The Battle Begins

7/31/2011 7:38:56 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                         Focus:  He had faith to challenge others PT-1

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                     Reference:  Nehemiah 2:9-10

                Message of the verses:  “9 ¶  Then I came to the governors of the provinces beyond the River and gave them the king’s letters. Now the king had sent with me officers of the army and horsemen. 10  When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about it, it was very displeasing to them that someone had come to seek the welfare of the sons of Israel.”

                This is more like an introduction to this third main point from Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary, and he calls this first small sub-section “Traveling.”  It covers the verses that are seen above.

                I remember the name Sanballat from the first time that I heard the preaching on this book back in the late 70’s or early 80’s.  A dear man of God, Pastor Ralph Burns, who was the very first Pastor that I had after becoming a believer in 1974 taught through this book in my early days at Grace Baptist Church, Westlake, Ohio.  Pastor Burns went to be with his Lord and Savior early this year and was 91 years old. 

                Now remembering from the book of Ezra when he came to Jerusalem he did not want an escort for he thought that would cause the king to ask him why he could not trust in the Lord for protection on the journey, but Nehemiah, being the new governor of Jerusalem had to take an envoy with him. 

                Throughout this book it will be seen that the enemy of the Jews at this time when Nehemiah was alive would be three that Nehemiah would face.  Sanballat who was from Beth Horan, which is about twelve miles from Jerusalem, would be the main enemy, and then there was Tobiah who was an Ammonite and Geshem who was an Arabian and also went by the name Gashmu as seen in Nehemiah 6:6.

                The Moabites and the Ammonite were great enemies of Israel and they go back to the 19^th chapter of Genesis.  In that chapter we find the destruction of Sodom and Gemariah and the only survivors were Lot and his two daughters.  Lot’s two daughters got him drunk twice and while he was drunk they each slept with their father and the result was the Ammonites and the Moabites.  Now the grace of God can also be seen here, for although they were not allowed to worship in the temple or tabernacle for ten generations as can be seen from Deuteronomy 23:3-4, there is one famous Moabite whose name is Ruth that not only has a book in the Bible called by her name, but was the great grandmother of King David and is found in the bloodline of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

                One can see the hand of God in bringing Nehemiah to Jerusalem, for is he had not had the letters from the King of Persia and not had the detachment of men from the king then there could have been a lot of trouble for Nehemiah.  God was protecting Nehemiah for this work that He would have done.

                In verse ten we see these enemies of the Jews, and I have to believe that Satan was behind the workings of these enemies, for it is made clear throughout the Bible that Satan is the enemy of the Jewish people, and when it comes to anti-Semitism it can be sure that Satan has been behind all of it.  Satan hates the Jewish race because it is the Jewish race that the Messiah was born into and He is the One who will seal the doom of Satan forever.

                Dr. John MacArthur writes these words to describe Sanballat and Tobiah:  “These men were probably also behind the opposition described in Ezra 4:7-33 which stopped the work in Jerusalem.  Sanballat served as governor of Samaria (Horonaim being a town in Moab, he was probably a Moabite) and Tobiah of the region East of the Jordan River.  These district magistrates were leaders of Samaritan factions (see chapter 6) to the North and East.  They had lost any recourse to prevent Judah from rebuilding since God’s people were authorized to fortify their settlement against attack from enemies such as these two officials.  To overtly attack or oppose the Jews would be to oppose the Persian king.”

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Just as Nehemiah faced three enemies so all believers today face three enemies today and they are the world, the flesh, and the Devil.  The Lord has defeated these enemies at the cross, but they can kind of be described as a chicken with its head cut off running around not knowing it is dead. 

                As a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ I am provided with protection from these enemies, but sometimes I don’t use this protection that is provided me.  There are countless numbers of believers who die for their faith, more now in this modern age than all of those who have died before this age.  I have read that the number is around 1000 people a day who die for the cause of Christ.  It would seem that Satan is winning a big battle because of this, but that is not the case, and it would not be the case in the book of Nehemiah.

