** This year I'll use "Break. Build: 40 days daily devotion blog/podcast" 40 days before Easter Sunday to help us to experience dying and rising with Jesus during Lent through His Sermon on the Mount.
"Time with Abba, depression out" daily devotion blog/podcast with be resum the day after Easter Sunday.
Silence
1. Put on your “brakes” and stop for a moment of silence
2. Wait for God. Breathe deep for God's peace. 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 people3. Open your heart to praise the Lord
But let all who take refuge in you rejoice;
let them ever sing for joy,
and spread your protection over them,
that those who love your name may exult in you.
Psalm 5:11
Confession and repentance
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.”
“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."
"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."
Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
Matthew 3:13-17
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through this passage of scripture we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, (while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe")
My Listening
With our willingness to follow the good example of John's lifestyle, God is going to give us a new role. With Jesus' baptism, this new role is being revealed.
Bishop N.T. Wright says (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright):
Those who in repentance and faith follow Jesus through baptism and along the road he will now lead us will find, if we listen, that the same voice from heaven speaks to us as well. As we learn to put aside our own plans and submit to his, we may be granted moments of vision, glimpses of his greater reality. And at the centre of that sudden sight we will find our loving father, affirming us as his children, equipping us, too, with his spirit so that our lives may be swept clean and made ready for use.
N.T. Wright. Matthew for Everyone, Part 1. Louisville,KY:Westminster
John Knox Press, 2004, p.22.
Have you entered into this loving intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father? He calls each of us his beloved son and daughter. Are you in the process of being equipped by the Father to follow Jesus' lead each day to accomplish God's saving plan?
Jesus says in his Great Commission:
What Jesus commanded us and His apostles was what He did in his three years of ministry, making disciples, baptizing, and teaching them. That was his role and He did it well.
The Great Commission was Jesus' last words in Matthew. He is telling you and me that what we need to do is to follow what He did. That is so simple, right?
It is tempting to write off the Great Commission as an impossible job. Yes, it is challenging, time consuming, and seems beyond our ability. This is precisely why it is not according to our own ability but according to Jesus's authority and work in us to accomplish this God-sized plan. Let me repeat this: the authority has been given to Jesus Christ, not us. Whenever we are willing to let Jesus lead us as our Lord and King, we can exercise that authority and make disciples.
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to enter into this new role today so that we can follow you to accomplish God's saving plan. In Jesus Name we pray. Amen.
Reflect on these questions:
1. Baptism leads us to become God's beloved sons and daughters. As Jesus' disciples following Him to lead people to become His disciples, have you live out this role recently? If YES, how good have you been doing that? If NO, why?
2. Have you entered into an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father? How do you know you are in this kind of relationship?
Family Corner:
1. In your family, is there an effective lifestyle of disciples training? How is that working out? If not, what is the struggle?
2. Husbands and wives, how can you help each other to be more closer to Jesus?
3. Parents, how can you help your children to meet with Jesus and to know how true Jesus really is? (eg. Family prayer, reading of Bible stories, share each weeks experience, help neighbours together ...)
Praise and Thanksgiving
Let's give thanks for God with us. Let us praise Him:10,000 Reasons
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