Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 342 - Once United, Temptation to Division Comes (Please click here for English podcast)

Saturday, October 10, 2015

OT DAY 342 - Once United, Temptation to Division Comes (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

I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.

Psalm 118:21

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 22:1-34)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+22&version=ESV

28 And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’ 29 Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”

30 When Phinehas the priest and the chiefs of the congregation, the heads of the families of Israel who were with him, heard the words that the people of Reuben and the people of Gad and the people of Manasseh spoke, it was good in their eyes.

Joshua 22:28-30

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
It is so scaring and yet funny to see two totally different pictures yesterday and today. Yesterday, we saw a beautiful picture of unity. Today, we see a picture of misunderstanding, confusion, division almost to the point of war and killing. Why?

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

When the eastern clans built themselves an altar near the Jordan, Joshua blew a fuse because they seemed to have made a unilateral declaration of independence from the western clans. It was equivalent to dividing up Christ or dividing up the body of Christ…
Ironically(the eastern clans protest), the point about the altar they built was to honour the importance of the central altar as the place for sacrifice, not to deny it. They weren't going to sacrifice on the altar they made. In a way it was like having a photo of the "proper" altar, something to remind them of it, a "witness" to it, and even more a witness to the western clans that the eastern clans kept the actual altar in mind. So the argument got resolved, and everyone could live happily ever after.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.81.

Today, Archbishop Yong and all the people participated in the Thanksgiving Service for the new location of Toronto Emmanuel Church were in awe seeing how great God is. A beautiful picture of unity!

Do you think leaders of Toronto Emmanuel Church would face the same temptation the Israelites experienced once they tasted the sweetness of unity? Yes, they will. Do you think Satan is on holiday?

The only way for them as well as all of us to avoid similar kind of misunderstanding, confusion, division and killing each others is to talk to each others, to communicate, to share in a real sense of what a family of Christ really means. When we know that we are true family members and Jesus is our Lord and King, there is no way we can have this kind of misunderstanding and Satan's temptation will be demolished.

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Help us to experience the sweetness of unity in each others because we are willing to listen and obey to your command. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Have you experienced similar kind of misunderstanding and division in your church or family? How can you get back the state of unity?

2. How does today's passage teach you to be able to stay in unity?

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 113:1-9

Jeremiah 14:11 -16:15

1 Thessalonians 2:10 - 3:13

Proverbs 25:1-5

Photos of my copying the Bible using Time with Abba passages

Golden Verse