Day: December 3, 2017

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Praying thro Joel (Dec 3)

Coming Hope for Israel
(Prayer Walk thro Joel)

Backgrounder: Addressing hearts
that have grown cold to the things
of God, Joel confronts the people
of Judah. He reminds them of
the recent destruction brought
by a plague of locusts. Yet that
disaster, a judgment in itself, will
seem pale beside the catastrophe
still to come. Unless the nation
repents, it will be destroyed
by an army from the north.
The only hope of escape is for
the people to repent. If they do,
then God will divert judgment
and will deliver an unparalleled
blessing – judgment on all Judah’s
enemies and the matchless
gift of peace to Zion !!

Dear Lord, You are in control, with
justice & restoration in your hands.
Thank You for your gracious
patience and that you want to
bless us rather than discipline us.
We purpose to be Faithful to You
by Repenting when we sin and
Aligning ourselves to your
thoughts and your ways. Amen.
Continue reading “Praying thro Joel (Dec 3)”

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Biblical Exposition Explained

Dear Friends,
Man’s key problems are that of
Unbelief & Rebellion against God.
And the Grand Theme of the Bible
is that the solution is to Trust God
& accept Christ as Lord & Saviour.
We have been systematically
meditating through the bible to
see and appreciate how the Mega
Theme develops thro each book.
We Alternate between OT & NT
to add variety & more importantly
to remind ourselves that the
central theme is all about Christ.

The Bible is a collection of books
sorted according to categories
(Laws, History, Poetry, Prophets..)
and therefore not chronological.
And readers may be somewhat
unclear of the context, especially
when they come to 1 & 2 Kings,
1 & 2 Chronicles as well as the
major & minor prophetic books.

To help PrayerThots viewers have
a better understanding of the
context of each Biblical book,
we have been covering the Bible
by Time sequence, phase by phase.
It also deepens our insight on the
development of the mega themes.
For instance, we cover 1 Chronicles
which occur earlier ahead of Kings.
And we group Job after Laws,
Psalms after 1 Chronicles,
wisdom poetry after 2 Chronicles,
and Obadiah & Joel after 1 Kings.

So, we covered the 5 books of
Laws to appreciate the plan of God
and the poetry book of Job (which
occurs in the time of Genesis) to
understand the sovereignty of God.

We then meditated on the six
historical books up to King David
(the high point of Israel history) and
the poetry book of Psalms where
we learn to pray and praise God.

We then go on to the next phase
of the reign of King Solomon
in 2 Chronicles as well as cover
the wisdom poetry in Proverbs,
Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes.

We continued to I Kings, where
King Solomon’s life & construction
of temple is recorded in first half.
But Solomon’s zeal for God cools
as pagan wives turn his heart away
from godly worship. He leaves
behind a nation divided physically.
The next century sees the decline
of the two nations, indifferent to
God’s prophets and precepts.
Next, we will cover the two
prophetic books during the times
of I Kings,namely Obadiah & Joel.
Shalom/Chris

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Discipling Devotion Explained

Dear Friends,
The weekday Topical Devotion are
in-depth studies on crucial issues
affecting our relationship with God.
And this section will enable you to
cultivate better Relation with God.
by Knowing God thro His Names,
Praising God thro Hymns,
Adoring God thro Thanksgiving,
Imploring God thro His Promises
& Experiencing God thro Scripture.

First, we must know the Attributes
of God and his nature so that we
can relate appropriately with Him.
For instance, when we know that
God is Holy, we will live our life
in a certain manner that will not
bring dishonour to His name.
And when we really Know God
is Almighty and Loving, we will
learn to Trust Him more, Obey
and carry out His instructions.
And in scripture, we can Know
God’s nature thro His Names.

From Rom 1:20-21, we learn
that God had sown his attributes
through creation, but mankind did
not glorify him nor were thankful.
We Praise God for Who He Is, and
one of the best ways to express
our Praise to God is thro Hymns.
And we can learn to Adore God
deeply through Thanksgiving,
whereby we Thank God for
What He Has Done for us.
When we Thank God deeply,
we develop Gratitude to Him,
which over time grows into Love.
And with love, we will learn to
Obey God and Trust Him more.

In life, we will face challenges,
and instead of trying to face
problems with our own strength,
we can Call upon God, implore or
appeal to him thro His Promises.
Finally, God created mankind to
have close relationship with them.
And God has given us the Holy
Bible to enable us to know Him
better, experience His Presence
and appropriate it to our life.

Friends, let PrayerThots daily
devotion enable you to develop
Closer Relationship with God
through Knowing Him better,
Praising & Thanking Him as well
as Imploring & Experiencing Him.
Shalom/chris