THE GREATNESS OF GOD

8/31/2011 11:00:46 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  The greatness of God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 9:1-6

                Message of the verses:  “  1 ¶  Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them. 2  The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3  While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

    “4 ¶  Now on the Levites’ platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5  Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, said, "Arise, bless the LORD your God forever and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! 6  "You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.”

                I have to say that I have been looking forward to what is in this chapter since the beginning of my study of Nehemiah.  There are three great prayers recorded in three great books of the OT and all three of them are in the ninth chapters of these three great books.  Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel are all books that deal with the nation of Israel after it had been taken into captivity.  (I am speaking of Judah and the first captives were taken from there in 605 BC).  Daniel was among those who were taken in 605 BC and his prayer in the ninth chapter of Daniel was the first one to be written, then Ezra’s prayer and finally Nehemiah’s prayer.  When one looks at 2Chronicles 7:14 and then look at these three prayers they will see the prayers doing what that verse instructs them to do:  “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (AV).”  In all three of these prayers we can find great confession of sin to the Lord and in all three of them there are many personal pronouns indicating that the authors were including themselves when confessing sins to the Lord.  I have thought about this for some time as to why they did this and one conclusion that I came to was that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  One only has to look at verse two of this chapter to see that the people of Israel after “separating themselves from the foreigners stood and confessed their sins and the inequities of their fathers.”  They too realized that they had sinned and were in need of confession and repentance before the Lord.  All of this happened three days after the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a time of feasting and celebration to the Lord, so they went from feasting to fasting, from wearing festive clothes to wearing sackcloth and putting dirt upon themselves showing their need for confession.

                In today’s SD we find the first element of this, what is the longest prayer in the Bible, and that element is “The greatness of God,” which will be followed by “The goodness of God,” and then “The Grace of God.”  Dr. Warren Wiersbe entitles this chapter in his commentary on Nehemiah “Amazing Grace,” and indeed it is amazing grace that God has chosen to forgive all of my sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, and this can all be seen as to be true by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave.

                I truly cannot imagine what happened in this chapter happening in 21^st century America.  These exiles from Israel stood for three hours listening to the Word of God being preached to them and then spent more time confessing their sins before the Lord.  If the preacher is a minute over in our services today people are upset and are ready to call a new Pastor to replace him.  Everyone seems to be in a hurry and yet where are they going and in this hurry what are they missing?  One of the old songs that used to be sung in churches was called “Take Time to be Holy.”  A few years back I began to unpack this song verse by verse to see how many Scripture verses that I could find to go along with this verse, and I found many.  A few years later during a prayer meeting at our church I began to share what I learned one verse at a time.  One of the conclusions that I came to after doing this was that the name of the song should be “It Takes Time to be Holy” and that is what is seen in this setting from Nehemiah in chapters eight and nine.  In heaven we will be spending all of our “time” with the Lord and so it is best to get to know Him while we are here on earth so it won’t be such a great shock when we get there for that is what these exiles were doing, for first came separation and then came confession. 

In their separation and confession they were showing the greatness of God.  In verse six we find another way of them showing the greatness of God and that is to speak of God’s greatness in creation, for when one takes the time to study how God created this world and all that we see they will be awestruck at His greatness.  I have just listened to twelve messages by John MacArthur on creation and am in the process of reading his book “Battle for the Beginning,” and some of the wonderful things that I have learned from the messages and the book have truly shown me in a new light how great God is.  These people knew this and that is why they spoke of God’s creation in this prayer. 

Another part of the greatness of God that is seen here is that Israel was worshiping the Lord through their actions and through them not being like the nations around them.  This is also seen in verse six.  True worship of the Lord involves many elements: “hearing the Scriptures, praising God, praying, confessing sin, and separating ourselves from that which displeases God.”  We have seen all of these in this paragraph.  When we worship the Lord it also involves the Word of God, for that is the only way that we can know the Lord.  A. W. Tozer, in his great book “The Knowledge of the Holy,” writes, “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thought about God that are unworthy of Him.”  Dr. Wiersbe goes on to write “The better we know the Scriptures and respond to them, the better we will know God and become like Him.”  “In the Scriptures, God speaks to us; and in prayer and praise, we speak to Him,” see verse five of our text.

Now back to what  I started writing about a paragraph ago, and that is that the greatness of God is also seen in the fact that God is God alone as seen in verse 6a where it states “You are God alone.”  This is surely speaking of the fact that there are no other gods, and this means that idols were worthless and only got people into trouble.  All men have a vacuum, and will worship something even if it is an idol for we have already touched on the description of an idol with the quote from Tozer. 

