OT DAY 259 - You Deserve It (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

       
           Oh sing to the Lord a new song;
                                sing to the Lord, all the earth!

                                  Psalm 96:1

        
 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 10:12-22)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=申+命+記+10&version=ESV

 12 “And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. 19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the ,Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear.21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

                   Deuteronomy 10:12-22

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

     A week ago we talked about how Moses told His people that they did not deserve to enter into the Promised Land. It is not their faithfulness to God but the wickedness of the Canaanites. Moses told them his fasting for forty days and nights without food or water four times. The first and the fourth time was to prepare His heart to receive God's Ten Commandments. The second and the third time was because of the wickedness of His people to plead to God of not destroying all of them. Now, they were ready to enter into Promised Land after forty years wandering in the desert. But, all of those men who were twenty or above forty years ago died because of God's punishment, except Joshua and Caleb. Moses was talking to the second generation, most of them were not even born forty years ago.

    Do you want to know what they need to know after all the Israelites have been through? 

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

    

     Israel did not deserve any of this, but God does deserve a response. One way of describing the appropriate response is to speak of revering God and giving themselves to God…
     Another way to describe the appropriate response is to talk about circumcising your mind. Circumcision involves cutting off an unnecessary elongation; it symbolizes the disciplining of a man's sexuality. Circumcising the mind suggests an analogous disciplining of our thinking and decision making, a broader disciplining. It is natural to want to look after ourselves. Follow God's example instead, Moses says. Look after the vulnerable people in your community, the widows, the orphans, and in particular the aliens. You know what it is like to be aliens; you have heard your parents talk about it. You ought to sympathize with aliens. You know God does so, because God acted to rescue you from that position. Circumcise your minds so that you act the same. Give yourself to them as you give yourself to God. 

 John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.131.

      In one sentence, Jesus concludes what Moses talks about: 
Love God and love His people as you love yourself.

      But you can't love God and His people as you love yourself unless you circumcise your heart. Discipline yourself so that you do not commit any sexual sins or anything that pull you away from loving God and loving His people as yourself. 

      Then you deserve to enter into God's Promised Land prepares for you and all those who repent.

       Jesus says, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near."

      Yes, you deserve it if you give the response He so wait for you to give to Him. God deserves a response from you:

Circumcise your heart daily so that you can love God and love His people as yourself. 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Lead us to be with you each day so that we are willing and be able to circumcise our hearts daily and that we can love you and your people as ourselves.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. How does today's topic "You Deserve It" give you inspiration and new direction? 

2. Are you willing to circumcise your heart daily? Can you name one thing you need to cut off so that you can live out loving God and His 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

You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

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

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