Monday, September 19, 2016

OT DAY 538 - Admit Your "Leprosy" So That You Can See God Act (Please click here for English podcast)

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.   Open your heart to praise the Lord

       Love the Lord, all you his saints!
    The Lord preserves the faithful
    but abundantly repays the one who acts in pride.
        Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
    all you who wait for the Lord!
        
                                     Psalm 31:23-24 

Confession and Repentance (Subjective Shifting Devotion Method http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html)

1.  Pray for the Holy Spirit to work in you:

     “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. 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 sin 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 gift to love God and His people. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen."

The Word (2 Kings 7:1-20)


But Elisha said, “Hear the word of the Lord: thus says the LordTomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria.” Then the captain on whose hand the king leaned said to the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” But he said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.”
Now there were four men who were lepers at the entrance to the gate. And they said to one another, “Why are we sitting here until we die? If we say, ‘Let us enter the city,’ the famine is in the city, and we shall die there. And if we sit here, we die also. So now come, let us go over to the camp of the Syrians. If they spare our lives we shall live, and if they kill us we shall but die.” So they arose at twilight to go to the camp of the Syrians. But when they came to the edge of the camp of the Syrians, behold, there was no one there. For the Lord had made the army of the Syrians hear the sound of chariots and of horses, the sound of a great army, so that they said to one another, “Behold, the king of Israel has hired against us the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Egypt to come against us.” So they fled away in the twilight and abandoned their tents, their horses, and their donkeys, leaving the camp as it was, and fled for their lives. And when these lepers came to the edge of the camp, they went into a tent and ate and drank, and they carried off silver and gold and clothing and went and hid them. Then they came back and entered another tent and carried off things from it and went and hid them.
Then they said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news. If we are silent and wait until the morning light, punishment will overtake us. Now therefore come; let us go and tell the king's household.” 10 So they came and called to the gatekeepers of the city and told them, “We came to the camp of the Syrians, and behold, there was no one to be seen or heard there, nothing but the horses tied and the donkeys tied and the tents as they were.” 11 Then the gatekeepers called out, and it was told within the king's household. 12 And the king rose in the night and said to his servants, “I will tell you what the Syrians have done to us. They know that we are hungry. Therefore they have gone out of the camp to hide themselves in the open country, thinking, ‘When they come out of the city, we shall take them alive and get into the city.’” 13 And one of his servants said, “Let some men take five of the remaining horses, seeing that those who are left here will fare like the whole multitude of Israel who have already perished. Let us send and see.” 14 So they took two horsemen, and the king sent them after the army of the Syrians, saying, “Go and see.” 15 So they went after them as far as the Jordan, and behold, all the way was littered with garments and equipment that the Syrians had thrown away in their haste. And the messengers returned and told the king.
16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Syrians. So a seah of fine flour was sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, according to the word of the Lord. 17 Now the king had appointed the captain on whose hand he leaned to have charge of the gate. And the people trampled him in the gate, so that he died, as the man of God had said when the king came down to him. 18 For when the man of God had said to the king, “Two seahs of barley shall be sold for a shekel, and a seah of fine flour for a shekel, about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria,” 19 the captain had answered the man of God, “If the Lord himself should make windows in heaven, could such a thing be?” And he had said, “You shall see it with your own eyes, but you shall not eat of it.” 20 And so it happened to him, for the people trampled him in the gate and he died.
                             2 Kings 7:1-20

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 up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe"

    My Listening

          I have to read the whole passage today in order that you can be able to know how great God is. Elisha who has faith in God knows God is going to act. The general who does not believe in what Elisha says is not able to see how great God is because he died. The four lepers are the only four people who can be able to see how great God is. Wow! Do you know what God wants to tell you? 
           
     Let's see how Professor John Goldingay tells us: 
     (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Goldingay) : 
              Perhaps the four lepers are in temporary quarantine like Miriam. Perhaps the community has assumed that their affliction has come about because of their sin, like Miriam. Perhaps putting them in quarantine is one of the ways the community is avoiding anything that might displease God in order to open up the possibility of God's coming to act on its behalf. It is then neat that the people in quarantine are the people who discover what God has done. Conversely the man who can't believe that God is going to act on the city's behalf loses the chance to share in its results.
   
John Goldingay. 1 and 2 Kings for Everyone. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011, p.132.


       What I have got from Jesus today is that we got to admit of our "leprosy" in order that we are able to see what God wants to show us. Lots of time we think that we are OK, we have our own pride, our own stubbornness, our own self-centredness and our own blindness. Do you agree?

       That's why we are not able to see God's act and not able to experience God's act. We use our own wisdom, our own strategy, our own way to act, so God might say, "OK. You want to do it. You do it yourself."

       We really need to admit our own "leprosy" so that we can see how great God is when He acts! 

       Again, that's how "Be still" in Psalm 46 really means. We have to let go, we won't quit and we can experience how great God is and what happen when God act! 

    Dear Lord Jesus,
    Help us to admit our own "leprosy" so that we can experience how great you are and can see you act. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
    
Reflect on these questions:
   1. Do you agree that lots of time you have done too much in your ways so that you are not able to see God act?

2. How can you admit your pride, your own weakness and your "leprosy" so that you can see God act?

    3. What have you got from Jesus today?

10,000 Reasons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E


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