OT DAY 207 - Go to God, Not Controlled by Jealous And Suspicious (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/

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

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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 5:5-31)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers+5&version=ESV

 11 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 12 “Speak to the people of Israel, If any man's wife goes astray and breaks faith with him, 13 if a man lies with her sexually, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and she is undetected though she has defiled herself, and there is no witness against her, since she was not taken in the act, 14 and if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife who has defiled herself, or if the spirit of jealousy comes over him and he is jealous of his wife, though she has not defiled herself, 15 then the man shall bring his wife to the priest and bring the offering required of her, a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, for it is a grain offering of jealousy, a grain offering of remembrance,bringing iniquity to remembrance.

16 “And the priest shall bring her near and set her before the Lord. 

                              Numbers 5:11-16

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
     This is perhaps one of a few Old Testament passages that you don't want to read or after you read you close the Bible and not read again. This is perhaps one of the cases that you might stop reading my blog again. Because it is so weird and it doesn't make sense. Yes, not in this age, but not in that age and culture.  

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

    

     A test to determine the actual situation is in her interests as well as in his.  For both, it involves trust in God…If Numbers left prayer out of the picture,  it would count as magic or superstition.  Instead, it constitutes an appeal to God to make a ritual an effective way of establishing the truth…
     What about a test for adultery by a husband? That would be fair. Maybe God is working with the human community's common double standard for adultery; men get away with things that women do not.  Maybe the community and God recognize that it is the woman who actually gets pregnant.  It is important to know who has responsibility for her child; her husband should not get out of it if it is his. Maybe God recognizes that a wife's need to protection from her husband's jealously is greater than a husband's need for protection from his wife's jealousy. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.14.

      I have seen quite a number of unfaithful relationship or suspect of unfaithful relationship in married couples. Every time I wished if those couples could go to their pastor to deal with it in a spiritual way, it might cause less damage and hurt.

      So, what I got from Jesus today from this weird passage is that whenever there is any kind of jealousy or suspicion, go to your pastor to seek for advice and prayers. Your marriage would be much blessed and protected if you can do that.  

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to know that we have to go to you first and not let jealousy and suspicious to control us when marital problem surface.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you agree that Jealousy and suspicious would destroy a good marriage? 

2. Have you got some new insight and inspiration from today's message? 

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

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

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