OT DAY 418 - There Would Be Things That Could Avert God's Wrath (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

    Praise the Lord!
    Praise the Lord, O my soul!

    I will praise the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praises to my God while I have my being.

                    Psalm 146:1-2

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 3:10-18)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1 Samuel 3&version=ESV

10 And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” 11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end.13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

15 Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” 17 And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

   

                                 1   Samuel 3: 10-18

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

        If some people did something really wrong, like those people in Sodom and Gomorrah, do you think God's wrath could be averted? Yes, that's the message in Jonah, the city of Nineveh. It depends on how we changed after received God's warning.

        Eli did not repent and he did not disciplined his two sons after Samuel used his prophetic gift to warn his master, Eli. God severely punished Eli and his two sons. Eli, his two sons and his daughter-in-law, all four of them died! Please read 1 Samuel 4:17-22!

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 

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

    

      There would be things that could avert God's wrath, things such as the sons' changing their ways or Eli's disciplining them, but the Old Testament knows that in the absence of people changing their ways, sacrifices and offerings can't do that. Eli can submit to God's declaration with courage, and he does so, a little like Achan in Joshua 7, but it is too late to change the waywardness that makes God's action necessary.
      So God turns Samuel from a bus boy in the sanctuary into someone through whom God speaks to Israel. There is nothing about Samuel that makes this happen. The master just decides that this is the servant he intends to use in this connection.  

          

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.33.

       

          

       Actually if you were under God's wrath, you would most probably not know because you would be blind and there would not be people like Samuel or Elijah have courage to tell you even they got prophetic gifts. So, if you are those people who received prophetic gift you need to have courage to exercise that. And if you are those people who receive prophetic messages that you do not want to listen or change, you ought to be very careful. Why? Because if those messages are from God and you do not listen, you might suffer similar consequence as Eli did! Actually I saw a few scary examples that those persons really died! I am not exaggerating. They really died!

        Scary! Yes, God's wrath is really scary! Remember that God is both righteous and merciful. No one is indispensable. God used Samuel instead of Eli because Eli did not listen and obey! God will not use you if you are like Eli, not listen and obey!

     Do not under estimate what I tell you today! 

Dear Lord Jesus, 

    Help us to submit to you totally so that we won't follow Eli's foolish example to be under your wrath. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you think God's wrath can be really like that as he did to Eli and his two sons? Do you think God would do that to you if you really like what Eli did, not listen, obey, repent and change?

2. What was the last time you received God's warning from God Himself or some people? Have you changed? Are you in God's wrath or God's presence and peace?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading:

Photos of my copying the Bible last Friday using Time with Abba passages 

Yesterday's photo of our daily 8a.m. to 9a.m. Copying Bible session, 40 brothers and sisters participated

Today's photos of our daily 9a.m. to 9:30a.m. Prayer Meeting and Soaking Prayer from 9:30a.m. to 10:30a.m.

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

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