The last way we see the greatness of God in this passage is found in the last part of verse six where we read “And the heavenly host bows down before You.”  This of course is speaking of the angels who worship and bow down to the Lord and we as forgiven people have more reasons to do this, yet do we do it.  The angels are God’s servants, but we are God’s children “1 ¶  See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1John 3:1-3).

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “How Great Thou Art – The Lyrics

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!”

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Think about the greatness of God.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/31/2011 12:26:25 PM

                  

THE GREATNESS OF GOD

8/31/2011 11:00:46 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  The greatness of God

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 9:1-6

                Message of the verses:  “  1 ¶  Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the sons of Israel assembled with fasting, in sackcloth and with dirt upon them. 2  The descendants of Israel separated themselves from all foreigners, and stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers. 3  While they stood in their place, they read from the book of the law of the LORD their God for a fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

    “4 ¶  Now on the Levites’ platform stood Jeshua, Bani, Kadmiel, Shebaniah, Bunni, Sherebiah, Bani and Chenani, and they cried with a loud voice to the LORD their God. 5  Then the Levites, Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah, said, "Arise, bless the LORD your God forever and ever! O may Your glorious name be blessed And exalted above all blessing and praise! 6  "You alone are the LORD. You have made the heavens, The heaven of heavens with all their host, The earth and all that is on it, The seas and all that is in them. You give life to all of them And the heavenly host bows down before You.”

                I have to say that I have been looking forward to what is in this chapter since the beginning of my study of Nehemiah.  There are three great prayers recorded in three great books of the OT and all three of them are in the ninth chapters of these three great books.  Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel are all books that deal with the nation of Israel after it had been taken into captivity.  (I am speaking of Judah and the first captives were taken from there in 605 BC).  Daniel was among those who were taken in 605 BC and his prayer in the ninth chapter of Daniel was the first one to be written, then Ezra’s prayer and finally Nehemiah’s prayer.  When one looks at 2Chronicles 7:14 and then look at these three prayers they will see the prayers doing what that verse instructs them to do:  “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land (AV).”  In all three of these prayers we can find great confession of sin to the Lord and in all three of them there are many personal pronouns indicating that the authors were including themselves when confessing sins to the Lord.  I have thought about this for some time as to why they did this and one conclusion that I came to was that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  One only has to look at verse two of this chapter to see that the people of Israel after “separating themselves from the foreigners stood and confessed their sins and the inequities of their fathers.”  They too realized that they had sinned and were in need of confession and repentance before the Lord.  All of this happened three days after the Feast of Tabernacles, which was a time of feasting and celebration to the Lord, so they went from feasting to fasting, from wearing festive clothes to wearing sackcloth and putting dirt upon themselves showing their need for confession.

                In today’s SD we find the first element of this, what is the longest prayer in the Bible, and that element is “The greatness of God,” which will be followed by “The goodness of God,” and then “The Grace of God.”  Dr. Warren Wiersbe entitles this chapter in his commentary on Nehemiah “Amazing Grace,” and indeed it is amazing grace that God has chosen to forgive all of my sins through the shed blood of Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, and this can all be seen as to be true by the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from the grave.

                I truly cannot imagine what happened in this chapter happening in 21^st century America.  These exiles from Israel stood for three hours listening to the Word of God being preached to them and then spent more time confessing their sins before the Lord.  If the preacher is a minute over in our services today people are upset and are ready to call a new Pastor to replace him.  Everyone seems to be in a hurry and yet where are they going and in this hurry what are they missing?  One of the old songs that used to be sung in churches was called “Take Time to be Holy.”  A few years back I began to unpack this song verse by verse to see how many Scripture verses that I could find to go along with this verse, and I found many.  A few years later during a prayer meeting at our church I began to share what I learned one verse at a time.  One of the conclusions that I came to after doing this was that the name of the song should be “It Takes Time to be Holy” and that is what is seen in this setting from Nehemiah in chapters eight and nine.  In heaven we will be spending all of our “time” with the Lord and so it is best to get to know Him while we are here on earth so it won’t be such a great shock when we get there for that is what these exiles were doing, for first came separation and then came confession. 

In their separation and confession they were showing the greatness of God.  In verse six we find another way of them showing the greatness of God and that is to speak of God’s greatness in creation, for when one takes the time to study how God created this world and all that we see they will be awestruck at His greatness.  I have just listened to twelve messages by John MacArthur on creation and am in the process of reading his book “Battle for the Beginning,” and some of the wonderful things that I have learned from the messages and the book have truly shown me in a new light how great God is.  These people knew this and that is why they spoke of God’s creation in this prayer. 

