Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 261 - How Are You Today? (Please click here for English podcast)

Thursday, July 16, 2015

OT DAY 261 - How Are You Today? (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 and feel His presence. 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

The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice;
let the many coastlands be glad!

Psalm 97:1

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

The Word (Deuteronomy 11:8-15)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 11&version=ESV

8 “You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess, 9 and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

13 “And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. 15 And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. "

Deuteronomy 11:8-15

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

Most of the time when people ask us, "How are you today?" our answer is always, "I'm fine." Have you experienced any time with your answer, "I am real bad today!" If you feel bad today, or if things do not work out as you think it should be today, is it worth to ask if there is a relational problem between you and God? I say this because today's passage is about this matter.

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

The Old Testament assumes a link between the way Israel lives and the way its life works out…
People listening to Deuteronomy being read know they sometimes do experience drought and failure of the harvest, and they have listened to prophets telling them this is not mere chance; God withholds the rain to try to bring them to their senses. They also know that there is no one-to-one correspondence between faithfulness and blessing, or between faithlessness and trouble. Sometimes a drought is just a drought; the rain falls and the sun shines on the faithful and the faithless. But when drought comes, it is always worth asking whether it results from human action.

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.133.

Yesterday I met a man the first time in our restaurant church (Emmanuel 330). His friend Dickson, one of our leaders asked me to have a ten minutes time to pray for him after our weekly worship. Dickson's friend shared with me he has been in a drought for quite some time. The ten minutes time turned out to be much more longer than that. He admitted that he needed Jesus because no one can save him and he received Jesus as his Saviour and Lord of life at around 6p.m. yesterday!

I don't think this is a co-incidence. How are you today?

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be sure each day that you are our Lord and King so that we can be blessed by you. And, you can use us to bless many people. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. How are you today? Are you experiencing some kind of drought personally, financially or spiritually? Do you have a way out?

2. How is your relationship with Jesus today?

Photos of our 30th Wedding Anniversary trip to Alaska