Do not insist on your own way, choose His Way and live!

   

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

https://youtu.be/xf0QWdVrm4o?si=oy8h2CFDVWPt6VDf

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) 

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 read 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."

Today's Time with Abba:  Psalm  49:1-13; Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20; Luke 11:37- 12:7; Proverbs 12:19-20

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

Key passages: 

     When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, "I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way. " This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The Lord will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.            Deuteronomy 29: 19-21


This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life ...              Deuteronomy 30: 19-20


       Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passages we have just read. Offer this time to Jesus as you listen to Him.    

     The topic I received today from Jesus is: Do not insist on your own way, choose His Way and live!

      In the process of the renewal of the Covenant with His people (after 40 years of wandering in the desert), God shows us how hard a human heart can be. I have started to understand more these few years of how sad the Lord can be when we experienced His love in many ways and yet we like to insist on our own way! "We do not have a mind to understand or eyes that see or ears that hear." (Deuteronomy 29: 4)


I am starting to be willing to give more time, love, patience, understanding to more people and not to insist on my own way but always God's way. It is not easy to discern what is God's way!

Then Deuteronomy 30:19-20 tells us Moses important last words to his people. This is one of my most favourite chapters in the Bible. Every time I read this chapter, I can see the old, 120 years old dying Moses standing on top of the mountain using all he had received, saying, "Listen and obey; then you live and be blessed. Insist on your own way; then you will be cursed and die. Choose life! Choose life!! Choose life!!!" 

Everybody would like and love to choose life and to live, but how many really make the right choice?!


Dear Lord Jesus,
Help us to choose your way so that we can live.  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. 

    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):
     
     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) 

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

 

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