Another part of the greatness of God that is seen here is that Israel was worshiping the Lord through their actions and through them not being like the nations around them.  This is also seen in verse six.  True worship of the Lord involves many elements: “hearing the Scriptures, praising God, praying, confessing sin, and separating ourselves from that which displeases God.”  We have seen all of these in this paragraph.  When we worship the Lord it also involves the Word of God, for that is the only way that we can know the Lord.  A. W. Tozer, in his great book “The Knowledge of the Holy,” writes, “The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thought about God that are unworthy of Him.”  Dr. Wiersbe goes on to write “The better we know the Scriptures and respond to them, the better we will know God and become like Him.”  “In the Scriptures, God speaks to us; and in prayer and praise, we speak to Him,” see verse five of our text.

Now back to what  I started writing about a paragraph ago, and that is that the greatness of God is also seen in the fact that God is God alone as seen in verse 6a where it states “You are God alone.”  This is surely speaking of the fact that there are no other gods, and this means that idols were worthless and only got people into trouble.  All men have a vacuum, and will worship something even if it is an idol for we have already touched on the description of an idol with the quote from Tozer. 

The last way we see the greatness of God in this passage is found in the last part of verse six where we read “And the heavenly host bows down before You.”  This of course is speaking of the angels who worship and bow down to the Lord and we as forgiven people have more reasons to do this, yet do we do it.  The angels are God’s servants, but we are God’s children “1 ¶  See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 2  Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. 3  And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure (1John 3:1-3).

Spiritual meaning for my life today:  “How Great Thou Art – The Lyrics

O Lord my God, When I in awesome wonder,
Consider all the worlds Thy Hands have made;
I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,
Thy power throughout the universe displayed.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.
When I look down, from lofty mountain grandeur
And see the brook, and feel the gentle breeze.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

And when I think, that God, His Son not sparing;
Sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in;
That on the Cross, my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin.

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

When Christ shall come, with shout of acclamation,
And take me home, what joy shall fill my heart.
Then I shall bow, in humble adoration,
And then proclaim: "My God, how great Thou art!"

Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!”

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Think about the greatness of God.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/31/2011 12:26:25 PM

                  

Obeying the Word

8/30/2011 7:56:43 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  We must obey the Word

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 8:13-18

                Message of the verses:  “13 ¶  Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law. 14  They found written in the law how the LORD had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. 15  So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." 16  So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17  The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. 18  He read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.”

                I believed that I mentioned in an earlier SD that the celebration of the Day of Atonement was on the first day of the seventh month, but that is not correct as it was celebrated on the tenth day of the month and the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of the month.  With that said there was not much time to get the word out to the people to gather the branches that were needed in order to celebrate the feast as described in this passage. 

                One of the themes that has been present in this eight chapter of Nehemiah is joy and that has been a discussion point for the last couple of days.  The theme of the book of Philippians is joy as that word joy or joyful is used many times throughout the book of Philippians.  After the Law was read to these Jewish exiles they were convicted and filled with sorrow, but now because of this celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles they were filled with joy.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “To the believer without joy the will of God is punishment; but to the believer happy in the Lord the will of God is nourishment.”  

                As one looks at these verses they will see a revival that is happening to these people.  The question is raised will this revival last?  The answer is not it will not last, but it is good to have a revival.  The famous evangelist Billy Sunday was asked if revivals lasted to which he replied “No neither does a bath; but it’s good to have one occasionally!”

                The Lord Jesus used an illustration of joy as a woman who has just had a baby, and even though the birth was very painful this same painful experience produced joy in her life because of the birth of her baby.  “20  "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21  "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22  "Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you (John 16:20-22).”    Dr. Wiersbe writes “The difficult circumstances of life are ‘pregnant’ with joy, and by faith we must give that joy time to be born.”  He goes on to say, “The world’s joy is temporary and artificial; and when the joy is gone, people are left with even greater weakness and emptiness.  But the joy that comes from the Lord is real and lasting and enriches our lives.  God doesn’t give us joy instead of sorrow, or joy in spite of sorrow, but joy in the midst of sorrow.  It is not substitution but transformation.” 

                I mentioned in an earlier SD that the Feast of Tabernacles was a time for the children of Israel to look back at the wanderings in the wilderness by their forefathers, but it was more than that.  It was also a time of looking around at the harvest that God had given them, for after all this celebration took place during the time of harvest.  This feast was also a time of looking forward to the kingdom age which will be a glorious and joyful time.