                The Apostle Paul writes in what has been called the resurrection chapter, that is 1Cor. 15 these words about the death of a believer:  “"DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.  "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?’” (1Cor. 15:54b-55)  

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Ephesians 6:10-18 (The spiritual armor)

2.       Philippians 4:11-13 (Learning Contentment)

3.       Romans 12:1-2 (Living Sacrifice)

4.       Proverbs 3:5-6 (Trusting the Lord to lead my life)

5.       Psalm 139:23-24 (Search me O God)

7/31/2011 9:19:21 AM

A Short Prayer that is Effective

7/30/2011 7:13:46 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                                          Focus:  He had faith to ask

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                                    Reference:  Nehemiah 2:4-8

                Message of the verses:  “4  Then the king said to me, "What would you request?" So I prayed to the God of heaven. 5  I said to the king, "If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it." 6  Then the king said to me, the queen sitting beside him, "How long will your journey be, and when will you return?" So it pleased the king to send me, and I gave him a definite time. 7  And I said to the king, "If it please the king, let letters be given me for the governors of the provinces beyond the River, that they may allow me to pass through until I come to Judah, 8  and a letter to Asaph the keeper of the king’s forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the fortress which is by the temple, for the wall of the city and for the house to which I will go." And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me. 

                The question that the king asks Nehemiah in verse two was something that Nehemiah had been praying and fasting about for four months and so before answering the king he prayed a short prayer to the Lord, probably something like Peter did when he thought he was going to drown.  There are eight other examples of these short bullet prayers that Nehemiah prayed that are recorded in this book.  (Nehemiah 4:4; 5:9; 6:9, 14; 13:14, 22, 29, 31)  The last one is the very last verse in the book of Nehemiah.

                I believe that God put into the heart of Nehemiah a desire to rebuild the city of Jerusalem, and so when Nehemiah heard of the situation that was there in Jerusalem from his brother the Lord gave him a burden to accomplish the work there.  Nehemiah had to be willing in his own heart to accomplish this task that the Lord was burdening him to do and so he spent four months praying, fasting and investigating how he could accomplish this task that he was burdened to do.  Nehemiah knew exactly what he would ask the king and it can be summed up in two requests “Send me!” (Nehemiah 2:4-6) and “Give me!” (vv. 7-10). 

                The last part of verse eight gives the reason why this was all made possible “because the good hand of my God was on me.”  This statement is found in the book of Ezra a number of times and this can be said today when the Lord answers prayers on our behalf, for that is why they are answered.

                Dr. Wiersbe writes the following statements that help me to understand why and how I can serve the Lord, similar to what Nehemiah was doing.  “As we go forth to serve the Lord, we have behind us all authority in heaven and earth (Matthew 28:18); so we don’t have to be afraid.  The important thing is that we go where He sends us and that we do the work He has called us to do.” 

                There are many examples of how God used unbelievers in the Scriptures.  Pharaoh is probably the first example, and then there was Cyrus as seen in the book of Ezra.  Caesar was the one who made it possible for Marry and Joseph to be in Bethlehem at the perfect time for the birth of Jesus.  In the life of Paul there were two Roman centurions that saved his life as seen in the book of Acts.  It is important for believers to remember that God uses all people to accomplish His will even though many of them do not realize that they are doing it.

                There is one more point that I wish to write about before ending this portion of this SD and that is how Nehemiah acted towards the king, who actually had authority over him for he was working for him.  Nehemiah realized that it was the good hand of God that would accomplish this task, but he also realized that God would use the king and that he had to be respectful to the king and also to the other officials that he would run into that would also be under the authority of the king.  Nehemiah was a very respectful man when it came to his actions towards those in authority over him, and this is something that is written about in the NT in Peter’s letter and also in Paul’s letter to the Romans.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  One of the things that have been going on in my mind as I study the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and that is prayer.  There are quite a few prayers in these two books and in them many examples to follow on how to pray and what to pray for.  I seem to be struggling in this area of my life and am thankful to the Lord that His timing is perfect for me to be in these books at this time of my life, for I am being fed what I need at this time of my life and am thankful for that.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Trust the Lord that He will continue to work in my life to make my prayer life more powerful for the cause of Christ.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

3.       Trust that the Lord will help me to pray effectively when it comes to selling our Mazda before we leave Kauai.  I am struggling on how that I should pray about this that it would not seem selfish to me.

7/30/2011 8:17:18 AM     

The Difficult Task of Waiting

7/29/2011 8:04:23 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  He had faith to wait

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 2:1-3

                Message of the verses:  “1 ¶  And it came about in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him, and I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence. 2  So the king said to me, "Why is your face sad though you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of heart." Then I was very much afraid. 3  I said to the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should my face not be sad when the city, the place of my fathers’ tombs, lies desolate and its gates have been consumed by fire?’”

