Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 334 - God Will Fight for You (Please click here for English podcast)

Thursday, October 1, 2015

OT DAY 334 - God Will Fight for You (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 I love the Lord, because he has heard
my voice and my pleas for mercy.

Psalm 116:1

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 10:28-43)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua 10&version=ESV

40 So Joshua struck the whole land, the hill country and the Negeb and the lowland and the slopes, and all their kings. He left none remaining, but devoted to destruction all that breathed, just as the Lord God of Israel commanded. 41 And Joshua struck them from Kadesh-barnea as far as Gaza, and all the country of Goshen, as far as Gibeon. 42 And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel. 43 Then Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, to the camp at Gilgal.

Joshua 10:40-43

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
Can you understand why God commanded the Israelites to have so many killings? Actually, quite a number of people use this passage and similar passages to persuade other people not to believe in God because if He is God, how can He did this kind of cruel act?

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

The Joshua story expresses the truth that God is committed to putting down evil in the world. The kind of evil that Israel saw in the Canaanites, such as their willingness to sacrifice their children, is not one that God allows to go on forever. Wicked peoples get their comeuppance...
There were other centuries when Israel had lost control of most of this land and it was under the sovereignty of an empire like that of the Assyrians or of other local peoples such as the Edomites. There would then be a certain poignancy or sadness about recalling how they once controlled the whole land. In reminding them that God gave them the country, it also reminds them that God had taken it away precisely because they had become too much like the Canaanites. But God could give it back to them.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.56-57.

What I received from Jesus today is verse 42:
And Joshua captured all these kings and their land at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel.

God will fight for you so that you can stay in the Promised Land God prepares for you. But, once you follow those wicked people's lifestyles it may be a different story. Which way do you want to go is your own choice, but the consequence may cause your life!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to make the right choice each day so that we will follow you all the days of our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you understand why God commanded Joshua to kill so many people in today's passage?

2. Do you really believe God will fight for you? How so? What have you experienced in this kind of divine protection and intervention?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Zoe Day 4 photos