Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 402 - Coincidences Prepared by God (Please click here for English podcast)

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

OT DAY 402 - Coincidences Prepared by God (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 will sing a new song to you, O God;
upon a ten-stringed harp I will play to you,

who gives victory to kings,

who rescues David his servant from the cruel sword.

Psalm 144:9-10

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 (Ruth 4:1-10)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ruth 4&version=ESV

Now Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And behold, the redeemer, of whom Boaz had spoken, came by. So Boaz said, “Turn aside, friend; sit down here.” And he turned aside and sat down. 2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down here.” So they sat down. 3 Then he said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. 4 So I thought I would tell you of it and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not, tell me, that I may know, for there is no one besides you to redeem it, and I come after you.” And he said, “I will redeem it.” 5 Then Boaz said, “The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance.” 6 Then the redeemer said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

7 Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, the one drew off his sandal and gave it to the other, and this was the manner of attesting in Israel. 8 So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal. 9 Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and to Mahlon. 10 Also Ruth the Moabite, the widow of Mahlon, I have bought to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead in his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his native place. You are witnesses this day.”

Ruth 4:1-10

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

Do you think the appearance of the kinsman-redeemer was a coincidence? Can you count how many coincidences are there in the book of Ruth?

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us:

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

At the gate Boaz manages to bump into the other kinsman; maybe we are to see another encouraging "coincidence" here as the man's "happening" to show up facilitates Boaz's sorting things out and shortening the period of Naomi's and Ruth's and our anxiety about whether everything will indeed work out okay.

John Goldingay. Joshua, Judges and Ruth for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.182-183.

Just four days ago when we were on Ruth chapter 2 I talked about the importance of coincidences. Let me recapitulate what I said on December 11:

William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury (1881-1944) says, "When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't, they don't."

How can you catch those coincidences happening to you so that God's work be done? How can you not miss those coincidences so that God's preparation won't be wasted by your blindness and carelessness?

How can you become a person of prayers so that God can give you more coincidences?

Yes, that's what I received from Jesus today. May you be more aware of coincidences and to catch those moments to be God's timing and to take action to do God's mighty work!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Open our eyes to see those coincidences prepared by you so that we can take action and do your mighty work. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:
1. Do you have a new understanding of coincidences now? Do you have some coincidences happened lately?

2. How can you catch those coincidences happening to you so that God's work be done? How can you not miss those coincidences so that God's preparation won't be wasted by your blindness and carelessness? How can you become a person of prayers so that God can give you more coincidences?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading:

Psalm 141:1-10

Micah 5:1-7:20

Revelation 7:1-17

Proverbs 30:5-6

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