                Today’s SD begins the second chapter of Nehemiah and also the second chapter of Dr. Wiersbe’s commentary on Nehemiah “Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition.”  The title of this second chapter is “The Mountain Starts to Move” and it covers the 2^nd chapter of Nehemiah.  As I mentioned in many earlier SD’s there is a key at the introduction of most of the chapters in Dr. Wiersbe’s books that help to unlock where he is going with the chapter, and in this chapter he writes, “This chapter describes three evidences of Nehemiah’s faith.  As we study these evidences of faith, we must examine our own hearts to see whether or not we are really walking and working by faith.”

                The scene now shifts from the month of Chislev to the month of Nisan which means that four months have passed since Nehemiah’s brother gave his report to Nehemiah.  Four months can either be a short time or a long time depending on what is going on in one’s situation.  I believe that it was a long time for Nehemiah, and it was a long time to be saddened over what was going on in Jerusalem.  Nehemiah was patiently waiting on the Lord in order to have his prayers answered. 

                I want to interject something here that is probably the reason that God waited this long to answer Nehemiah’s prayer.  When I was studying the book of Daniel last summer in our Sunday school I was reminded of something that I was taught very early in my Christian life, and that is what the prophecy in Daniel nine is all about.  I took the time to listen to six sermons from John MacArthur to aid me in teaching this one lesson on Daniel nine last summer.  When you try to put six hours of teaching into a one hour class it makes it difficult as to what to leave out.  I will try and be brief here, however I believe it is important to realize why it was this day that the king answered the prayer of Nehemiah.  The prophecy consists of 490 years and has a starting point and three more points in it.  The first one is after 49 years of the beginning of the prophecy and that speaks of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, the temple and the walls and gates.  The next stopping point comes 383 years after it starts and this is probably one of the most important parts of the prophecy for it was exactly 483 years after this very conversation between Nehemiah and the king, who will give a decree to Nehemiah, that the Lord Jesus Christ came into Jerusalem on a donkey offering Himself to be king, but was turned down.  This is what we call Palm Sunday, and so I believe that this was the main reason that Nehemiah had to wait.

                There are lessons that Nehemiah had to learn, and after reading this I know that there are lessons that God wants me to learn also.  There are some verses that help to understand this passage a bit better that I want to include in this section.  First of all Nehemiah was frightened and with good reason because he was the one who was to make sure that the kings wine was safe to drink and he looked sad.  The king could have killed him no questions asked, but Proverbs 21:1 states “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water He turneth it whithersoever He will.   

                As far as patience Hebrew 6:12 states “so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”  As far as waiting look what Isaiah 28:16b tells us:  “he that believeth shall not make haste (KJV). 

                Dr. Wiersbe writes that he has three favorite verses he leans on that give him comfort whenever he gets nervous and tries to rush before the Lord.  Ex. 14:13, Ruth 3:18, and Psalm 46:10. 

                Dr. Wiersbe writes the following that I need to remember in the situation that I find myself in at this time:  “True faith in God brings calmness to the heart that keeps us from rushing about and trying to do in our own strength what only God can do.  We must know only how to weep and pray, but also how to wait and pray.”

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I suppose that it should not shock me to find that this lesson was exactly what I needed for what is going on in my life at this time.  This has happened on many different occasions, and yet there are some days when I do this that it is not so meaningful to me, but I always learn from studying God’s word.  You may not know what you ate for dinner two months ago, but you do know that it sustained you through out that day.  I may not know what I studied two months ago, but I do know that it was worth studying because it was part of God Word.  Today’s was very special to me.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Not to rush before the Lord to get accomplished what I want get accomplished own my own, but to trust the Lord and wait patiently on Him to accomplish what He desires for me.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

3.       Romans 12:1-2

4.       Psalm 139:23-2

5.       Proverbs 3:5-6

7/29/2011 9:30:31 AM

The Power of Nehemiah's Prayer

7/28/2011 7:55:12 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                             Focus:  He cared enough to volunteer

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 1:11

                Message of the verse:  “11  "O Lord, I beseech You, may Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and the prayer of Your servants who delight to revere Your name, and make Your servant successful today and grant him compassion before this man." Now I was the cupbearer to the king.”

