningfully.
May you all be renewed in God’s word each day!
Question
How did the beast mislead the people?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
-
John saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads. The whole world followed the beast and worshiped the dragon.
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The beast slandered God’s name and waged war against God’s holy people to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language, and nation.
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A second beast came out of the earth, exercised all the authority of the first beast on its behalf, and made the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast.
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It forced all people to receive a mark.
Meditation: My Story
- Identity - If anyone is to go into captivity, into captivity they will go. If anyone is to be killed with the sword, with the sword they will be killed. This calls for patient endurance and faithfulness on the part of God’s people. This verse places God’s righteousness above His promise. How does it encourage me to be patient?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Question
What was the Lamb doing on Mount Zion?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
-
The Lamb stood on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
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They sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders.
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Another angel was flying in midair, and he had the eternal gospel to proclaim to those who live on the earth.
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Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on.
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The son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. He swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.
Meditation: My Story
- Identity - The son of man said blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on. What is my perspective on life and death? What about blessing and suffering?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Question
What were the seven plagues?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
-
Another great and marvelous sign in heaven: seven angels with the seven last plagues.
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Standing beside a glassy sea glowing with fire were those who had been victorious over the beast. They sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb.
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Out of the temple came the seven angels with the seven plagues. They poured out the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.
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The first angel went and poured out his bowl on the land, and ugly, festering sores broke out on the people who had the mark of the beast and worshiped its image.
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The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died.
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The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood.
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The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire.
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The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast, and its kingdom was plunged into darkness.
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The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up to prepare the way for the kings from the East.
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The seventh angel poured out his bowl into the air. Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake.
Meditation: My Story
- Identity - There were finally those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name sang the song of the Lamb. How is this helping me to set my sight and goal on what is to come?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Question
What did the great prostitute represent?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
-
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls showed John the punishment of the great prostitute who sat by many waters.
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The beast would come up out of the Abyss and go to its destruction.
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Those who gave power and authority to the beast would wage war against the Lamb, but the lamb would triumph over them.
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The woman was the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.
Meditation: My Story
- Identity - Those who gave power and authority to the beast would wage war against the Lamb, but the lamb would triumph over them because he is king of kings, the Lord of lords, and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers, will be victorious. How does knowing the identity of the Lamb help me when I face the spiritual war?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Question
What was the end of Babylon?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
-
Another angel came down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor.
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Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird.
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Come out of her, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues.
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Rejoice over her, you heavens! Rejoice, you people of God! Rejoice, apostles and prophets! For God has judged her with the judgment she imposed on you.
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For true and just are God’s judgments. He has condemned the great prostitute. He has avenged on her the blood of his servants.
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For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready.
Meditation: My Story
- Identity - Those who dressed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, and glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin! How do I see my wealth and status?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Question
Who were the opponents in the war in the last days?
Scripture Reading
Meditation: God’s Story
-
The rider of the white horse, with justice he judges and wages war.
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On his head were many crowns. He was dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name was the Word of God. On his robe and on his thigh he had this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
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An angel standing in the sun, cried in a loud voice to all the birds flying in midair, “Come, gather together for the great supper of God!”
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An angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.
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After the thousand years were ended, he must be set free for a short time.
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The souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony about Jesus and because of the word of God and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image. They came to life and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
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When the thousand years are over, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations in the four corners of the earth.
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All were judged by Him who sat on the great white throne.
Meditation: My Story
- Identity - The dead, great and small, standing before the throne, were judged according to what they had done. What does this mean to me as a Christian? What does it mean to my life as of today?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
Scripture Reading
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
What is God's new commandment?
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### Meditation: God's Story
+ Anyone who obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him.
+ Darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
+ For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - Anyone who knows God must do what His commands and loves God. They do not love the world and anything in the world. How much do I know God? Am I willing to love Him even more?
+ **Community** - Abstain from the lust of flesh, the lust of eyes, and the pride of life. These are from the world and are temporary. In these tricks of the devil, which temps me the most?
