Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 306 - Do You Have A River to Cross? (Please click here for English podcast)

Monday, August 31, 2015

OT DAY 306 - Do You Have A River to Cross? (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

   Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,
    from everlasting to everlasting!
And let all the people say, “Amen!”
    Praise the Lord!

Psalm 106:48

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 (Joshua 1:1-9)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+1&version=ESV

After the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, the Lord said to Joshua the son of Nun, Moses' assistant, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, into the land that I am giving to them, to the people of Israel. 3 Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given to you, just as I promised to Moses. 4 From the wilderness and this Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites to the Great Sea toward the going down of the sun shall be your territory. 5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you. 6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you?Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1: 1-9

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

The Israelites had a river to cross forty years ago. The did not believe God would be with them and they chickened out. They were wandering in the desert for forty years! Moses is perhaps the greatest leader in human history, and yet he could not lead his people to cross that river!

God told Joshua to be strong and courageous through Moses.
God told Joshua to be strong and courageous directly, personally before Moses died.

Here in today's passage, Moses died already, God told Joshua to be strong and courageous two times.

Joshua got it at last and led his people to cross the river of Jordan into the Promised Land.

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

The Canaanites, whose large size struck the Israelites spies a generation ago (see Numbers 13-14). Historically, they are indeed a much stronger and more sophisticated people than the Israelites. Two and a half of Israel's twelve clans have looked at the country east of the Jordan where Israel is camped at the moment. They have spotted that it is rather good and have asked that they might settle there. One can imagine that the other nine-and-a-half clans might be wondering whether there is room for them there, too. Yet the real promised land lies west of the Jordan. There is a river to cross.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.8-9.

What I received from Jesus to you is a question:

Do you have a river to cross?

Do you know that river? Can you be strong and courageous to cross that river, even better, like Joshua, lead those people who God prepares for you to lead to cross that river?

So, what can that river be?

Breaking some bad habits like gambling, smoking, pornography, sleeping late, no exercise, speaking bad words on people …

Or, God is calling you to leave your place to live in another place, to leave your job to do another job…

Do you have a river to cross?

Do you know God promise you just like He promised Joshua:
I will be with you wherever you go

God will be with you all the way. Is that enough?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to know that you promise to be with us wherever we go. Lead us to have the strength and courage to cross that river you command us to cross. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you have a river to cross? How does today's message touch your soul so that you have the strength and courage to cross that river?

2. What have you got from Jesus today?

Time with Abba daily reading

Psalm 96:7-13

Job 37:1 - 39:30

2 Cor. 4:13-5:10

Proverbs 22:13

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