19.09.2012 Happy 39 (:

Leviticus 23
List of festivals that the Jews celebrated. 

e.g. Feast of passover, Feast of firstfruits etc...
There were many festivals which the Jews celebrated to thank God for the many blessings that He has place upon their lives. For us, we mainly have Christmas, Easter and Good Friday. However, I feel that thanksgiving should be present every single day in our lives.

Let's try to find something worthy of celebration everyday in our lives. Thank God for His abundant blessings! Today I thank God that He led me into teaching. He is a God who knows all my ways indeed! (:

Numbers 5
Ceremonially unclean person isolated
In the Old Testament, many times when someone became unclean, they have to seperate themselves from the rest of the camp so that they do not come into contact with people who are cermonially clean. This shows how God is particular about purity of the congregation. Even if there is one impure person, it "contaminates" the camp. Let's pray towards having pure hearts and clean minds today.

Confession and Restitution
Concerning unfaithful wives
- Law of jealousy. (Kinda like how the Chinese burn paper and put into the water and drink)

Numbers 6
The Laws of the Nazirite
The Priestly Blessing
God told Moses to tell Aaron and sons how to pray and bless the children of Israel. 

‘This is the way you shall bless the children of Israel. Say to them:24 “The Lord tbless you and tkeep you;25 The Lord tmake His face shine upon you, And tbe gracious to you;26 tThe Lord tlift up His countenance upon you, And tgive you peace.” ’27 t“So they shall tput My name on the children of Israel, and tI will bless them.

Can we pray for people like that? Me like (: 

Reminds me of the show: Jane Eyre
So as the Lord is longsuffering, so shall we be. hahahaha

Victory through the Lord

Joshua 12- List of Defeated Kings
Whoa! Joshua and gang defeated 31 kings in total. This means 31 lands that God has given victory to them. Can you imagine the vastness of the land that is being given to them?

Joshua 13- Land still to be Taken
Haha God so funny. At the start He said to Joshua: "You are very old, but they are still many lands to be taken over." 31 pieces of land is not enough still.

This just reminds me of how God really fulfills His promise to Abraham that He will make him a Father of many nations. (Genesis 12) God showed Abraham the land. God used Joshua to lead the people into the land.

In this chapter, Joshua assigned the land to the Israelites (Which was actually assigned by Moses), except for the Levites cos their inheritance is the food offerings that is presented to God.

Joshua 14
Allotment for Caleb
Wa Joshua and Caleb very old already. Caleb (85 years old) asked for a place. He served God for 45 years. When he was sent out as a apy he was "only" 41 years old. God promised Caleb that He will bless him with a land as he has followed God wholeheartedly. So Joshua blessed Caleb with Hebron

Joshua 15- Allotment for Judah
Got boundary one. I suppose the boundaries are there to protect the people of Judah.

Caleb drove out the 3 Anakites. Then so random, he said he give the daughter Aksah in marriage to his brother Othniel.

Judah could not drive out the Jebusites. To this day, the Jebusites lived with the people of Judah.

I don't wanna be a judge

Isaiah 26:9 and 11

9 All night long I search for you;
in the morning I earnestly seek for God.
For only when you come to judge the earth
will people learn what is right.

11 O Lord, they pay no attention to your upraised fist.
Show them your eagerness to defend your people.
Then they will be ashamed.
Let your fire consume your enemies.

These 2 verses spoke to me. I believe God is saying that no matter how many times people try to mock or ridicule our religion or the things we do, I believe that as long as God has put the desire in our hearts, and as long as we do not do it out of selfishness, we will be rewarded richly in heaven. Although by standing firm in our beliefs might cause more retaliation from people, I feel that when judgement day comes, these people will be dealt with accordingly.

And in verse 11, it affirms what was said in verse 9. God, speaking through Isaiah, will defend us. In order for God to EAGERLY defend us, we must first show Him that we are worth fighting for. Therefore, we have to stand firmly when we are speaking up for ourselves or for God. Do not let other beliefs or criticism compromise our faith. :)

Coming back

Isaiah 22:12-13 The Master, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, called out on that Day, Called for a day of repentant tears, called you to dress in somber clothes of mourning. But what do you do? You throw a party! Eating and drinking and dancing in the streets! You barbecue bulls and sheep, and throw a huge feast— slabs of meat, kegs of beer. "Seize the day! Eat and drink! Tomorrow we die!" I remembered you told me that it was depressing reading the book of Isaiah, and indeed! There were so many accounts of visions from Isaiah that God is unleashing His wrath and anger on people! However, amidst all these (it got kind of boring after awhile and it was so hard to follow all the names of the cities and places!), the verse I quote stood out to me. It simply says that God hates sin and hates it even more when we are nonchalant about repenting. The verse says that God wants the people to repent but instead, the people did not care and continued partying, thus, I believed it led to more sinning. It applies so much to us because we look past God when we sin and still sin even after awhile. God is calling us to come back to Him again in humility. That is why I felt strongly to come back to use this blog again for us to build each other up spiritually. :) Let us try to consistently post ok?