OT DAY 409 - Would God Give You A Son if You Have No Son? (Please click here for English podcast)

Silence

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

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace and feel His presence. 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

  One generation shall commend your works to another,
    and shall declare your mighty acts.

     On the glorious splendor of your majesty,

    and on your wondrous works, I will meditate.

      They shall speak of the might of your awesome deeds,
    and I will declare your greatness.

      They shall pour forth the fame of your abundant goodness
       and shall sing aloud of your righteousness.

                    Psalm 145:4-7

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html)

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 (1 Samuel 1:19-20)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1 Samuel 1&version=ESV

19 They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.20 And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”

                 1 Samuel 1:19-20

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage 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 is Boxing Day, the day to open Christmas gifts. Do you think God would give you a gift today? How about a prophesy that you are going to have a son if you so desperately want to have a son as Hannah did? Could that happen? 

         Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 

     (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

         1 Samuel does say that God closed Hannah's womb, and it now links her being able to have a baby to God's being mindful of her in the way she asked (we looked at the idea of God being mindful in connection with 1:9-11). 

          

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.18.

       

           Today Jesus reminds me of a wonderful experience happened in Summer 2007. Chung Kai Chow who I knew in 1990(who was then a Grade 11 student and I led him to receive Jesus as his Saviour and Lord of life) came to our church with his wife Connie whom I had not met before for Sunday worship from Austin, Texas. After the worship they shared with me the painful story that they wanted to have a child but for a few years no matter how hard they tried with all kinds of methods, they failed.I was moved by the Holy Spirit to have a short communion service with them and gave them communion. Michelle and I were there and we saw a couple Greg and Agnes and we asked them to lay hands on them and pray for them, all four of us. You know what, a miracle happened, in Summer 2009 they got a twin, a son and a daughter. I visited them two years ago in Austin. Do you think this is a coincidence? I don't think so.

        I am so moved that there are at least a couple who are reading my blog now who desperately wish to have a child. Have faith, follow Hannah's way to pray now. Hold hands together and pray now! If God answers your prayer within these two years, please give me an email so that I can give thanks to the Lord for what He has done today! And, I will bless the two of you and your child(or twin)!

        Please see Chung Kai and Connie's family pictures with their twin. And, the picture Connie took with Chung Kai and me two years ago in Austin. I asked Chung Kai just a few hours ago and he is glad to allow me to use the two photos and their wonderful testimony.

        May God bless you!  

Dear Lord Jesus, 

    Help us to know that you are the Lord who really answers prayers. Teach us to pray in your own way so that we will experience the power of prayer starting today. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you think God would answer prayer like that? Do you think our prayers for Chung Kai and Connie and that they had a twin was a coincidence? What inspiration have you got today?

    2. How are you going to pray now to ask God for what you desperately need?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading:

Psalm 147:1-11

Zechariah 9:1-17

Revelation 17:1-18

Proverbs 30:32

Photos of my copying the Bible today using Time with Abba passages 

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

Please click the link below to my new 40 days Break.Build site any time you like to having a 40 days "Break.Build" daily devotion with one to two people as a discipler to help those Jesus prepares for you to disciple. You need to know that the call and purpose of my Break.Build and this Discipler123 blog/podcast is for you to become a discipler to help more people to have a daily intimate relationship with Jesus and then they can become disciplers too:

http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Please click these links to the app. Andy Ng wrote if you have an Android cel.:

Discipler123: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app

Break.Build: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.bb.app

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

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