Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 446 - Critical Time, Critical Method (Please click here for English podcast)

Monday, March 28, 2016

OT DAY 446 - Critical Time, Critical Method (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

Give ear to my words, O Lord;
consider my groaning.

Give attention to the sound of my cry,

my King and my God,
for to you do I pray.

O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice;
in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.

Psalm 5:1-3

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 (1 Samuel 21:1-15)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+21&version=ESV

Then David came to Nob to Ahimelech the priest. And Ahimelech came to meet David trembling and said to him, “Why are you alone, and no one with you?”2 And David said to Ahimelech the priest, “The king has charged me with a matter and said to me, ‘Let no one know anything of the matter about which I send you, and with which I have charged you.’ I have made an appointment with the young men for such and such a place. 3 Now then, what do you have on hand? Give me five loaves of bread, or whatever is here.” 4 And the priest answered David, “I have no common bread on hand, but there is holy bread—if the young men have kept themselves from women.” 5 And David answered the priest, “Truly women have been kept from us as always when I go on an expedition. The vessels of the young men are holy even when it is an ordinary journey. How much more today will their vessels be holy?” 6 So the priest gave him the holy bread, for there was no bread there but the bread of the Presence, which is removed from before the Lord, to be replaced by hot bread on the day it is taken away.

7 Now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that day, detained before the Lord. His name was Doeg the Edomite, the chief of Saul's herdsmen.

8 Then David said to Ahimelech, “Then have you not here a spear or a sword at hand? For I have brought neither my sword nor my weapons with me, because the king's business required haste.” 9 And the priest said, “The sword of Goliath the Philistine, whom you struck down in the Valley of Elah, behold, it is here wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod. If you will take that, take it, for there is none but that here.” And David said, “There is none like that; give it to me.”

10 And David rose and fled that day from Saul and went to Achish the king of Gath.11 And the servants of Achish said to him, “Is not this David the king of the land?Did they not sing to one another of him in dances,

‘Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands’?”

12 And David took these words to heart and was much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them and pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Behold, you see the man is mad. Why then have you brought him to me? 15 Do I lack madmen, that you have brought this fellow to behave as a madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

1 Samuel 21: 1-15

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

People always guard their tradition and way of doing things in a very straight way. Here we have two classical examples David exercised with his wisdom and courage to give us some inspiration and direction.

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us:

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

In the story of David's emergency visit to Ahimelech, where he has to assure the priest that his men have not had sex lately before Ahimelech is willing to let them eat provisions from the sanctuary. His willingness to do so was still irregular. In Mark 2 Jesus refers back to this story as an example of how the Old Testament is not legalistic in the way it treats the Torah, so that there is similarly no need to be legalistic about the Sabbath.

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Samuel for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.95-96.

As critical time came, David lied to the priest so that he was able to eat consecrated bread. I don't think David had any young men with him. He was just hungry and wanted to eat. Also, David acted like a madman to avoid being killed.

Do you have this kind of wisdom to do critical things at critical time?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us close to you each day so that when time comes, we can be abel to hear from you to do critical things at critical time. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

1. Do you have the courage to do what David did if you were in the similar situation?

2. Do you know how can you have such kind of wisdom and courage?

3. What have you got from Jesus today?

Praise and Thanksgiving

10,000 Reasons

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

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