OT DAY 500 - Good Or Evil, Right Or Wrong, Choose Wisely (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 prepare a table before me
          in the presence of my enemies;
          you anoint my head with oil;
          my cup overflows.

       Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

          all the days of my life,
          and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord
          forever.

                                     Psalm 23:5-6

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 Kings 14:21-15:24)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=列 王 紀 上 14&version=CUV

21 Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite. 22 And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. 23 For they also built for themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 24 and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations that the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.26 He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house. He took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold that Solomon had made, 

Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. 2 He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. 3 And he walked in all the sins that his father did before him, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father.4 Nevertheless, for David's sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him, and establishing Jerusalem,

9 In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah, 10 and he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. 11 And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as David his father had done. 12 He put away the male cult prostitutes out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. 13 He also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother because she had made an abominable image for Asherah. And Asa cut down her image and burned it at the brook Kidron. 14 But the high places were not taken away. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was wholly true to the Lord all his days. 15 And he brought into the house of the Lord the sacred gifts of his father and his own sacred gifts, silver, and gold, and vessels.

16 And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. 17 Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah and built Ramah, that he might permit no one to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. 18 Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house and gave them into the hands of his servants. And King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus, saying, 19 “Let there be a covenant between me and you, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I am sending to you a present of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel, that he may withdraw from me.” 20 And Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel and conquered Ijon,Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. 21 And when Baasha heard of it, he stopped building Ramah, and he lived in Tirzah. 22 Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah, none was exempt, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber, with which Baasha had been building, and with them King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah. 23 Now the rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in his old age he was diseased in his feet. 

                                         1 Kings 14:21-26; 15:1-4, 9-23

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

          Today's passage shows a straight forward example of those who did evil in the eyes of the Lord and those who was right in the eyes of the Lord.   

    Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 

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

       Old Testament judgments are uniformly negative about the kings of Ephraim because the very existence of the nation depended on its setting up for itself an unorthodox form of worship…

            The judgments on the kings of Judah are more mixed than those on the kings of Ephraim. One complication here is that in later times it became customary to view the high places as inherently unorthodox, but in the time of a faithful king such as Asa, they could be places where proper worship was offered to Yahweh.  

         

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Kings for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.72.

          Do you think that life is really so simple? If you worship God and do what is good in His eyes and you would lead a fruitful and blessed life. If you worship other gods which means do what is evil in His eyes and you would lead a miserable and hopeless life. 

          Jesus reminds me now one of my most favourite golden verse:
            Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
             who walks in his ways!        Psalm 128:1

        Actually it is really that simple as you can see in the life of Abraham, Moses, Joshua and all those who are faithful to God. It is our human sinfulness makes things so complicated and pulling us away from God and from His Word!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Open our eyes to see the difference between those who do evil in your eyes and those who do good in your eyes so that we belong to those who fear you and walk in your ways. In Jesus Name I pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:

     1. What have your learned from the different results of those three kings? 

2. Do you think you can choose wisely? 

    3. What have you got from Jesus today?

10,000 Reasons

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

四十天的"破. 立"靈修:

http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

如果你有 Android cel. 請按此處上載程式,可直接一按收聽最近之十次廣播:

Discipler123: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.rec.app

破.立 Break.Build: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ideal.bb.app

歡迎你使用三年三個月讀完新舊約聖經blog: 

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    Last week Michelle and I was in Toronto to do ministry for Toronto Emmanuel Church and Vintage Garden. Please see these wonderful pictures of the Sunday service of TEC and our new sales centre of Vintage Garden for the Second Phase: