OT DAY 41 - Do You Believe You Are Being Protected? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

Today's Reading: Genesis 12:6b-10

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Please click this link to read Genesis 12:6b-10

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 12&version=ESV

Chinese: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=創 世 記 12&version=CUV

Bible Study

     God gave His word to Abram that He was being protected in yesterday's passage. No only that, God appeared to Abram when Abram arrived in where God called him to be. Then Abram built an altar to worship God. And Abram toured round that land as a symbol to take that land, first to the north, that was Shechem, then in the middle, Bethel, then south, Negev. He built another altar when he arrived in Bethel. Do you think Abram had faith in God's word and appearance that he was being protected. Well, that needs to be tested. Now, the examination came. 

Let's take a look at what Professor John Goldingay says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

     There God appears to Abraham. While God had spoken to him in Harran, here for the first time God "appears."  I guess it would not be so different from God's showing up in the garden in Genesis 3…It would be like receiving a human visitor, but one way or another it would be clear that this was no mere human visitor.  One could call it a vision, though the disadvantage of that way of speaking is to imply we are simply talking about something that happened inside Abraham's head, something subjective, whereas to speak of God "appearing" makes clear we are talking about something real…
     Building an altar where sacrifice can be offered is Abraham's response to God's appearing…
     At Shechem Abraham "calls in Yahweh's name," as people began to do in Seth's day (Genesis 4:26); this could again imply worship or prayer or proclamation.
     Then Abraham continues on his tour of the land, a kind of symbolic entering into possession of it, naming God's name in the north, the middle, and the south.  But that is when stuff happens.  

John Goldingay. Genesis for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.145-146.

      When stuff happens, do you think you have the faith to be sure that you are being protected? Do you think you have the faith to pass the examination and the title of the examination is "Do you trust me"? 

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

Spiritual Journal

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: Do you believe you are being protected?

    The message I receive from Jesus today is a reminder that our faith is always being challenged and tested so that we can have a stronger faith and trust in God.

    Since 1981 when I was born again and God called me to leave the comfortable life I was to go to an unknown future, I experienced many times of that assurance and then the tests. The more assurance and appearance of God telling me that I needed to trust Him, the most difficult those examinations would look like. And, the more trust I have in God's.

    I have also experienced my little faith not trusting God more and made some moves against God's call and I made a mess. You will see how Abram made a big mess in tomorrow's passage when he did not trust that he was being protected.

    Do you believe you are being protected by God? Don't make a mess! 

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us each day that we can pass those tests that we are not able to pass. Without you each day we are doom to fail and would make a big mess. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 

Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 

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Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 

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Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 

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This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)

http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/

Rev. Nicky Gumbel's daily devotion: Bible in One Year

http://www.htb.org.uk/bioy