God has chosen you to build His Temple!

  

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

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 144:1-8; Haggai 1:1-2:23; Revelation 11:1-19; Proverbs 30:15-16

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

Key passage:

In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak,[a] the high priest:

2 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

3 Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

5 Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

7 This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. 8 Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. 9 “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. 10 Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. 11 I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine,the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”

12 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.

13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord. 14 So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, 15 on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month.

                              Haggai 1:1-15

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:  God has chosen you to build His Temple!

Haggai is the first of three prophetic books in the Old Testament (Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi) written after many of God's people had returned from exile throughout what was at that time the Persian Empire. King Cyrus of Persia permitted 50,000 exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and its temple.  The former captives returned under the leadership of Zerubbabel as governor and Joshua the high priest.  During the second year of the return (536/535 B.C.), the temple foundation was laid (Ezr 3: 8-10) However, opposition from neighboring peoples, including the Samaritans, brought work on the temple to a halt (Ezr 4: 1-5), 24).  After this, the Jewish people had become spiritually apathetic and neglected the temple project for 16 years.

The book of Haggai is about how God sent the prophets Haggai and Zechariah to encourage his people to resume work on the temple.

The book of Haggai has four main messages. We have the first message yesterday of Haggai's harsh challenge to the former exiles for being preoccupied with their own concerns and let God's house remained in ruins. As a result of Haggai's challenge, they restarted the work on God's temple (1: 12-15).

Now in this last chapter we got the remaining three messages.

The second message is that after a few weeks later, some of the people's opinions regarding the new temple began to have discouragement in the rest of the people. They thought the present efforts at rebuilding were nothing compared to the greatness of the first temple. But Haggai encouraged them that their efforts were a prophetic part of God's larger plans (2: 4-7) and God promised that the glory of this new temple will be greater than the glory of the former temple.  

The third message is that Haggai called the people to lives of holy obedience (2: 10-19) and the fourth message is about a prophecy about Zerubbabel, who represented the royal family line through which the promised Messiah ultimately would come. 

What I received from Jesus today is an invitation to build or rebuild our physical and spiritual temple. How?

1. Physical temple: we need to be strong and have the team work as God anointed Haggai and Zechariah to give the prophecy and then Zerubbabel and Joshua and the remnant of the people to do the work. They need to be strong and to remove all their fear that they did not have the resources to build the temple.  Because God says, "The silver is mine and the gold is mine".

2. Spiritual temple: They needed to have a renewal of their life that they lives according to God's command.

Are you ready to build His temple?

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us to know that it is you who choose us to build you temple. 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. 

     

     You are welcome to join our Monday to Friday 7am-7:30am(Pacific time (Vancouver)) Worship, Devotion, Prayer

    https://us06web.zoom.us/j/3962567042?pwd=4qqbcGJ2zQl3tlTUvus4Qv6g7byZKy.1&omn=88167363288

Meeting ID: 396 256 7042

Passcode: 12345

     

Please click this link to worship with us - 

Open the eyes of heart

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViBNqNukgzE&list=RDViBNqNukgzE&start_radio=1

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

   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/

       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