OT DAY 205 - Be God's Family & Army at last (Please click here for English podcast)

Please 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 with one to two people 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 can become disciplers too:
http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Please click these links to the app. Andy Ng wrote if you have an Android cel.:

Discipler123: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app

Break.Build: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.bb.app

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

         Let the peoples praise you, O God;
             let all the peoples praise you!

            The earth has yielded its increase;

               God, our God, shall bless us.

             God shall bless us;
                      let all the ends of the earth fear him!

                             Psalm 67:5-7

                                                                       

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 (Numbers 1:1-2:34)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers 1&version=ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the tent of meeting, on the first day of the second month, in the second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “Take a census of all the congregation of the people of Israel, by clans, by fathers' houses, according to the number of names, every male, head by head. 3 From twenty years old and upward, all in Israel who are able to go to war, you and Aaron shall list them, company by company. 4 And there shall be with you a man from each tribe, each man being the head of the house of his fathers. 5 And these are the names of the men who shall assist you.
2 The Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, 2 “The people of Israel shall camp each by his own standard, with the banners of their fathers' houses. They shall camp facing the tent of meeting on every side.
34 Thus did the people of Israel. According to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so they camped by their standards, and so they set out, each one in his clan, according to his fathers' house.

                              Numbers 1:1-5; 2:1-2;34 

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
     After many challenges and training of one year and one month, and the willingness to listen and obey those complicated commands and rules in the whole book of Leviticus, the Israelites were ready to enter into a new stage. The stage of truly being God's family and army, at last!  

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

    

     At the beginning of Numbers, the Israelites encamped at Mount Sinai are about to resume the biggest move of their lives…The first ten chapters of the book concern preparations for this move…
     The story so far has established that the move may involve some battles.  They didn't have to fight the Egyptians, and God has said nothing about fighting the Canaanites; God has taken responsibility for seeing the Canaanites off…But Abraham once had to go to battle to rescue Lot when he got taken captive in the context of war, and Moses and Joshua had to lead Israel in defending themselves against the Amalekites on the way from Egypt to Sinai.  God sometimes enables the people of God to live in the world on the basis of extraordinary divine interventions but sometimes lets them live in that world on a basis not so different from the one everyone else uses…It won't be surprising if the Israelites need to fight again. So they are going to march as a  fighting force. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.7.

     Do you know whether you have been prepared like the Israelites and you are in God's family and army? Do you know which banner you belong to?

     To me, I belong to the banner of Anglican Mission in the Americas, then Anglican Mission in Canada, then Asian Initiative, then Richmond Emmanuel Church. That's my banner and I fight for God a good fight under this banner to rescue people from the dark world back to God's Kingdom.

     How about you? Do you have the obedience as a soldier under the banner God prepares for you? 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to know that we belong to your family and army. Open our eyes to know which banner we belong to and faithfully and courageously to fight for you under that banner. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you know you are God's family and army? Are you in God's family and army? 

2. Do you know which banner you belong to? How well are you willing to listen and obey to the commander of your banner to fight a good fight for God to rescue people from this dark world into God's Kingdom?  

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

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

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

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