07172020 Devotion

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rxcQl8niXu0

Good morning brothers and sisters, this is Alice from HarvestLA. Today is Friday, July 17th, 2020. I welcome you to join our daily devotion on Psalm 149.
Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and we love You, please prepare our hearts to worship You, in Jesus's name we pray Amen!

Let's sing today's bible verses. Just kidding. Psalm 149
1 Praise the Lord. Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of his faithful people. 
2 Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. 
3 Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with timbrel and harp. 
4 For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with victory. 
5 Let his faithful people rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds. 
6 May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands, 
7 to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples, 
8 to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron, 
9 to carry out the sentence written against them— this is the glory of all his faithful people. Praise the Lord.

Psalms are composed of sacred songs or poems meant to be sung. How I wish that I was able to sing it for you! But I am not a musical person.
In Psalm149 it begins and ends with "praise the Lord". We need to praise the Lord from beginning to the end of our days and lives with a new song. Why? Does God's mercy only appear in the morning, noon or evening? Does God's mercy only found when we are success not failure? Our God is an everlasting God. His Love never fails or disappear! His mercies are new every day. From day one when we wake up till go to bed/death bed. God wants us to praise Him with not only with our mouths or words. He wants us to praise Him with all our minds, hearts and souls in new songs and dancing altogether. Everyone, including the kings, nobles, presidents, leaders and anyone in between shall praise Him.

Sometimes praise is not easy. When your life is perfect you may forget all about God. When you are in deep trouble you may too tired or too sad to remember Him. I remembered years ago when my life was torn apart the only thing that I knew what to do was cry. Before I sent my older child to school, I hid in the closet and sobbed. After my older son was at school, I came home and hid myself in the closet again and cried some more. It is okay to have emotions; sadness, anger, fear, loneliness, depression etc. Turn to God for help. In Psalm 40:1-3 1 I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. 3 He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. 
We all need someone to cling on for any circumstances. Someone who will never walk away or be too busy to care about our needs at any time. And we need to get ourselves not just physically or psychologically healthy, but most importantly spiritually ready. For there are temptations, troubles and the battles of any kind in our daily lives.


Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and we love You, thank You for fighting for me when I lost the strength, Holy Spirit please fill our hearts, let our hearts hunger for Your love, let our ears hear Your words, let our eyes witness Your miracles, in Jesus's name we pray Amen! Have a blessed day! And don't forget to join our Saturday and Sunday services and the daily devotions Monday through Friday online. Bye!

06172020 Devotion

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2SbmS99dG0

Good morning brothers and sisters, this is Alice from HarvestLA. Today is Wednesday, June 17th, 2020. We are going to study God's words of Deuteronomy today. 

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and we love You, please help us know You more and listen to You, in Jesus's name we pray Amen!

Let's read today's bible verses. Deuteronomy 31:30-32:14 The Song of Moses 30 And Moses recited the words of this song from beginning to end in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel: 32 Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth. 2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. 3 I will proclaim the name of the Lord. Oh, praise the greatness of our God! 4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. 5 They are corrupt and not his children; to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation. 6 Is this the way you repay the Lord, you foolish and unwise people? Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? 7 Remember the days of old; consider the generations long past. Ask your father and he will tell you, your elders, and they will explain to you. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. 9 For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance. 10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them aloft. 12 The Lord alone led him; no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him with the fruit of the fields. He nourished him with honey from the rock, and with oil from the flinty crag, 14 with curds and milk from herd and flock and with fattened lambs and goats, with choice rams of Bashan and the finest kernels of wheat. You drank the foaming blood of the grape.

The book of Deuteronomy is a retelling of God's Law, how God rescued Israel from Egypt, the relationship with them. And in the song of Moses, is actually the last day of his life, God told him to pass on the baton to the next generation's leader Joshua for Israelites. Again, it repeats once more how God's Grace has been present from the beginning. Informs them about the consequences if they turn their face away from God. God is almighty, He can make things right just like so, yet He gives them free will. They are like rebellious children, walking away from God's Mercy! How foolish and unwise that they didn't choose life over death and the blessing over the curse. True freedom is choosing not to do the things that you shouldn't do! In Hebrews 12:11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

Recalling my life before knowing Jesus, I rely on myself for everything. I never thought I should depends on any gods. Even after I baptised I ran away from God when everything and my life seemed perfect. I alone is good enough, I thought. I lost the faith, I lost the identity as God's child. But when I returned to Him, He forgave me. God has never given up on us even we sinned. 

Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we praise You and we love You, thank You for Your faithfulness and unfailing love, in Jesus's name we pray Amen! Until next time, bye!