OT DAY 297 - Take God's Challenge (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

        
    Glory in his holy name;
           let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice!
4     Seek the Lord and his strength;
             seek his presence continually!

                            Psalm 105:3-4

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 30:1-20)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 30&version=ESV

 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

                                                Deuteronomy 30: 19-20

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 have the past two days reading, copying and meditating Deuteronomy 30. What have you got? God says we just need to circumcise our hearts so that we can listen and obey, then we will have life and blessing. Is circumcising your heart and to listen and obey to God so difficult?  

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

    

     Anyway, is obedience so difficult? There are indeed many things hidden from us. But many things are revealed to us, and 99 percent of the time our problem is not whether we know enough to go and do what we should do, but whether we are prepared to do it. God's expectations are not rarified or obscure. You don't need a PhD to understand them. They are there in your mouth, in your mind. You can think about them and talk about them, and you do so if you follow what Deuteronomy has urged.
    Well, yes, obedience is difficult. Israel and the church know what they are supposed to do and are not very good at doing it. ..
     Deuteronomy leaves us with two facts: God is compassionate and gracious. We are challenged to respond; for all that God does for us, we have to do that.    

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.189.

     So, take God's challenge! That's all I can say. Circumcise your heart so that you can listen and obey.

     For me, God's challenge is to care for more people, to sleep before 11p.m., to copy a certain amount of passages in the Bible in both Chinese and English daily and to get the key verse to memorize. That's all! And, it is not easy for me to listen and obey, because now is already 2a.m.!

     How about you? Are you willing to take God's challenge?

Dear Lord Jesus, 

Help us to be able to take your challenge so that we are being blessed by you to bless more people.  In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. What are those challenges God give you recently? Are you able to take those challenges?

2. What have you received from Jesus today?

Pictures of my copying Deuteronomy today:

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/