OT DAY 265 - God Is Testing You (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

        
            Rejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,

    and give thanks to his holy name!

                                  Psalm 97:12

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 13:1:1-18)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 13&version=ESV

  “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, 2 and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ 3 you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the Lord your God is testing you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.4 You shall walk after the Lord your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. 5 But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the Lord your God commanded you to walk.So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
                   Deuteronomy 13:1-5

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 was the test you had the last time? May be you are thinking of your last examination in your high school or university ten years, twenty years ago, right? 

     Now, Moses is talking about God is testing you in all kinds of ways you may not know. The worst situation is that even if you fail the test and you do not know. So, what was the test you had the last time?

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

    

     I can say that I know a certain student will get an A (or will fail), but it doesn't mean I abandon the test that proves this. As a result of the test, I "know" in a new sense. Deuteronomy presupposes that God lives with Israel in that kind of relationship. God knows Israel will be unfaithful, but until it happens, the knowledge is theoretical. When it happens, that gives God a different kind of knowledge. Thus God sets the test in order to find out, giving Israel opportunity to do what God expects - or not to do so…
     Deuteronomy presupposes that bad guys can do miracles, as good guys can; Jesus also assumes this (Matthew 7:22-23). Jesus says such people will get excluded from the kingdom of heaven; Deuteronomy says they are to be executed. Like other rules about capital punishment, Israel does not seem to have taken this literally. Its point is more to underline how serious an offence it is. Encouraging people to turn from Yahweh and follow other gods is an evil that must be removed from the people's midst. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.140-141.

     God has been testing you to see if you are being pulled away from God's Kingdom to worship other gods. False prophets, fortune tellers, family members, your friends or any kind of wicked people can successfully do this kind of thing without your knowing that you have failed the test. They can pull you out from your own church, your family to follow them. They can pull you away from a lifestyle of Christlikeness to a lifestyle of world-likeness or even Satan-likeness.

     So, what is the last time you passed or failed God's test? 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Help us to know that you have all kinds of tests to find out whether we are faithful or faithless. Lead us to be with you each day that we can pass our next test because we are unable to pass those tests as humans, that's beyond our ability. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you know what is the last time you passed or failed God's test? 

2. How can you prepare yourself to be more alert of your coming tests from God? 

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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