OT DAY 197 - To Be Holy (Please click here for English podcast)

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Silence

1.   Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. Exhale your worries.

Praise and Thanksgiving

1.   Think through your day, all the times that made you smile

2.   Thank God for all those moments, and for all those people

3.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

       for you have been my help,
        and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy.
8        My soul clings to you;
          your right hand upholds me.

                             Psalm 63:7-8

                                                                       

Confession and Repentance

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “Dear Holy Spirit, shine your light into the places of darkness in my life. Show me my sins, everything that blocks me from encountering God. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”

2.  Through the Holy Spirit, examine yourself for a short silence and then pray:

     "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for our sins and being victorious over death and sin. I confess my sin to you(pause, to tell Jesus what the Holy Spirit has shown you). Forgive my sins by your blood and help me follow you. Holy Spirit, fill me that I may be able to receive your gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Leviticus 19:19-20:27)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Leviticus 19&version=ESV

“If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. 11 If a man lies with his father's wife, he has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 12 If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall surely be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them. 13 If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. 

22 “You shall therefore keep all my statutes and all my rules and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out. 23 And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them. 24 But I have said to you, ‘You shall inherit their land, and I will give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey.’ I am the Lord your God, who has separated you from the peoples.25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26 You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

                              Leviticus 20: 10-13, 22-26

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

My Listening
     Today's passage shows more things the Israelites cannot do. It seems complicated and some of those "Don't" has nothing to this modern age. We need to understand the essence is the same, one word: Holy. 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     Leviticus 1-16 was sometimes dealing systematically with issues that are dealt with more occasionally in Leviticus 19-20 as it collects material illustrating what holiness look like…
     Several of the other rules presuppose further ways in which Israelites must not follow the natural instincts that peoples such as the Canaanites follow. Divination and augury are equivalents to astrology in the Western world, techniques to discover what the future holds, what troubles may threaten, and what may be done to avert them.  Israel is to go straight to God about such questions and not think they can handle them by such techniques. 

John Goldingay. Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.165,166.

      The most important we need to be aware of is that the culture of other people especially the Canaanites is and will influence them and God warns them in advance.

      Here in this age we have more than ever all kinds of weird culture influencing Christians. Astrology is one of those culture that Christians don't aware and then they read newspaper of what they need to do and will happen that day because they are a Leo, and so on.

      The only way to know that whether we are holy is to learn from the Bible and have a real relationship with God that the Holy Spirit will show you what is holy and what is not holy. Are you willing to be with God more and to learn from the Bible more is the key that you won't be influenced by all those culture surrounding us. 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to enjoy our daily relationship with you and that we are willing to learn more from Your Word so that we can get away from the deadly influence of all kinds of poison culture surrounding us.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.”

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you have any similar habit influenced by those deadly culture surrounding you ? 

2. How can you be separated from other people to be holy people of God? 

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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