                In a number of earlier SD’s I wrote that the commentary written by Warren Wiersbe that covered the book of Nehemiah was “Be Heroic.”  I wrote this in error.  “Be Heroic” covers Ezra, Haggai, and Zechariah.  His commentary for the book of Nehemiah is not in the “Be” series and it is entitled “Standing Firm in the Face of Opposition.”  Now that this is cleared up I will procede with today’s SD.

                Verse eleven concludes this prayer that Nehemiah was praying to the Lord over the “mess” that was going on in Jerusalem.  It is good to read the many prayers that are recorded in the Bible for they give insight in how these godly saints prayed.  This will not be the only prayer that is recorded in the book of Nehemiah,  If memory serves me correct the longest prayer found in the Bible is in this book of Nehemiah.

                Dr. Wiersbe writes “If God is going to answer prayer, He must start by working in the on doing the praying!  He works in us and through us to help us see our prayers answered.”

                I believe that in an earlier SD I mentioned that I was studying the fifteenth chapter of John, the part about the Vine and the branches.  Well in that section is verse seven which reads as follows, “"If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”  I don’t want to go into all of the detail of the study, but I do think that the conditions that Jesus says in this verse were taken by Nehemiah in his prayer to the Lord.  John MacArthur’s message on this section of John fifteen can be found on the following website www.gty.org

Once you are on this site you will have to click on “resources” and then in the search box write the following “Abiding in the Vine, Part 2.”  His message on this section will come up and you can look at it to read it, you can listen to it from the site, or you can download it and put it on a mp3 player to listen to it later on.  They have made it free to download any message that is on the site so download as many as you want to.  I have over 2000 messages on my Ipod and listen to them when I get the chance or when I have a question about a verse in the NT.

                John MacArthur writes the following from the MacArthur Study Bible about John 15:7-10 “True believers obey the Lord’s commands, submitting to His Word (14:21,23).  Because of their commitment to God’s Word, they are devoted to His will, thus their prayers are faithful (14:13,14), which puts God’s glory on display as He answers.”

                I believe that when you listen to the prayer of Nehemiah in the first chapter of Nehemiah that you can then understand why God was pleased to answer it.  You can also understand more about the kind of man he was, and Nehemiah as a man of the Word of God as seen in the prayer.

                Dr Wiersbe writes “Real prayer keeps your heart and your head in balance so your burden doesn’t make you impatient to run ahead of the Lord and ruin everything.”

                It was the desire of Nehemiah to ask the king to give him time off from his job as cupbearer in order to go to Jerusalem to finish the walls and gates of the city.  He knew that if he asked at the wrong time, or on the wrong way that he could even lose his life, but Nehemiah had prayed about this as seen in this prayer and trusted in the Lord to bring about this burden that he had to the right conclusion.  Nehemiah cared and this was the theme of this first chapter of Nehemiah.

                Dr. Wiersbe points out others from the pages of Scripture that also cared:  “Abraham cared and rescued Lot from Sodom (Gen. 18-19).  Moses cared and delivered the Israelites from Egypt.  David cared and brought the nation and the kingdom back to the Lord.  Ester cared and risked her life to save her nation from genocide.  Paul cared and took the Gospel throughout the Roman Empire.  Jesus cared and died on the cross for a lost world.

                “God is still looking for people who care, people like Nehemiah, who cared enough to ask for the facts, weep over the needs, pray for God’s help, and then volunteer to get the job done.  ‘Here am I, Lord---send me.’”

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  From looking at the prayer found in this first chapter of Nehemiah and by studying more about prayer from John 15 I truly have a desire to have a better and more effective prayer life.  I wish to pray about things that bring honor and glory to the Lord from the answers that He gives to me from the prayers that He burdens me to pray.  I wish to be patient to wait on Him and not to go before Him, something that will be difficult for me, but possible with the help of the Lord.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to learn contentment.

2.       Seek the Lord’s will for my life in my prayers.

3.       Abide in the Vine.

7/28/2011 9:10:00 AM

Learning from Nehemiah's Prayer

7/27/2011 7:52:27 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  He cared enough to pray

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 1:5-10

                Message of the verses:  “5 ¶  I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6  let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7  "We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8  "Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ’If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; 9  but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 10  "They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.”