                This celebration was not only a joyful time but a time of enrichment and encouragement too.  Nehemiah 8:10 says “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

                This celebration described in these verses had never been celebrated like this since the days of Joshua, but it surely had been celebrated before.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have written before that it seems to me that joy has not been one of the things that has been present in my life to the way that it should be.  I do know that giving to others produces joy in my life and I hope that learning about joy as I have researched this chapter will help produce more joy in my life in the way that the Bible teaches that it should be there.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to learn about biblical joy.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/30/2011 8:49:46 AM

Obeying the Word

8/30/2011 7:56:43 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  We must obey the Word

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 8:13-18

                Message of the verses:  “13 ¶  Then on the second day the heads of fathers’ households of all the people, the priests and the Levites were gathered to Ezra the scribe that they might gain insight into the words of the law. 14  They found written in the law how the LORD had commanded through Moses that the sons of Israel should live in booths during the feast of the seventh month. 15  So they proclaimed and circulated a proclamation in all their cities and in Jerusalem, saying, "Go out to the hills, and bring olive branches and wild olive branches, myrtle branches, palm branches and branches of other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written." 16  So the people went out and brought them and made booths for themselves, each on his roof, and in their courts and in the courts of the house of God, and in the square at the Water Gate and in the square at the Gate of Ephraim. 17  The entire assembly of those who had returned from the captivity made booths and lived in them. The sons of Israel had indeed not done so from the days of Joshua the son of Nun to that day. And there was great rejoicing. 18  He read from the book of the law of God daily, from the first day to the last day. And they celebrated the feast seven days, and on the eighth day there was a solemn assembly according to the ordinance.”

                I believed that I mentioned in an earlier SD that the celebration of the Day of Atonement was on the first day of the seventh month, but that is not correct as it was celebrated on the tenth day of the month and the Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated from the fifteenth to the twenty-first of the month.  With that said there was not much time to get the word out to the people to gather the branches that were needed in order to celebrate the feast as described in this passage. 

                One of the themes that has been present in this eight chapter of Nehemiah is joy and that has been a discussion point for the last couple of days.  The theme of the book of Philippians is joy as that word joy or joyful is used many times throughout the book of Philippians.  After the Law was read to these Jewish exiles they were convicted and filled with sorrow, but now because of this celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles they were filled with joy.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “To the believer without joy the will of God is punishment; but to the believer happy in the Lord the will of God is nourishment.”  

                As one looks at these verses they will see a revival that is happening to these people.  The question is raised will this revival last?  The answer is not it will not last, but it is good to have a revival.  The famous evangelist Billy Sunday was asked if revivals lasted to which he replied “No neither does a bath; but it’s good to have one occasionally!”

                The Lord Jesus used an illustration of joy as a woman who has just had a baby, and even though the birth was very painful this same painful experience produced joy in her life because of the birth of her baby.  “20  "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy. 21  "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world. 22  "Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you (John 16:20-22).”    Dr. Wiersbe writes “The difficult circumstances of life are ‘pregnant’ with joy, and by faith we must give that joy time to be born.”  He goes on to say, “The world’s joy is temporary and artificial; and when the joy is gone, people are left with even greater weakness and emptiness.  But the joy that comes from the Lord is real and lasting and enriches our lives.  God doesn’t give us joy instead of sorrow, or joy in spite of sorrow, but joy in the midst of sorrow.  It is not substitution but transformation.” 

                I mentioned in an earlier SD that the Feast of Tabernacles was a time for the children of Israel to look back at the wanderings in the wilderness by their forefathers, but it was more than that.  It was also a time of looking around at the harvest that God had given them, for after all this celebration took place during the time of harvest.  This feast was also a time of looking forward to the kingdom age which will be a glorious and joyful time.

                This celebration was not only a joyful time but a time of enrichment and encouragement too.  Nehemiah 8:10 says “The joy of the Lord is your strength.”

                This celebration described in these verses had never been celebrated like this since the days of Joshua, but it surely had been celebrated before.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I have written before that it seems to me that joy has not been one of the things that has been present in my life to the way that it should be.  I do know that giving to others produces joy in my life and I hope that learning about joy as I have researched this chapter will help produce more joy in my life in the way that the Bible teaches that it should be there.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to learn about biblical joy.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/30/2011 8:49:46 AM

We Must Rejoice in the Word

8/29/2011 9:39:18 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                     Focus:  We must rejoice in the Word

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                           Reference:  Nehemiah 8:9-12

                Message of the verse:  “9 ¶  Then Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, "This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep." For all the people were weeping when they heard the words of the law. 10  Then he said to them, "Go, eat of the fat, drink of the sweet, and send portions to him who has nothing prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." 11  So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved." 12  All the people went away to eat, to drink, to send portions and to celebrate a great festival, because they understood the words which had been made known to them.”

