Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 382 - God Uses Human Shortcomings (Please click here for English podcast)

Saturday, November 21, 2015

OT DAY 382 - God Uses Human Shortcomings (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

Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the Lord of lords,

for his steadfast love endures forever;

Psalm 136 :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 (Judges 15:9-20)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges 15&version=ESV

14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him. Then the Spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. 15 And he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put out his hand and took it, and with it he struck 1,000 men. 16 And Samson said,

“With the jawbone of a donkey,
heaps upon heaps,
with the jawbone of a donkey
have I struck down a thousand men.”

17 As soon as he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone out of his hand. And that place was called Ramath-lehi.

18 And he was very thirsty, and he called upon the Lord and said, “You have granted this great salvation by the hand of your servant, and shall I now die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” 19 And God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came out from it. And when he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore the name of it was called En-hakkore; it is at Lehi to this day. 20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years. Judges 15:14-20

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage 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

The past five days we read about who Samson was. He has lots of shortcomings, selfish, not listening to God's command, pride, anger and rage. And yet, God used him to be a judge for twenty years!

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us:

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) :

God uses people with all their human shortcomings. So when God's spirit comes on someone, its concern is with doing something powerful, not immediately with doing something moral…You could say Samson did something wrong, but that can also contribute to the achieving of God's intention with regard to the Philistines.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.138.

We all have our shortcomings. God used Samson's shortcomings to His own purpose to save the Israelites. He can also use your shortcomings to His own purpose and to glorify His name.

The question is: Are you willing to be used by God?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to know and experience that you can use our shortcomings to your own purpose and to glorify your Name. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you know your shortcomings? Do you aware God uses your shortcomings to His own purposes?

2. Are you willing to be used by God even you know you have so many shortcomings?

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 126:4-6

Ezekiel 42:1-43:27

James 5:1- 20

Proverbs 28:6-7

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

Today's Golden Verse