OT DAY 282 - Men, Rise up to Be Good Fathers (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 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

        
             Bless the Lord, O my soul,
             and forget not all his benefits,
3              who forgives all your iniquity,
             who heals all your diseases,
4              who redeems your life from the pit,
            who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy,
5             who satisfies you with good
            so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

                
                          Psalm 103:2-5

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

The Word (Deuteronomy 21:15-17)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+21&version=ESV


15 “If a man has two wives, the one loved and the other unloved, and both the loved and the unloved have borne him children, and if the firstborn son belongs to the unloved, 16 then on the day when he assigns his possessions as an inheritance to his sons, he may not treat the son of the loved as the firstborn in preference to the son of the unloved, who is the firstborn, 17 but he shall acknowledge the firstborn, the son of the unloved, by giving him a double portion of all that he has, for he is the firstfruits of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his.

                   Deuteronomy 21:15-17

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

      We don't have polygamy now in Western culture. But not in the culture of the Israelites at that time or even in nowadays in some countries. Hong Kong made a rule that polygamy cannot happen in the 60s', just fifty years ago.  

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

    

     Like the preceding rule it is not concerned with theoretical questions about whether polygamy ought to happen. Polygamy happens. It wants to deal with one of its possible consequences. A man cannot decide to treat his second son as his firstborn just because he likes his mother more. A rule like this seeks to preserve proper order in the community. 

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.165.

      We are not talking of polygamy today. We are talking of whether we can have more and more good fathers so that we can have more good sons and daughters. I have seen too many bad examples of bad fathers hurting their children causing lots of damages in their families. Rev. Paul Ng, one of the most respected pastors and speakers in Hong Kong came to our church, Richmond Emmanuel Church three years ago to have a talk of the need of "Fathers Prayer Meeting". Dickson Choi, one of our Council members received a call from Jesus at that time and since then he started a Fathers Prayer Meeting every Sunday from 10:30a.m. to 10:55a.m. We are now having more than 15 men participating every Sunday praying together and we have raised quite a number of good fathers!
      Men, rise up to be good fathers! 

Dear Lord Jesus, 
Lead more men to become good fathers loving their children building up their families to be loving families.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you think we need more good fathers? How you can help in this situation? 

2. If you are a man, can you join more men to pray together weekly to be good fathers? If you are a woman, can you encourage more men to do something about it? 

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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