To Be Holy Needs Total Obedience

 Please click this link for the video version of today's blog :

 https://youtu.be/OpH8Aj4Q-zA?si=hdduC42tdPWZJKMa

 Key passages: 

      "You are to be my holy people. So do not ..." Exodus 22:31

       “For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what is left. Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed.  Exodus 23:10-12

      

The topic I received today from Jesus is: To Be Holy Needs Total Obedience

God wants us to be holy like He is. But to be holy is not easy for we do not know what is holy, just like a soldier does not know what is total obedience until his captain order him to charge in spite of heavy artillery and machine-guns fire. Because only the captain or the general or the Supreme Commander knows the whole picture. 

We like to ask "why", but to be God's holy people, we need to learn saying "Yes Sir".

Now, among all those complicated rules starting from Exodus 20,  keep the Sabbath is the one the Jews are still obeying. No work on Sabbath, that is from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday. No work on Sabbath, including all floors in the elevators of condos are on during Sabbath because pressing the button of a floor consider as working! Not only condos in Israel but all over the world for condos run by Israelites, I was in one of the condos in Toronto like that. 

Well, we like to work and work and work but God commanded us to rest. Even the land needs rest after six years and God commanded them to let the land lie unplowed and usused. According to quite a number of commentaries, they didn't listen and Israelites suffered a lot because of that.

Many Christians and leaders suffer a lot because we work and work and work and have no rest or not enough rest on Sunday. Christians transfer Sabbath to Sunday as the day to celebrate Jesus' resurrection, the first day of a week and not Saturday, the seventh day of a week. 

Nowadays, quite a number of Christians do not keep Sunday as the day to rest and go to church to worship because of lots of reasons, children have to go to learn swimming, ice hockey, basketball, adults have to go for entertainment and more needs, and some have to go to work, sometimes seven days a week!

How about you? Have you been working too hard lately? How are the words of our Lord giving challenges to you so that you have a renewed way to listen to Him to rest in His own way?

      Dear Lord Jesus,                                                                                                                                           We need to be holy. Help us to be able to say "Yes Sir" even in those situations which we do not understand. And, lead us to get away from the lifestyle of a workaholic and know how to have rest according to your holy laws. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

Reflect on these questions:     

1. What inspiration have you received from today's catch and what have you heard from Jesus now?

      

    2.  What is your next step to be more closer to Jesus, to be holy - that is to do what Jesus wants you to do and not to do what Jesus wants you not to do?

    

    Family Corner:

   Find an opportunity to share with your family the importance of today's message. 

    

    Time with Abba (Psalm 20:1-9, Exodus 21:22-23:13; Matthew 24:1-28; Proverbs 7:6-23)

    Please click this link for today's Time with Abba one year Bible four passages: http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

     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 to Jesus as you listen to Him.    

   For the Chinese version of this daily blog and video, please click this link (中文版請按此連結):

    https://timewithabbaprayinglisteningchinese.blogspot.com

     

     To know, learn and practice the method of Time with Abba, please click this link:http://twa.pastoralcareschool.org/

     If you would like to follow my "Subject shifting Devotion Method" from the "Time with Abba, Praising Singing", you are welcome to follow the direction below and then go back to the top of this blog to read today's key passage and my listening and sharing:

        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.   Sing a song to praise the Lord

      

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method) 

https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to shine on you that you are able to discover your sins and be willing to repent:

     “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 and having Jesus as my Lord. 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 sins 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 gifts to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

3.  John Stott's daily prayer of Christlikeness (Christopher J.H. Wright, Cultivating the fruit of the Spirit. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2017, 13)

(Please click this link to see how God used John Stott to change my life:https://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/

           "Heavenly Father, I pray that this day I may live in your presence and please you more and more.

             Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

             Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

 My first blog "Devotion on Fire"  was written in English only  (July 17, 2009年7月17日至November 22, 2012年11月22日). Each day one chapter of Bible, from New Testament and then Old Testament. Completed in four months and three years:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/blessings-from-rev-dr-john-stott.html

My second blog "Discipler 123"  was written in both Chinese and English (March 6,2011to December 31, 2016 ):

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2011/02/day-1-choose-light-away-from-darkness.html

and "Time with Abba" blog and video (January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2024): 

https://discipler123.blogspot.com/2017/01/1-2017.html