Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 386 - The Only One Act of Faith for Samson: Pray (Please click here for English podcast)

Saturday, November 28, 2015

OT DAY 386 - The Only One Act of Faith for Samson: Pray (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

All the kings of the earth shall give you thanks, O Lord,
for they have heard the words of your mouth,

and they shall sing of the ways of the Lord,
for great is the glory of the Lord.

Psalm 138 :3-4

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 16:22-31)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Judges 16&version=ESV

28 Then Samson called to the Lord and said, “O Lord God, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.” 29 And Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the house rested, and he leaned his weight against them, his right hand on the one and his left hand on the other. 30 And Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines.” Then he bowed with all his strength, and the house fell upon the lords and upon all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he had killed during his life. Judges 16:28-30

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 few days we have read how Samson falls into seven traps that leads to his death. Today we read the one and only one act of faith which gives him to be able to fulfill his vocation at the last moment.

His parents pray but we can't see him pray until today's passage. This is the only time he prayed.

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us:

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

In Dagon's sanctuary, Samson is praying to Yahweh. You might think it's not much of a prayer, but then God isn't always too concern about how proper our prayers are. Judges doesn't even actually say that God answered his prayer; you could wonder if he brought the sanctuary down by his own strength. But I would have thought that the story's comment on how many Philistines he disposed of at the cost of his own life implied that he was at this last moment fulfilling his vocation to deliver Israel from the Philistines.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.144.

Do you know the power of prayers? How often do you pray?
What if Samson is a man of prayers, do you think he would still fall into that seven traps? I don't know the answer but I know if you know how to pray and really pray you would be a different person!

Don't pray until the very last moment like Samson!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Teach us to pray and lead us to pray as often as we can daily. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. What have you learned about prayer today? How often do you pray each day? How intimate with Jesus when you pray?

2. How can you pray more?

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 132:1-5

Daniel 5:1-31

2 Peter 2:1- 22

Proverbs 28:19-20

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