+ **Integrity** - Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks around in the darkness and do not know where they are going. Do I have any hatred toward any brother or sister? Let me pray and ask the Lord for forgiveness.
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
What kind of life should the children of God live?
{% include BibleLinks2022.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
+ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - We are children of God and we know that when the Lord appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. How am I living a life as children of God and be more like Jesus every day?
+ **Integrity** - We shall not continue to sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. How am I doing what is right and not being led astray?
+ **Community** - We should love one another with actions and in truth because this is what God has commanded. How am I loving my Christian brothers and sisters even more?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
Why if we love one another then God lives in us?
{% include BibleLinks2022.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
+ This is love: God sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
+ God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
+ We love because He first loved us.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - We are of God and have won over every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus, because the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. What difficulties am I facing? Let the one who is in me be my only reliance and true help so that by Him I'd be able to celebrate in victory.
+ **Community** - We love one another, for love comes from God. We love because He first loved us. Let me understand and experience God's love, then try to love someone who is unlovable with God's love.
+ **Integrity** - Love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. What faith and hope does this give me?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
How do we overcome the world?
{% include BibleLinks2022.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement in the Lord Jesus Christ.
+ Anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
+ The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - The One gives us victory over the world is our faith. Do I have the faith to overcome the world today?
+ **Identity** - We have eternal life when we have the Son of God; we have no eternal life without the Son of God. Let me thank and praise Jesus with my prayer in the knowledge that He has already given me eternal life!
+ **Fidelity** - If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. How am I praying for those who are sinning?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
What is the relationship between love and truth?
{% include BibleLinks2022.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Love and truth must go together as love is for truth.
+ To love God is to walk in obedience of His commands and to love one another.
+ To walk in the truth is the prerequisite of loving one another. Do not welcome those who do not follow Jesus' teaching.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Walking with God** - The common interpretation of love of this world is not God's love. God's love does not go against His truth. Let me contemplate on what God's truth is, what His love is. Have I seen, heard, or experienced a kind of love being raised up high, even among Christians, but muddles the truth? When I face this kind of improper love, how may I speak the truth in love?
+ **Identity** - Jesus gave us the command to love between the limbs, to one another. This is to love by following His example instead of human's examples. So, the real love shall not cause conflicts. At the time of John, all ministers were travelling ministers, and they stayed in loving believers' households and being supplied by them. This signified the accepting household's acknowledgment of their ministry. Today, how shall I welcome them and acknowledge their ministry? What does John remind me of when he said do not welcome those deceivers?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Forward
This week we will complete the current segment of New Testament reading and go into the Old Testament.
May you all be renewed in God's word each day!
### Question
What is the proper attitude in receiving our brothers and sisters in Christ?
{% include BibleLinks2022.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Children of God shall be faithful to the truth and walk in it.
+ We ought to show hospitality and receive with love those brothers and sisters who go out in the name of the Lord so that we may work together for the truth.
+ Do not imitate those who love to be first and the evil of their refusal to receive the Lord's workers. Rather, imitate those who do good in truth and love.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Integrity** - There's a negative example in this passage, Diotrephes. What kind of person was he? Why did he refuse to receive the Lord's workers? Please list out the descriptions in the passage. What was the reason of his evilness? Through the descriptions of Diotrephes, Gaius, and Demetrius, what shall our attitude be in simple matters such as receiving our brothers and sisters? Whom am I accountable to when I show hospitality to brothers and sisters? How may I serve in faith?
+ **Fidelity** - When we receive and show hospitality to those who go out for the Lord, we are working with them together for the Lord. In the book of Second John, a simple greeting to those false teachers would become a support of their wickedness. What does the contrast between the two remind me of?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
{% include BibleLinks2022.html %}
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
What is God's new commandment?
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Anyone who obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in Him.
+ Darkness is passing and the true light is already shining. Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.
+ For everything in the world-the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - Anyone who knows God must do what His commands and loves God. They do not love the world and anything in the world. How much do I know God? Am I willing to love Him even more?