                One of the reasons that I use Dr. Wiersbe’s “Be” books to aid me in my study of God’s word is that he can make some of the difficult things of the Bible come alive, but he can also see passages that I would probably read and get little out of and make them too come alive.  There is another reason and that is I like some of the sayings that he comes up with and some of the sayings that others have said and he quotes.  Today’s SD begins with two of those quotes.  The first is by a Scottish novelist Gorge MacDonald and he said “In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeeded more miserably.”  The next quote is by a man named Alan Redpath and he said “There is too much working before men and too little waiting before God.”  I find this true in my life on certain occasions because I have always been a man, who has been in a hurry, but it is great for me that I married a woman who takes her time and I have learned from her even though at times it has been hard for me to learn.

                There are twelve instances of prayer recorded in the book of Nehemiah, for he was a praying man, and this is the first.  The book begins with and ends with prayer.  Nehemiah was a man who did well what God had planned for him to do and because his faith and prayer life he succeeded in what God called for him to do.

                When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray He began with praise to His heavenly Father, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and Nehemiah uses the term “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God.”  Ezra used this title four times and it is also found four times in Nehemiah, while Daniel used it three times.  This is how all of God’s children should begin their prayers.

                Nehemiah was experiencing great affliction and was about to do a great work and so he needed the power of the great God of heaven, the God who spoke and created the heavens and the earth, the seas and dry lands, the fish in the sea and the animals on the land, and He also created man from the dust of the earth and woman from the rib of the man.  Why would we pray to another?  Dr. Wiersbe asks “Is the God you worship big enough to handle the challenges that you face?”

                Nehemiah then begins to quote part of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel, and this is something that both Ezra and Daniel did in their prayers to the Lord.  It is certain that the Lord remembers the Words that He has written, but it is important to pray Scripture back to the Lord, of this importance I am learn more about each day.

                Nehemiah was a man like Ezra who knew the OT Scriptures and this is a great example for every believer to follow, for the Scripture is the very Word of God that He has given to His children.  Those who do not know the Lord will not be able to understand the Word of God for it was written to believers.  Through his knowledge of the Word of God Nehemiah knew that the children of Israel had sinned and that is why they became exiles and were living in Babylon under Persian rule.  Some of the exiles had moved back to Jerusalem, and this was part of what the Lord had promised in His Word.  Nehemiah now learns of some of the disturbing things that were going on in Jerusalem and this drives him to his knees in prayer confessing the sins of Israel and like Ezra and Daniel he includes himself in those sins. He was identifying himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even know.  Nehemiah did not use the words “they sinned” and that is why we are in this fix.  I have heard it said that it is better to fact find than fault find.  In the movie Apollo 13 man in charge told his crew, when they learned of this great problem they had to “work the problem.”  I believe that fact finding and working the problem are good things to do otherwise we could be fault finding and not working the problem and then nothing will get accomplished.  Nehemiah was fact finding and he was working the problem by talking to the God of Heaven.

                One thing you can see in the prayer from Nehemiah is that he was confident.  He had confidence in the power of his God. I believe that his confidence in his God came from the Word of his God.  Nehemiah had a desire to go and to rebuild Jerusalem and he knew that he did not have the strength to do it, but he knew that his God had the strength to accomplish this through him.  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

                Nehemiah was confident that his God would raise up others to help to do this work, for he was unlike Elijah who though that he was the only one to accomplish something for the Lord.  Nehemiah was also confident that the Lord would work in the heart of Artaxerxes to allow him to go to Jerusalem to begin this work.

                Dr. Wiersbe writes “To often, we plan our projects and then ask God to bless them; but Nehemiah didn’t make that mistake.  He sat down and wept (Neh. 1:4), knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked because he knew he had the blessing of the Lord on what he was doing.”  Great example for all of God’s children to follow!

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Following this great example of Nehemiah’s prayer is something that has been enlightening to me as I studied this passage.  Waiting is something that I have never been good at, but something that I am learning.  The saying “don’t put the cart before the horse” is a good example to follow when doing the work of the Lord, for I am to follow the Lord and not get into a hurry and go before him.  That is something that Saul did and it got him in a lot of trouble.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       I believe that learning contentment is similar to learning patience.  Both of them can bring things into my life that will cause me to have contentment and be patience.

