Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 300 - Joshua Chickened! How Can You Be Strong & Courageous? (Please click here for English podcast)

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

OT DAY 300 - Joshua Chickened! How Can You Be Strong & Courageous? (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

   Remember the wondrous works that he has done,
    his miracles, and the judgments he uttered,
6 O offspring of Abraham, his servant,
    children of Jacob, his chosen ones!

Psalm 105:5-6

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 31:9-29)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy 31&version=ESV

23 And the Lord commissioned Joshua the son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you.”

24 When Moses had finished writing the words of this law in a book to the very end,25 Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord,26 “Take this Book of the Law and put it by the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against you. 27 For I know how rebellious and stubborn you are. Behold, even today while I am yet alive with you, you have been rebellious against the Lord. How much more after my death! 28 Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears and call heaven and earth to witness against them. 29 For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly and turn aside from the way that I have commanded you. And in the days to come evil will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the Lord,provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”

Deuteronomy 31: 23-29

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

Today's passage is prophetic. God and Moses knew that the Israelites were going to fail and would be in total destruction. But, for Joshua and those who were willing to listen and obey, they had the honour to glorify God. Which group do you think you belong to?

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

God and Moses knew what Israel's wayward future would look like; one might infer that God knew what the church's wayward future would look like. Yet with Israel and with us, God did not therefore abandon the project but remained committed to bringing it to a successful completion, completion that glorifies God.

John Goldingay. Numbers & Deuteronomy for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, p.192.

God told Joshua through Moses one time "Be strong and courageous". Then another time when Moses was alive in today's passage. Then two times in the book of Joshua after Moses died. Joshua was really chickened! And, so did Timothy if you read 2 Timothy 1: 3-7.

The truth is, we all like that: chickened! How can we overcome this kind of unavoidable fear? Three words: God with Us!

Praise the Lord that I received a message today from someone who listened to my podcast yesterday. Here is what she wrote:

Bishop, your Monday broadcast really hit me…my company wants me to take over another big position for the …Market due to my language advantage. I will be the the Supply Chain Manager + the Key Account Manager. I believe I can handle it. But I'm nervous and fear with this new challenge… Yes I'm chickened…God is speaking to me and yes, the message is a tailor-made message for me 100%!

How encouraging it is to me that my podcast gives a 100% tailor-made message to a dear sister! That's not me, that is God! God with me and with this dear sister!

So, just like what I asked you yesterday, pray now asking God whether there is something He wants you to do beyond your own capacity and ability. Wait for God the coming few days for confirmation, especially the word "Be strong and courageous"! If you trust me to do this simple prayer, you will be raised to a new level serving God in a new way!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to be willing to seek for your new direction and to be strong and courageous to do it. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you think God is calling you to do something beyond your capacity and ability? How can you get confirmation that this call is from God?

2. If you receive your confirmation, do you think you can be strong and courageous to do what God calls you?

Time with Abba daily reading

Psalm 92:9-15

Job 16:1 - 19:29

1 Cor. 16:1-24

Proverbs 22:1

Photos of my copying the Bible today using Time with Abba passages