+ **Community** - Abstain from the lust of flesh, the lust of eyes, and the pride of life. These are from the world and are temporary. In these tricks of the devil, which temps me the most?
+ **Integrity** - Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness, walks around in the darkness and do not know where they are going. Do I have any hatred toward any brother or sister? Let me pray and ask the Lord for forgiveness.
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
What kind of life should the children of God live?
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!
+ And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - We are children of God and we know that when the Lord appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. How am I living a life as children of God and be more like Jesus every day?
+ **Integrity** - We shall not continue to sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. How am I doing what is right and not being led astray?
+ **Community** - We should love one another with actions and in truth because this is what God has commanded. How am I loving my Christian brothers and sisters even more?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
Why if we love one another then God lives in us?
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
+ This is love: God sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
+ God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.
+ We love because He first loved us.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - We are of God and have won over every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus, because the one who is in us is greater than the one who is in the world. What difficulties am I facing? Let the one who is in me be my only reliance and true help so that by Him I'd be able to celebrate in victory.
+ **Community** - We love one another, for love comes from God. We love because He first loved us. Let me understand and experience God's love, then try to love someone who is unlovable with God's love.
+ **Integrity** - Love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. What faith and hope does this give me?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
How do we overcome the world?
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ For there are three that testify: the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement in the Lord Jesus Christ.
+ Anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the One who was born of God keeps them safe, and the evil one cannot harm them.
+ The Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true by being in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Identity** - The One gives us victory over the world is our faith. Do I have the faith to overcome the world today?
+ **Identity** - We have eternal life when we have the Son of God; we have no eternal life without the Son of God. Let me thank and praise Jesus with my prayer in the knowledge that He has already given me eternal life!
+ **Fidelity** - If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. How am I praying for those who are sinning?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Question
What is the relationship between love and truth?
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Love and truth must go together as love is for truth.
+ To love God is to walk in obedience of His commands and to love one another.
+ To walk in the truth is the prerequisite of loving one another. Do not welcome those who do not follow Jesus' teaching.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Walking with God** - The common interpretation of love of this world is not God's love. God's love does not go against His truth. Let me contemplate on what God's truth is, what His love is. Have I seen, heard, or experienced a kind of love being raised up high, even among Christians, but muddles the truth? When I face this kind of improper love, how may I speak the truth in love?
+ **Identity** - Jesus gave us the command to love between the limbs, to one another. This is to love by following His example instead of human's examples. So, the real love shall not cause conflicts. At the time of John, all ministers were travelling ministers, and they stayed in loving believers' households and being supplied by them. This signified the accepting household's acknowledgment of their ministry. Today, how shall I welcome them and acknowledge their ministry? What does John remind me of when he said do not welcome those deceivers?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
### Forward
This week we will complete the current segment of New Testament reading and go into the Old Testament.
May you all be renewed in God's word each day!
### Question
What is the proper attitude in receiving our brothers and sisters in Christ?
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
### Meditation: God's Story
+ Children of God shall be faithful to the truth and walk in it.
+ We ought to show hospitality and receive with love those brothers and sisters who go out in the name of the Lord so that we may work together for the truth.
+ Do not imitate those who love to be first and the evil of their refusal to receive the Lord's workers. Rather, imitate those who do good in truth and love.
### Meditation: My Story
+ **Integrity** - There's a negative example in this passage, Diotrephes. What kind of person was he? Why did he refuse to receive the Lord's workers? Please list out the descriptions in the passage. What was the reason of his evilness? Through the descriptions of Diotrephes, Gaius, and Demetrius, what shall our attitude be in simple matters such as receiving our brothers and sisters? Whom am I accountable to when I show hospitality to brothers and sisters? How may I serve in faith?
+ **Fidelity** - When we receive and show hospitality to those who go out for the Lord, we are working with them together for the Lord. In the book of Second John, a simple greeting to those false teachers would become a support of their wickedness. What does the contrast between the two remind me of?
Prayer
Notes and Responses
{% include BibleLinks2024.html %}
Prayer
Notes and Responses