2.       Wait upon the Lord.

7/27/2011 8:57:16 AM

Learning from Nehemiah's Prayer

7/27/2011 7:52:27 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  He cared enough to pray

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 1:5-10

                Message of the verses:  “5 ¶  I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments, 6  let Your ear now be attentive and Your eyes open to hear the prayer of Your servant which I am praying before You now, day and night, on behalf of the sons of Israel Your servants, confessing the sins of the sons of Israel which we have sinned against You; I and my father’s house have sinned. 7  "We have acted very corruptly against You and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances which You commanded Your servant Moses. 8  "Remember the word which You commanded Your servant Moses, saying, ’If you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the peoples; 9  but if you return to Me and keep My commandments and do them, though those of you who have been scattered were in the most remote part of the heavens, I will gather them from there and will bring them to the place where I have chosen to cause My name to dwell.’ 10  "They are Your servants and Your people whom You redeemed by Your great power and by Your strong hand.”

                One of the reasons that I use Dr. Wiersbe’s “Be” books to aid me in my study of God’s word is that he can make some of the difficult things of the Bible come alive, but he can also see passages that I would probably read and get little out of and make them too come alive.  There is another reason and that is I like some of the sayings that he comes up with and some of the sayings that others have said and he quotes.  Today’s SD begins with two of those quotes.  The first is by a Scottish novelist Gorge MacDonald and he said “In whatever man does without God, he must fail miserably, or succeeded more miserably.”  The next quote is by a man named Alan Redpath and he said “There is too much working before men and too little waiting before God.”  I find this true in my life on certain occasions because I have always been a man, who has been in a hurry, but it is great for me that I married a woman who takes her time and I have learned from her even though at times it has been hard for me to learn.

                There are twelve instances of prayer recorded in the book of Nehemiah, for he was a praying man, and this is the first.  The book begins with and ends with prayer.  Nehemiah was a man who did well what God had planned for him to do and because his faith and prayer life he succeeded in what God called for him to do.

                When His disciples asked Jesus how to pray He began with praise to His heavenly Father, “Our Father who art in heaven,” and Nehemiah uses the term “O Lord God of heaven, the great and awesome God.”  Ezra used this title four times and it is also found four times in Nehemiah, while Daniel used it three times.  This is how all of God’s children should begin their prayers.

                Nehemiah was experiencing great affliction and was about to do a great work and so he needed the power of the great God of heaven, the God who spoke and created the heavens and the earth, the seas and dry lands, the fish in the sea and the animals on the land, and He also created man from the dust of the earth and woman from the rib of the man.  Why would we pray to another?  Dr. Wiersbe asks “Is the God you worship big enough to handle the challenges that you face?”

                Nehemiah then begins to quote part of the covenant that God made with the children of Israel, and this is something that both Ezra and Daniel did in their prayers to the Lord.  It is certain that the Lord remembers the Words that He has written, but it is important to pray Scripture back to the Lord, of this importance I am learn more about each day.

                Nehemiah was a man like Ezra who knew the OT Scriptures and this is a great example for every believer to follow, for the Scripture is the very Word of God that He has given to His children.  Those who do not know the Lord will not be able to understand the Word of God for it was written to believers.  Through his knowledge of the Word of God Nehemiah knew that the children of Israel had sinned and that is why they became exiles and were living in Babylon under Persian rule.  Some of the exiles had moved back to Jerusalem, and this was part of what the Lord had promised in His Word.  Nehemiah now learns of some of the disturbing things that were going on in Jerusalem and this drives him to his knees in prayer confessing the sins of Israel and like Ezra and Daniel he includes himself in those sins. He was identifying himself with the sins of a generation he didn’t even know.  Nehemiah did not use the words “they sinned” and that is why we are in this fix.  I have heard it said that it is better to fact find than fault find.  In the movie Apollo 13 man in charge told his crew, when they learned of this great problem they had to “work the problem.”  I believe that fact finding and working the problem are good things to do otherwise we could be fault finding and not working the problem and then nothing will get accomplished.  Nehemiah was fact finding and he was working the problem by talking to the God of Heaven.

                One thing you can see in the prayer from Nehemiah is that he was confident.  He had confidence in the power of his God. I believe that his confidence in his God came from the Word of his God.  Nehemiah had a desire to go and to rebuild Jerusalem and he knew that he did not have the strength to do it, but he knew that his God had the strength to accomplish this through him.  “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.”  (Romans 10:17)

                Nehemiah was confident that his God would raise up others to help to do this work, for he was unlike Elijah who though that he was the only one to accomplish something for the Lord.  Nehemiah was also confident that the Lord would work in the heart of Artaxerxes to allow him to go to Jerusalem to begin this work.

