Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 344 - Joshua Final Two Words to Finishing Well (Please click here for English podcast)

Monday, October 12, 2015

OT DAY 344 - Joshua Final Two Words to Finishing Well (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

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
you are my God; I will extol you.

Psalm 118:28

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 24:1-33)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua+24&version=ESV

19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy God. He is a jealous God;he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” 21 And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” 22 Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”
23 He said, “Then put away the foreign gods that are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel.” 24 And the people said to Joshua, “The Lord our God we will serve, and his voice we will obey.” 25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and put in place statutes and rules for them at Shechem. 26 And Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone and set it up there under the terebinth that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord that he spoke to us. Therefore it shall be a witness against you, lest you deal falsely with your God.” 28 So Joshua sent the people away, every man to his inheritance.

Joshua 24:19-28

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
What would you say in your last speech if you were a king, a president or a prime minister leading the whole nation. For Joshua, two words:

God is a holy God
God is a jealous God

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

First, God is "holy." It's the only time God is described thus in Joshua…Reminding people that God is holy reminds them that God is someone you can't mess with…

Joshua underscores that point by adding that God is passionate. The word is often translated jealous, which is an aspect of passion, but the Hebrew word has this broader meaning. God feels things really strongly. That's another reason you can't mess with God, especially if you belong to God's people.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.86-87.

If we speak of "finishing well", this is a perfect example of how finishing well really should be. To remind people don't mess up with God because He is a holy God and a jealous God.

That's how Joshua made his promise to follow God with his family. That's how all the Israelites made their promises to follow God. Because they knew that God is a holy God and a jealous God!

How is Joshua's two words affecting your life and your lifestyle?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to know that you are a holy God and a jealous God so that we won't mess up with you but to follow you all the days of our lives. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Why Joshua's last two words are "holy" and "jealous"? Do you know your God is holy and jealous?

2. How important it is to know God is a holy God and a jealous God to you?

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 115:1-8

Jeremiah 19:1 -21:14

1 Thessalonians 5:4-28

Proverbs 25:8-10

Photos of my copying the Bible using Time with Abba passages

Golden Verse