Tuesday, April 19, 2016

OT DAY 460 - Don't Get too Fond of Taking Initiatives for God (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

        I love you, O Lord, my strength.
                                     Psalm 18:1

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 (2 Samuel 7:1-29)


       
       Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.” And Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”
But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, “Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the LordWould you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ Now, therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. 10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly, 11 from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men, 15 but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever.’” 17 In accordance with all these words, and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
          2   Samuel 7:1-17

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"

    My Listening

          David wanted to build a temple for God. That's good, right? But, God did not want him to do that, instead, God had another plan, not David's plan. Does this ring any bell in you? Have you made similar wish but later you found out that was not God's wish? 

    Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 

           David is getting too fond of taking initiatives for God. He is reversing the relationship between people and God. He wants to build God a house; God counters that declaration by announcing the intention of building David a house. The Hebrew word for house, beth (as in Bethlehem or Bethel), means both a house made of brick or stone and a house make of people, a household, and God makes use of this double meaning in reversing David's plan. When God has reestablished who has the sovereignty in this relationship by starting to build David a household, in the sense that his son has succeeded him as king in the way Saul's son did not succeed him, then this son can fulfill David's plan and build God the house that God doesn't really want.   
   
John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.134.


       We as human beings always make such kind of mistakes!

       Jesus reminds me now of how He used Rev. Dr. John Stott to pull me out of this mind of mistake. Please click this link to read the details from my first blog: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

       Let me copy and paste of what I wrote in August 2009:

       It all started with a lunch with Rev. Dr. John Stott in 1991. After he listened to my sharing of quite a number of unhappy things in my ministry he said, "Silas, I suggest you to shift your subject." I said, "Oh, John, sorry! You must be bored to hear all these." He said, "No, not that kind of shift. You know, for half an hour you talked about so many struggles using "I" as the subject. In English, a sentense has a subject, a verb and an object. If you make a shift and use "God" as the subject and "I" as the object, I don't think you would have so much problems."

From that day on, I am on a "subject shifting" journey and a total new way of "seeing" things. I wrote the Subject Shifting Devotion Method in 1998 and since then many people has been using that as their devotion method.

John Stott has this line in his new book(the last book he wrote, Through the Bible Through the Year. Oxford: Candle Books, 2006)he gave me as a gift three weeks ago in his home in London:

Page 14

The Creator's Initiative Genesis 1:1

The first four words of the Bible("In the beginning God")...God is the subject of nearly every verb.
       

      So, I made that mistake many years ago and now sometimes I  make same kind of mistake without noticing that. How about you?


Dear Lord Jesus,
    Help us not to make this mistake and know how to wait for you to tell us what to do before we do it our own way.  In Jesus name I pray. Amen. 

Reflect on these questions:
    1. Do you have the same problem?

2. What do you have to do today in order that you won't play God's role to be God and let God be God?

    3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Praise and Thanksgiving

10,000 Reasons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E


四十天的"破. 立"靈修:

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Today is our 110 days non stop Morning Prayer Monday through Friday 6:30a.m. to 7:30a.m. Saturday 8a.m. to 9:45a.m., Sunday 7:30a.m. to 8:30a.m.


The offering of our First Fruit every morning have changed lots of things: unity, lifestyle, character …and many more!

Prayer sheet for our daily 6:30a.m. Copying the Bible to pray and 7a.m. Prayer Meeting yesterday morning:







誰能使我們與基督的愛隔絕呢?

  大齋期四十日 "破。立"每日靈修,請按下面連結: http://breakbuild.blogspot.com/   楊平忠大主教領受 "使命113"異象之見證 Archbishop Yong’s MISSION 113 videos,...