                Dr. Wiersbe writes “To often, we plan our projects and then ask God to bless them; but Nehemiah didn’t make that mistake.  He sat down and wept (Neh. 1:4), knelt down and prayed, and then stood up and worked because he knew he had the blessing of the Lord on what he was doing.”  Great example for all of God’s children to follow!

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Following this great example of Nehemiah’s prayer is something that has been enlightening to me as I studied this passage.  Waiting is something that I have never been good at, but something that I am learning.  The saying “don’t put the cart before the horse” is a good example to follow when doing the work of the Lord, for I am to follow the Lord and not get into a hurry and go before him.  That is something that Saul did and it got him in a lot of trouble.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       I believe that learning contentment is similar to learning patience.  Both of them can bring things into my life that will cause me to have contentment and be patience.

2.       Wait upon the Lord.

7/27/2011 8:57:16 AM

Weeping over Sin

7/26/2011 7:53:24 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus: He cared enough to weep

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 1:4

                Message of the verses:  “4  When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.”

                In his commentary on this one verse Dr. Wiersbe writes: “What makes people laugh or weep is often an indication of character.  People who laugh at others’ mistakes or misfortunes, or who weep over trivial personal disappointments, are lacking either in culture or character, and possibly both.”  This statement got me to thinking so I looked up some of these different words in the Bible to see how many times they were used, and glanced at the verses to see what the situation was about for using them.  Weeping is used in the NASB95 56 times, wept is used 64 times, weep is used 50 times, cry is used 141 times, crying is used 32 times, and cried is used 124 times.  There are times when some of these words are in the same verse.  Crying can mean that someone is either upset or happy depending on the circumstance that they are crying over.  There is no use of any of these words in the first three chapters of Genesis and this is important to me because the fall happened in the third chapter of Genesis so there was no weeping when things were perfect, before sin.  In Revelations 21:4 we read:  “and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’”  The first things have passed away refer to the destruction of the heavens and the earth by the Lord.  This takes place after the 1000 year reign of Jesus Christ on the earth and after all of the judgments are completed.  At this point the New Jerusalem and new earth are seen and so everything is perfect again after this point and the verse says there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, so this is the last time we see any of these types of words in the Scripture.

                According to the people who study the Bibles, who are scholars of the Bible the first time that a word is found in the Scriptures is important.  Genesis 4:10 is the earliest any of these words are found and the verse reads as follows, “He said, "What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”  This of course is speaking of Abele’s blood and the killing of Abel by his brother Cain.

                The word laugh is used only twelve times in the Scriptures.  Laughter is used only eight times.  Happy is only used fourteen times in the Bible and only once in the NT.  I suppose that we may be able to conclude that there is more unhappiness four in the Scriptures than happiness, for there are more words to describe the emotions of sadness than gladness in the Bible.  I would also suppose that sin is the reason for these findings. 

                As I glanced over these verses I find that there were times when people were crying over things that caused them emotional pain that could be described as something not worth crying or weeping over, “Eze. 8:14  Then He brought me to the entrance of the gate of the LORD’S house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.”  This meant that these women were worshiping idols in the house of the Lord.

                Now in today’s verse we see Nehemiah weeping because the walls of Jerusalem had not been rebuilt and also the people were in great distress.  Nehemiah knew that the walls were important to those who lived there for safety reasons and these walls were supposed to be completed before.  In the book of Ezra regarding the building of the walls one of the commentaries said that they could have already been built and then torn down again by and enemy.  That may have been the case or they may have never been finished at all. 

                When you look at the statement that Dr. Wiersbe makes that says the character of a person can be seen by what they cry about shows that Nehemiah surely had great character for he was weeping over things that would be upsetting to the Lord.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  As I look at the way that weeping or wept is used in the Gospels I can say that most of the times if is used because of sin.  The results of sin can surely cause weeping and unhappiness.  What I take away from this is that I need to be more sensitive to sin in my life.  Not only when I sin, but when I see sin like in the case of Nehemiah’s weeping, for it was sin that caused the children of Israel to be defeated in the first place, and that is why they were in the position that they were in at that time and it caused Nehemiah emotional pain.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Be more sensitive over my sin and sin that I see, because God is.

2.       Psalm 130:23-24

3.       Continue to learn contentment.

7/26/2011 9:35:37 AM