OT DAY 57 - The Sign of Having A Covenant with God (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

Today's Reading: Genesis 17:9-14

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Please click this link to read Genesis 17:9-14

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis 17&version=ESV

Chinese: https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=創 世 記 17&version=CUV

Bible Study

      Today's passage shows us the sign of Israelites having a convenient with God and that is circumcision. We know that since Paul's time, we as Christians do not have to keep this covenant. So, what is the significance of circumcision?  What has it to do with us as Christians who do not need to do this anymore?  

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

    

     Male circumcision was a common custom among Middle Eastern peoples, as has been the case in many other societies, but it was generally applied to boys on the verge of adulthood, not at birth.  Applying it when they are born reflects the fact that they do nothing to earn it.  It was God who made the covenant with Abraham, which in this way comes to apply to them.
     In another sense the rite of circumcision (like infant baptism) does indicate the need for response to God's grace.  Paradoxically, this acceptance of responsibility is undertaken by the community as a whole, and in particular by the baby's family.  They must guard or keep or protect God's covenant, and accepting the rite of circumcision is a way they do that.  

John Goldingay. Genesis for Everyone - Part Two. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.8.

      So, what is the true meaning of having circumcision to you? Do we as Christians have similar sign of faith and trust as circumcision does to the Israelites? 

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: The sign of having a convenient with God

    What I got from Jesus today is an invitation to enter into a covenantal relationship with God. The closest similarity of circumcision may be baby baptism. Anyway, those who have circumcision and infant baptism are all babies. It doesn't mean that when they grow up, they still are in a close relationship with God, or even a more closer relationship with God.

    Just half an hour ago, Jesus revealed to me a passage for us to "catch" so that we are in a covenantal relationship even better than having circumcision claiming that we belong to God:

      I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.
                       
                                                                               Ezekiel 36: 25-28


       For those Israelites, those who were rebellious refusing to have circumcision need to put to death according to verse 14 and we can see in later time they really put to death those who did not have circumcision. Is that enough to keep those Israelites into a covenantal relationship God? No. Why?Because they still have stone hearts!

       How about you? What is the sign of having a covenant with God? Your infant baptism? Your adult baptism? Your confirmation? Your finish reading the whole Bible? Or what?

       Pray to God now asking Him to tell you what is the sign of having a covenant with God. For me, I think we have to start with a daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus. Without that, you do not need for some people to put you to death like Abraham or Moses time. You would sooner or later break you relationship with God, and that is spiritual death, worse than physical death! 

        What is the sign of having a convent with God? 

Dear Lord Jesus,

Open our minds to understand what is the sign of our having a covenant with you so that we won't die a spiritual death. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

    Please click this link to the app. Andy Ng wrote. You really need to use that if you have an Android cel. Andy said he is going to do the App. for iPhone later:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app

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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): 

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

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): 

http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

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