Not baptized in heart!

    

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

https://youtu.be/rOuyBXnjvP4?si=gK3S_we4tkkD3VP0

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 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 110:1-7; Jeremiah 8:8-9:26; Colossians 3:1-17; Proverbs 24:27

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

Key passage:

Oh, that my head were a spring of water
    and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
    for the slain of my people.

This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,

but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

"The days are coming," declares the Lord,

"when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh-

Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert 

in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised,

and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart." 

                                         Jeremiah 9:1, 23-26

                     

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.

    

The topic I received today from Jesus is:  Not baptized in heart!

Jeremiah often being called the "weeping prophet" (9:1, 14:17)because of all the tears he shed for people who were so spiritually stubborn and rebellious that they could not even comprehend how much they had defied God. They knew that was the reason why destruction was going to come but they did nothing spiritually to prevent it which means they did not repent at all!

Instead, they boast in worldly knowledge, human ability and earthly riches(v. 23). That's why Jeremiah says they were not baptized in heart. 

So, what does it mean that we are being baptized in heart? 

The answer is in verses 23 to 24. "Boast" means you take that as your best of your life. So, if uncircumcised in heart means the boasting of our wisdom, strength, riches. Then circumcised in heart means verse 24, taking the best of you as your daily intimate personal relationship with God! 

So simple and yet so difficult! 

We don't have to be circumcised but we do have to be baptized. So, "circumcised in heart" means the same as "baptized in heart".

What I heard from Jesus today is a sigh from Him because He knows well that many Christians have not been baptized in heart. 

That's why we spend time and boast everything we treasure like our wisdom, strength, riches and many more but rarely our daily intimate personal relationship with Jesus!

That's what Jeremiah means and that's what I heard from Jesus challenging you today.

Have you been baptized in heart? 

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to make sure whether we have been baptized in heart so that we don't boast in the wrong things. In Jesus Name we 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):

    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

 

 

Connecting Workshop 2025(Session 2)

Bishop Silas Ng on Three Streams

 https://youtu.be/xiSOSFF9Iw0?si=puDWFD9Cx01ADm-o