Time with Abba, Singing Praising 親親爸父，唱詩歌頌 : OT DAY 546 - Life Not Holy, Not Trusting God, Cannot Finish Well (Please click here for English podcast)

Sunday, October 9, 2016

OT DAY 546 - Life Not Holy, Not Trusting God, Cannot Finish Well (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

I will bless the Lord at all times;
his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psalm 34:1

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 (2 Kings 12:1-3, 17-21)

English(ESV): https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=列+王+紀+下+12&version=ESV

In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash[a] began to reign, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zibiah of Beersheba. 2 And Jehoash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all his days, because Jehoiada the priest instructed him. 3 Nevertheless, the high places were not taken away; the people continued to sacrifice and make offerings on the high places.

17 At that time Hazael king of Syria went up and fought against Gath and took it. But when Hazael set his face to go up against Jerusalem, 18 Jehoash king of Judah took all the sacred gifts that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah his fathers, the kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own sacred gifts, and all the gold that was found in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and of the king's house, and sent these to Hazael king of Syria. Then Hazael went away from Jerusalem.
19 Now the rest of the acts of Joash and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 20 His servants arose and made a conspiracy and struck down Joash in the house of Millo, on the way that goes down to Silla. 21 It was Jozacar the son of Shimeath and Jehozabad the son ofShomer, his servants, who struck him down, so that he died. And they buried him with his fathers in the city of David, and Amaziah his son reigned in his place.

2 Kings 12:1-3, 17-21

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

How important it is for us to have a good mentor. The Bible says it very clear that "Joash did what was right in the eyes of the Lord all the years Jehoiada the priest instructed him." But, the Bible also says he had not removed the high places which means he still allowed his people to burn offerings to other gods, they were not holy in God.

Then, when Hazael king of Aram went up to attack them King Joash gave all the sacred objects of the temple to king Hazael. And then he was killed by his own staff. What does that mean?

Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us:

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

Joash was just a boy when put on the throne by Jehoiada and his associates, and this makes it natural to mention the way Jehoiada would have continued to act as the young king's mentor as he grew up…
So what a fine, wise guy Joash is! Then things fall apart. First, Hazael takes action to extend his sphere of influence, perhaps especially for trade reasons, in a way that threatens Judah and Jerusalem. That leads Joash to buy him off in a way that reverses the kind of commitment to the temple on which the chapter has focused, though the story does not actually say that he acted wrongly in doing so. And eventually he loses his life to a conspiracy among his own staff.

John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Kings for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.150-151.

So, if you had good mentors to follow and you will be well. But, if your mentors cannot lead you to spiritual maturity and once they are no more and you have not been leading a holy life, you might fall into king Joash's similar sins of not trusting God but live in fear and make wrong decisions. And, you might die because of that lose of trust to God!

Do you want to finish well?

Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to be able to find good mentors so that we can grow in Christlikeness and that we can finish well. Amen.