OT DAY 174 - I Want to See God! (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 blog/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

     “Be still, and know that I am God.
                      I will be exalted among the nations,
                     I will be exalted in the earth!”
11       The Lord of hosts is with us;
                    the God of Jacob is our fortress. 

                                                         Psalm 46:10-11

                                                                       

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

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Exodus 33&version=ESV

 Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

17 And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” 18 Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” 19 And he said, “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. 20 But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, 22 and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. 23 Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

                                                                  Exodus 33:12-23

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
       I want to see God! This is what Moses wants, perhaps this is what you want too, right? What is the difference between seeing God and feeling His presence? 

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

    

       God also gives a paradoxical reassurance  "I myself will not go with you - but my face will go with you."  It sounds like a distinction without a difference.  But the promise means that people will be protected from the kind of reality of God's presence that would be a threat but will be granted a reality of God's presence that will be a blessing. (Hebrew does not have a special word for "presence"; the word for "face" covers the idea of presence.  Linked to that is the idea that when God's face shines on us, God blesses us.)
     The reality of God's presence, however, is not enough for Moses; he wants to see God's splendour   That is an unrealistic aspiration, because it would be like looking at the sun.  It would be bound to blind him.  As a gesture of love, then, God takes Moses as close as possible to that experience yet protects him from its mortal danger.  
       

John Goldingay. Exodus and Leviticus for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.122.

      God wants Moses to lead the people to the Promised Land. But, Moses knows that if God is not with them, He does not have the power and strength to lead the people. That's why Moses wants to see God, feeling the presence is not enough. It means as close as possible with God. 
      Do you want to be as close as possible with God so that you have the power and strength to do those things you can't do if you are not as close as you can with God?

Dear Lord Jesus,

      Help us to know how we can be as close as we can with you and be willing to be as close as we can with you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1.  How close are you with God recently?

2.  Do you know how you can be as close as you can with God?

3.  Are you willing to be as close as you can with God? 

  

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/