OT DAY 168 - Sabbath Rest Is Top No. 1 Priority (Please click here for English podcast)

I guess you must have completed Break.Build 40 days daily devotion not long ago. And now you are back to Discipler 123. It would be a waste if you do not use the 40 days Break.Build to help someone to have 40 days daily devotion from now on! 

You can 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 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 blogs/podcast is for you to become a discipler to help more people to have a daily intimate relationship with Jesus and then they become disciplers too:
http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Silence

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

2.   Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. 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

     How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
             The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8       They feast on the abundance of your house,
                     and you give them drink from the river of your delights.

                                                         Psalm 36:7-8

                                                                       

Confession and repentance

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

Please click this link to read Exodus 31:12-18

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=exodus+31&version=ESV

And the Lord said to Moses, 13 “You are to speak to the people of Israel and say, ‘Above all you shall keep my Sabbaths, for this is a sign between me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I, the Lord, sanctify you. 14 You shall keep the Sabbath, because it is holy for you. Everyone who profanes it shall be put to death.Whoever does any work on it, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. 15 Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, holy to the Lord.Whoever does any work on the Sabbath day shall be put to death. 16 Therefore the people of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath throughout their generations, as a covenant forever. 17 It is a sign forever between me and the people of Israel that in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

18 And he gave to Moses, when he had finished speaking with him on Mount Sinai, the two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God.                   Exodus 31:12-18

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage of scripture 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
      The last and concluding word in a long discourse is always the most important one. God's last and concluding word speaking to Moses in Mount Sinai is "Sabbath". 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

    

       God has come to the end of the instructions for making the sanctuary and now gives the two stone tablets, inscribed with the ten commands that form the declaration, for putting into the chest in the sanctuary.  Before that, the instructions add a surprising footnote.  How many days a week is it okay to serve God by building the sanctuary?  Surely the answer is "seven." It's God's work.  It's to make something beautiful for God.  It's to construct the place where God will come and dwell among the people.
     Actually, no. Even in doing this work for God, you work only six days each week.  The Sabbath is still sacred, holy ground.  God has claimed it.  You have to keep your feet off it.  To underscore the point, God gives it a new significance.  The Sabbath is a sign, like the rainbow or the eating of flat bread at Passover, that reminds people of their special relationship with God.  The peoples among whom the Israelites will live in Canaan or in Babylon did not observe the Sabbath and sometimes consciously or unconsciously tried to compromise the Israelites' observance.  Keeping Sabbath was a weird thing to do; it was countercultural.  Precisely because of that, it was hugely important, a symbol of the Israelites' special relationship with God.  
       

John Goldingay. Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.111.

     So, how do you keep your Sabbath rest? There are so many workaholics who think that they do not need any rest. Sabbath rest is not only rest but rest in God's own way. This is Sabbath rest to you:
1. Go to your home church to worship God every Sunday. If you are on holiday, find a church to worship God on Sunday. No excuse not going to worship God on Sunday. But, if you have to work on Sunday, find a church not worshipping on Sunday. Go to worship God on that day and rest on that day. Our Restaurant church Emmanuel 330 has our weekly worship every Wednesday 3:30p.m. in a Chinese Seafood Restaurant. 

2. Work six days and rest one day, preferably Sunday. But if you really have to work on Sunday, then rest on the day you go to church. Quite a number of churches have worship on Saturday, or Emmanuel 330 on Wednesday.

Sabbath rest is top No. 1 priority as a sign that you are a Christian. No compromise! 

Dear Lord Jesus,

      Help us to keep Sabbath rest as our top No. 1 priority as a sign to be your disciples.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.  

Reflect on these questions:

1.  Do you skip Sunday worship sometimes? Why? How can you stop doing that kind of skipping?  

2.  Are you a workaholic? How well do you observe Sabbath rest? 

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 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

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

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

Daily Devotion on Fire 2: http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/

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