Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 314 - You Need to Get Your Feet Wet, if You Are to See God Act (Please click here for English podcast)

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

OT DAY 314 - You Need to Get Your Feet Wet, if You Are to See God Act (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

15 Then they were glad that the waters were quiet,
    and he brought them to their desired haven.
31 Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
    for his wondrous works to the children of man!

Psalm 107:30-31

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 3:6-17)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua 3&version=ESV

6 And Joshua said to the priests, “Take up the ark of the covenant and pass on before the people.” So they took up the ark of the covenant and went before the people.

7 The Lord said to Joshua, “Today I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. 8 And as for you, command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, ‘When you come to the brink of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.’” 9 And Joshua said to the people of Israel, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God.” 10 And Joshua said, “Here is how you shall know that the living God is among you and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Hivites, the Perizzites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, and the Jebusites. 11 Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is passing over before you into the Jordan. 12 Now therefore take twelve men from the tribes of Israel, from each tribe a man. 13 And when the soles of the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, shall rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan shall be cut off from flowing, and the waters coming down from above shall stand in one heap.”

14 So when the people set out from their tents to pass over the Jordan with the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people, 15 and as soon as those bearing the ark had come as far as the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the brink of the water (now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest), 16 the waters coming down from above stood and rose up in a heap very far away, at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, and those flowing down toward the Sea ofthe Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. And the people passed over opposite Jericho. 17 Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan. Joshua 3:6-17

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
Today's passage shows us the key to Spiritual Leadership.

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

It's a nice image, "getting your feet wet." I think its background lies in this story. Often you can't achieve something or experience something or learn something without making a commitment that may seem risky. It would be nicer to have proof that things will be okay before you make the commitment, but life does not work that way. If you give in to commitment anxiety, you live without danger, but also without life.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.15.

The top No. 2 crisis for churches worldwide is : Christians do not have commitment. Quite a number of Christians are having a consumer's attitude to go to church, they just want to get what they want, they do not want to commit.

The top No. 1 crisis for churches worldwide is: Christians do not have Jesus as Lord and King. If we have Jesus as Lord and King, we will commit our lives to our Lord and King and will follow our Lord and King, and those servants our Lord and King sends, just like the Israelites had faith to follow Joshua.

The problem is, would the key leader and his captains have faith to step into the water to get their feet wet?

Spiritual leaders have the faith and courage to get their feet wet because they have Jesus as Lord and King. At first, people would treat them as crazy people because what they asked people to do is usually beyond people's capacity, just like Mose and Joshua.

How do you know they are faithful spiritual leaders being sent from God? You need to ask the Lord to open your eye so that you can see in a spiritual way their track record and their daily life witness.

You need to follow Jesus as Lord and King to be able to see that. If not, you would most probably join those blinds just like those rebellious, stiff-neck kings and leaders killing God's servants!

You need to make total commitment to Jesus as your Lord and King!

You need to get your feet wet, if you are to see God act!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us to follow your servants lead to get our feet wet so that we can be able to see you act. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. When was the last time you get your feet wet because of Jesus? Is Jesus calling you to get your feet wet again today?

2. What have you learn as the essentials of a spiritual leader today?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading that I recited loudly

Psalm 102:12-17

Isaiah 1:1 - 2:22

2 Cor. 10:1-18

Proverbs 22:26-27

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

Today's Golden Verse