OT DAY 266 - God Says NO, That's NO (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/

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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

        
            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 14:1-22)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 14&version=ESV

3 “You shall not eat any abomination. 4 These are the animals you may eat: the ox, the sheep, the goat, 5 the deer, the gazelle, the roebuck, the wild goat, the ibex, the antelope, and the mountain sheep. 6 Every animal that parts the hoof and has the hoof cloven in two and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat. 7 Yet of those that chew the cud or have the hoof cloven you shall not eat these: the camel, the hare, and the rock badger, because they chew the cud but do not part the hoof, are unclean for you. 8 And the pig, because it parts the hoof but does not chew the cud, is unclean for you. Their flesh you shall not eat, and their carcasses you shall not touch.
                   Deuteronomy 14:3-8

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

     Moses teaches the Israelites about what not to eat in today's passage. We know now that we do not need to follow those rules because we are not Israelites. We can eat pork but till now Israelites do not eat pork. So, what has today's passage to do with us if we are not Jews? 

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

    

     Deuteronomy's rules about what Israelites may or may not eat are more or less the same as the ones in Leviticus 11…Staying healthy isn't the main point about these rules, though it may be one point about them. Staying distinctive from the religion and life of Israel's neighbours will be another point about them; the Canaanites did eat pork. God's original strategy for reaching out to the world via Israel involved keeping Israel distinctive. Eventually God changed this strategy and told Jews who had come to believe in Jesus to give up being different in this way in order to be able more easily to mix with Gentiles and tell them about Jesus (see Acts 10)…
     Deuteronomy's specific rationale for the rules about food is that Israel should eat only creatures that belong to "proper" categories…
     The fuller explanation in Leviticus points more explicitly to the idea that such a commitment with regard to food is Israel's way of living with the orderliness of creation; in creating the world, God fitted things into categories, and by its practice Israel witnesses to this.  

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.143.

      We learn from the Bible and from the teaching of our church and beyond (attending talks, taking courses, listening and watching DVD of faithful Christian leaders) what is the proper way Christian should do and should not do. 
      Also, your personal relationship with Jesus that He tells you what you should do and should not do. Like what Jesus told me a few months ago that I need to sleep before 11p.m., or more than ten years ago that I need to drink lots of water as the first thing to do when I wake up. When I listen and obey to that, I am more and more healthy physically and spiritually. Also, Jesus tells me not to do certain things anymore as I have been tempted to do something that is not good. I listen and obey, then my character changed to be more Christlike! 

      What I got from Jesus is very simple and important today:

      God Says NO, That's NO
       
Dear Lord Jesus, 
Lead us to know what are those things that you command us not to do. Help us to be willing to listen and obey to your command and not to do it. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you know what are the things God says NO to you? How good are you responding to His command lately?

2. How can you be more sensitive to listen to God's NO? 

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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