The pride of your heart has deceived you!

  

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E543WjKpRd8

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 139:19-24; Obadiah 1-21; Revelation 4:1-11; Proverbs 29:24-25

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

Key passage:

1 The vision of Obadiah.

This is what the Sovereign Lord says about Edom—

We have heard a message from the Lord:
    An envoy was sent to the nations to say,
“Rise, let us go against her for battle”—

2 “See, I will make you small among the nations;
    you will be utterly despised.
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you,
    you who live in the clefts of the rocks[a]
    and make your home on the heights,
you who say to yourself,
    ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’
4 Though you soar like the eagle
    and make your nest among the stars,
    from there I will bring you down,”
declares the Lord.

                                                  Obadiah 1-4

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:  The pride of your heart has deceived you!

Obadiah was a prophet to Judah who prophesied about God's judgment against Edom. The purpose of this book is to reveal God's intense anger at Edom for their arrogant joy over Judah's suffering and to deliver the message of God's coming judgment against Edom. Obediah speaks of the end result of God's dealings with these two nations: for the Edomites - total destruction; for God's people Israel - rescue and liberation on "the day of the Lord".

Most scholars believe that Obadiah's prophecy related to the invasion by the Philistines and Arabs during the reign of Jehoram 848B.C. - 841 B.C. (2 Ch 21:16-17) or by the Babylonians during the years 605 - 586 B.C.. Jerusalem's destruction by Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar seems the less likely of the two, since there is no hint of the complete destruction that resulted from that invasion or of the deportation of Jews into exile throughout the Babylonian Empire.  For this reason, the occasion for Obadiah's prophecy is more like the first one, when the Philistines and Arabs forcefully looted the city.

The Edomite's pride stemmed from the fact that they lived in a rocky range of mountains, which caused them to believe they were totally secure and invincible.  They were proud of their self-sufficiency and power; yet God would bring them down.  In 582 B.C., four years after the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, the Edomite people were nearly destroyed as well and were forced by the Babylonians to live in southern Judah.  In A.D. 70, after Jerusalem's destruction by Rome, the Edomites were never heard of again.

What I received from Jesus today is to see the deadly result of pride as a serious sin.

The Bible teaches that pride and arrogance lead to self-deception.  It also warns that pride goes before a fall (v.4; Pr 16:18), and that it causes a person to become God's enemy(v.8; Jas 4:6; 1 Pe 5:5). 

The worst thing is that when we are being controlled by our own pride we would not know it because our eyes would be blinded and we would be stubborn and stiff-necked.

Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Only more and more close to Jesus can we get rid from being controlled by pride. No other way!

Dear Lord Jesus,

Help us not to be controlled by our own pride but to follow you more closely to become more gentle and humble.  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