Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 330 - Why Not Ask God First? (Please click here for English podcast)

Thursday, September 24, 2015

OT DAY 330 - Why Not Ask God First? (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 Blessed be the name of the Lord
    from this time forth and forevermore!
3 From the rising of the sun to its setting,
    the name of the Lord is to be praised!

Psalm 113:2-3

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html)

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 9:1-21)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua 9&version=ESV

3 But when the inhabitants of Gibeon heard what Joshua had done to Jericho and to Ai,4 they on their part acted with cunning and went and made ready provisions and took worn-out sacks for their donkeys, and wineskins, worn-out and torn and mended, 5 with worn-out, patched sandals on their feet, and worn-out clothes. And all their provisions were dry and crumbly. 6 And they went to Joshua in the camp at Gilgal and said to him and to the men of Israel, “We have come from a distant country, so now make a covenant with us.” 7 But the men of Israel said to the Hivites, “Perhaps you live among us; then how can we make a covenant with you?” 8 They said to Joshua, “We are your servants.” And Joshua said to them, “Who are you? And where do you come from?” 9 They said to him,“From a very distant country your servants have come, because of the name of the Lord your God. For we have heard a report of him, and all that he did in Egypt, 10 and all that he did to the two kings of the Amorites who were beyond the Jordan, to Sihon the king of Heshbon, and to Og king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth. 11 So our elders and all the inhabitants of our country said to us, ‘Take provisions in your hand for the journey and go to meet them and say to them, “We are your servants. Come now, make a covenant with us.”’ 12 Here is our bread. It was still warm when we took it from our houses as our food for the journey on the day we set out to come to you, but now, behold, it is dry and crumbly.13 These wineskins were new when we filled them, and behold, they have burst. And these garments and sandals of ours are worn out from the very long journey.” 14 So the men took some of their provisions, but did not ask counsel from the Lord. 15 And Joshua made peace with them and made a covenant with them, to let them live, and the leaders of the congregation swore to them.

16 At the end of three days after they had made a covenant with them, they heard that they were their neighbors and that they lived among them.

Joshua 9:3-16

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
Do you think Joshua is someone who does not like to ask God first? Do you have the same weakness? Do you think Joshua is stupid?

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

Yes, Joshua was stupid, but the Old Testament sees this as a moral and religious fault and not just as a possibly endearing quirk. Wisdom is tied up with reverence for God and faithfulness to other people. Joshua acted not only without thinking but without asking what God thought. The story in Joshua has implied that this has been a problem with Joshua on earlier occasions, in connection with the reconnoitring of Jericho and with the first time the people tried to take Ai and then with his assumption that God was at fault when that failed. This is the first time that the story is explicit about the problem…
Joshua knows consulting God is the kind of thing Moses used to do; he was in charge of the tent where Moses went to ask God things. Ignoring that possibility, he makes peace and makes a treaty…
The story shows a recognition that a leader has to be especially perceptive about when to consult God.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.46.

Do you have Joshua's problem, not ask God first?
Do you know how serious this problem can be?
You may have lots of questions now, like when to ask God first and when not to, when no need to ask. I am not going to answer those questions for you.

This is a relational question, a relational problem. You need to have that daily intimate relationship with Jesus so that you know how to ask Him first!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to be willing to ask you first before we decide to do things on our own effort. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Have you got this kind of problem of not asking God first? What kind of results have your experienced?

2. How can you make a change to ask God first starting today? Do you know how?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading that I recited loudly and copy the Bible is:

Psalm 106:13-23

Isaiah 43:14 - 45:10

Ephesians 3:1-12

Proverbs 24:1-2

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

Today's Golden Verse