OT DAY 421 - You Have to Take God Really Seriously (Please click here for English podcast)

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

       Great is our Lord, and abundant in power;
          his understanding is beyond measure.

                    Psalm 147:5

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 (1 Samuel 5:13-7:1)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+5&version=ESV

19 And he struck some of the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord. He struck seventy men of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow. 20 Then the men of Beth-shemesh said, “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?”21 So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, “The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.”

                                 1   Samuel 6: 19-21

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

        God punished the Philistines severely because they took the ark of the Lord. Now in today's passage, the Philistines returned the ark, and God punished the Israelites even more. Why? 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 

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

    

      The people of Beth-shemesh react with words that are very appropriate: "Who can stand before Yahweh, this holy God?" They use the word "holy" in the proper Old Testament way; it suggests the awesome transcendence of God, which means you have to take God really seriously. They have found, as the New Testament puts it, that "our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). But though their words are appropriate, they don't know where to go next with their awareness. They just want to get rid of the ark. 

          

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.39-40.

      Do you know that our God is a consuming fire? Have you experienced God is a consuming fire? If you do not know or have not experienced God as a consuming fire, I think this is the time for you to take God really seriously.

Dear Lord Jesus, 

    Help us to understand that you are a consuming fire and that we have to take you really seriously. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you know that our God is a consuming fire? Have you experienced God is a consuming fire?

2. What have you learned from today's passage of who God is? 

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Today's Time with Abba daily reading:

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

Today's photo of our daily 6:30a.m. Copying Bible session

Today's photos of our daily 8a.m.  Meeting

Praise and Thanksgiving

Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:
10,000 Reasons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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.:

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You may choose to follow my other daily blog:

Daily Devotion on Fire: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

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