OT DAY 445 - You Need to Have Good Friends (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

         You have put more joy in my heart

            than they have when their grain and wine abound.
         In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
               for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.

                                     Psalm 4:7-8

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 20:1-42)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=撒+母+耳+記+上+20&version=ESV

       

        12 And Jonathan said to David, “The Lord, the God of Israel, be witness! When I have sounded out my father, about this time tomorrow, or the third day, behold, if he is well disposed toward David, shall I not then send and disclose it to you?13 But should it please my father to do you harm, the Lord do so to Jonathan and more also if I do not disclose it to you and send you away, that you may go in safety. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father. 14 If I am still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die; 15 and do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth.” 16 And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David, saying, “May the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies.” 17 And Jonathan made David swear again by his love for him,for he loved him as he loved his own soul.
            1   Samuel 20: 12-17

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 have real good friends that you can trust and enjoy being together?How do you comment on the friendship of David and Jonathan? 

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 

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

           Its framework for describing the relationship between them is friendship and mutual commitment, though this mutuality doesn't mean the relationship meant the same to both men. The relationship's energy comes from Jonathan. He "loves" David, cares about him, is loyal to him rather than to his father, cares about him as much as he cares about himself. He bound himself to David. It was his care and loyalty that led to the making of a covenant between them. 

         

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.95.

           So, what would happen to David if he did not have Jonathan as his good friend? I think David would have died.

           Jesus reminds me of an important golden verse in the Bible:

                A iron sharpens iron,

                   so one man sharpens another.    Proverbs 27:17

           May be today is the time for you to pray to God asking Him to send you some real good friends so that you can support each others in your spiritual journey. And, pray that you can cherish that friendship because the Devil always wants to destroy that kind of support so that we become lonely and isolated!

    Dear Lord Jesus,

    Open my eyes to see those people you prepare for me as my good friends and for me to cherish their friendship so that I won't be isolated and feel lonely by the Devil's cunning scheme.  In Jesus name I pray. Amen. 

Reflect on these questions:

    1. Do you have good friends to walk along your spiritual journey? If you don't, why?

2. Do you know the significance of having good friends to walk with you? What's your next step to build up such relationship?

    3. What have you got from Jesus today?

 Praise and Thanksgiving

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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