OT DAY 246 - Stop, Rest, So That You Can Work (Please click here for English podcast)

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

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

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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

       
           For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work;

    at the works of your hands I sing for joy.

 How great are your works, O Lord!
    Your thoughts are very deep!

                                  Psalm 92:4-5

        
          
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 5:1-15)

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

12 “‘Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you.13 Six days you shall labor and do all your work, 14 but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. 15 You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day.

                   Deuteronomy 5:12-15

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 passage gives us a reality and scene that Moses once again tells the Israelites what is the most important thing in their lives. He recites the Ten Commandments again to all the new generation of the Israelites who are ready to go into the Promised Land at last after 40 years wandering in the desert.

     If you compare that carefully with the first time Moses recited the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20 with this chapter, you will find they are almost the same except the commandment concerning with Sabbath. Why? 

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

    

     The ten commands already appeared in Exodus 20; the Sabbath command manifest the biggest difference between their two forms. Exodus expounds its rationale in God's activity in creation. Deuteronomy adds a rationale in God's activity in delivering Israel from Egypt. The reason the head of the family should be concerned for its members, and particularly its servants, is that Israel knows what it is like to be servants who are mistreated. Being the boss should never make someone forget what it's like to be a servant…

     The point of Sabbath is to sanctify some stopping time, to surrender some time to God and thereby acknowledge that all time belongs to God. You could also say we keep Sabbath not because stopping is good for us but because we are clued to be godlike. Stopping means looking back over what you have been doing and admiring it, as God did…
     Its heart is contentment and gratitude.  

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.108-109.

     What does Sabbath mean to you? Go to church on Sunday? No work on Sunday? That's all?

     There are so many workaholic nowadays all over the world. May be you are a workaholic too? God says to you today, "My child, if you do not stop and rest, you cannot work well, or you cannot work at all when you are burn out."

     God commands me to stop my work at 11p.m. and go to bed a month ago. I obeyed and I am a new person now! More restful, relax and more ready to listen and obey to God's Word and command, and to be able to do my work more effectively.

     How about you?  

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to be willing to observe the Sabbath you command us to observe and taste the sweetness of the fruit of obedience.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Are you one of the workaholics? 

2. How are you going to change in order that you are willing to stop and rest so that you can work better for God and other people?

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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