OT DAY 234 - Eating with God (Please click here for English podcast)

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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

        
           Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
              in whose heart are the highways to Zion.
6         As they go through the Valley of Baca
              they make it a place of springs;
              the early rain also covers it with pools.
7         They go from strength to strength;
              each one appears before God in Zion.

                             Psalm 84:5-7

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 28:1-29:40)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers 28&version=ESV

The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Command the people of Israel and say to them, ‘My offering, my food for my food offerings, my pleasing aroma, you shall be careful to offer to me at its appointed time.’ 3 And you shall say to them, This is the food offering that you shall offer to the Lord: two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day, as a regular offering. 4 The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight; 5 also a tenth of an ephah of fine flour for a grain offering, mixed with a quarter of a hin of beaten oil. 6 It is a regular burnt offering, which was ordained at Mount Sinai for a pleasing aroma, a food offering to the Lord. 

39 “These you shall offer to the Lord at your appointed feasts, in addition to your vow offerings and your freewill offerings, for your burnt offerings, and for your grain offerings, and for your drink offerings, and for your peace offerings.”

40  So Moses told the people of Israel everything just as the Lord had commanded Moses.

                               Numbers 28:1-6, 29:39-40

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
     Yesterday we had a kind of big ceremony of Moses passing the baton to Joshua and then it seems talking about offering in today's passage. Yes, it is talking about offering again as a true relationship of God and Israelites. But, there is more. Professor John Goldingay uses the image of BBQ as to explain the main purpose of these two chapters. He uses the title "Eating with God". To offer to God what He commands is just like having BBQ with God as in a close relationship in North America culture because Professor John is a professor at Fuller Seminerary in California, USA. I think it is the smell of BBQ he is thinking of and want to draw association with. That is a great illustration!  

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

    

     A week ago, our church had a homecoming/harvest barbecue…We don't just meet in church and in the classroom; eating together adds another dimension to those relationships.
    So it is with Israel's relationship with God. It is embodied in the way God and Israel eat together. In this connection, the Old Testament is very bold in the way it pictures God in human terms…
    God is a person, and the Israelites are people; their relationship is a personal relationship. One thing people do is give gifts to one another and eat meals together. So Israel gives God gifts and eats meals with God.
     Israel's worship thus combined the order of a banquet and the celebration of a barbecue. It also worked according to a schedule. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.77-78.

       Yes, a schedule all through the whole year, each morning and evening, Sabbath-the end of the week, the beginning of each month, and different occasion of the year to remind Israel of God's involvement in the one-time events of its story. It is God's way to tell His people, "I am with you. I am eating with you. You are my people."
       How are you willing to be in this kind of close relationship with God offering your time and money to God so that you are eating with God in this way. Actually Church calendar serves the similar way as to remind Christians God's salvation history focusing each year in Christmas and Easter.
       The point is, are you eating with God having a close relationship with God following God's way and not your own way? Start with daily devotion, tithing and worshipping in your home church each Sunday, receiving communion and participate in Summer Camp and Retreat should be a good start. 

       Bon appétit! 

Dear Heavenly Father, 
Help us to enter into a close relationship with you that we can eat with you each day in your own schedule. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Have you got a new insight today about your relationship with God?  

2. How good are you eating with God recently? 

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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