OT DAY 245 - No Worship of Idols (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

        
            It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
                                   to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2               to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
                                   and your faithfulness by night,
3               to the music of the lute and the harp,
                                  to the melody of the lyre.

                                  Psalm 92:1-3

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 gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (Deuteronomy 4:1-49)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 4&version=ESV

23 Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. 24 For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

25 “When you father children and children's children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the Lord your God, so as to provoke him to anger, 26 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed.

39 know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.40 Therefore you shall keep his statutes and his commandments, which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”

                   Deuteronomy 4:23-26, 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

     What Moses says to the Israelites here in this chapter is very serious. It is about to worship God only or to worship other gods, or to worship God and also to worship other gods. He puts it in a very clear way and that is no worship of idol and do not think that they can worship God in the form of idol. 

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

    

     The use of idols in worship is a regular feature of religions, and it was a regular feature of Israel's religion in practice, but not one the Old Testament itself approves.
     Deuteronomy here turns from recollection of the events of the past forty years, recollection of how the relationship between God and Israel has been working , to a statement of expectations about how it is to work in the future…One aspect is that Israel is to make no shapes, statues, figures, or forms…
    It is easy to think that having images(idols) makes God more accessible. It gives you something concrete to relate to. Deuteronomy sees things the other way around. The Torah gives you a bigger picture of God and also portrays this God as always accessible. You can talk to this God and get a response. God will do something when you need God to. It's not like talking to a statue.   

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.104-105.

     You may think that you are not worshipping any idol. But, there are so many ways of worshipping idols in modern days life. Anything that pulls you away from God and that you place that in top No. 1 of your life is what Moses says today:

know therefore today, and lay it to your heart, that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other.

      Are you really worshipping one God and no other gods? 

      Again, this is a relational question and not just a YES or NO question. What is your answer?

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Lead us to have a daily intimate relationship with you that you are our only God.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Can you count how many other things that you put your priority higher than God? 

2. How can you choose life and not death as says by Moses?

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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