                The Word of God had been taught to the people on the first day of the seventh month, which is the Day of Atonement.  It was during this day that the Lord had dealt with their sins and now they were morning over their sins for they were convicted by the Word of God.  The people were now sad because of their conviction that the Word had brought upon them.  After the Day of Atonement came the Feast of Tabernacles (Succoth), and this would bring joy to their hearts for during this feast the people would go out and gather branches and make tent like structures to live in for a week, and in this way they would remember their forefathers who had lived in tents when they came out of Egypt and marched around in the wilderness for forty years.  After conviction the Word brings joy, for after conviction comes repentance and this produces joy.  Jeremiah 15:16 speaks of the Word bringing joy, “Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.”  Psalm 19:8 speaks of this joy through the Word, “The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes.” Psalm 119:111 also tells of this joy in the Word, “I have inherited Your testimonies forever, For they are the joy of my heart.”

                Dr. Wiersbe writes “It is as wrong to mourn when God has forgiven us as it is to rejoice when sin has conquered us.  The sinner has no reason for rejoicing and the forgiven child of God has no reason for mourning (Matthew 9:9-17). 

                One of the things that the Word of God does is to convict people, but the Word of God does not save people.  The Word of God will led us to the Lord Jesus Christ who will save us.  Romans 3:20 “because by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified in His sight; for through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.”  Gal. 3:24 “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

                A few years after I became a believer I was moved by the Lord to write a tract that I entitled “The Word of God.”  Some Bible Tracts have stories in them and some have both stories and Scripture in them but my desire was to just have Scripture in this tract, Scripture that would be used to led someone to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and then to help them grow in the Word.  Here is how I broke up the tract: 

                The Word of God and Sin:  (Romans 3:23; 6:23)

                The Word of God and Salvation:  (Romans 10:9-10; Acts 4:12; John 3:16; John 14:6; Romans 5:8; John 1:12; Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 5:1)

                The Word of God And The Assurance of Salvation:  (1John 5:13; John 10:27-30)

                The Word of God And Growth:  (Colossians 2:6; 1Peter 2:2)

                The Word of God:  (Hebrews 4:12)

                As I look back on this tract it may have been good to add “The Word of God and Joy.”  For true joy can only come through the Word of God.  The same Word the wounds us can heal us and then produce joy in our hearts.

                Dr. Wiersbe writes “There are great treasures buried in God’s Word and you and I must diligently ‘dig’ for them as we read, meditate, and pray; and when we find these treasures, we should rejoice and give thanks.”  “It is the believer who rejoices in the Word, who delights to read and study it day by day, who will find God’s hidden treasures.”

                He then asks these convicting questions “Do you delight in God’s Word?  Would you rather have God’s Word than food (Ps. 119:103; Luke 10:38-42), or sleep (Ps. 119:55, 62, 147-148), or wealth? (vv.14, 72, 137, 162).  If you delight in His Word, God will delight in you and share His best blessings with you.”

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  The Word of God has convicted me from today’s section to allow the Word to give me more joy.  I do rejoice from time to time over something that I read in the Word that can really excite me, but perhaps I do need more of the “Joy of the Lord” in my life.

My Steps of Faith for Today: 

1.       Remember that “The joy of the Lord is my strength.”

2.       Continue to trust the Lord to led me and guide me each and every day.

3.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/29/2011 10:50:01 AM

Ezra read and explained the Book

8/28/2011 7:44:31 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                    Focus:  He read and explained the book

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                 Reference:  Nehemiah 8:7-8

                Message of the verses:  “7  Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, explained the law to the people while the people remained in their place. 8  They read from the book, from the law of God, translating to give the sense so that they understood the reading.”

                The Word of God was written in its original language around 1000 years before Ezra was reading it to the people at the time of this reading and it is doubtless that the language of Hebrew had changed a lot since then.  The Word of God does not change, however languages do change and therefore it is necessary to have new versions of the Bible in order for people to understand what the Bible says. 

                In its original writing the Bible was written in three different languages, Hebrew and Aramaic for the Old Testament of which a small part of Daniel and Ezra were written in Aramaic.  The New Testament was written in a Greek language that is not spoken any more.  There are many old manuscripts that are found today of these texts that Bible scholars will use to translate the Word of God into languages that the people today can easily read.  This was not the case in Nehemiah’s day for the common people of that day did not have any copies of the Bible and so it was necessary for the Levites to assist Ezra in translating the Word of God so the people could understand it.  This was their God given ministry to do this.  “"They shall teach Your ordinances to Jacob, And Your law to Israel. They shall put incense before You, And whole burnt offerings on Your altar (Deu.33:10), (‘They’ is speaking of the Levites).”  "For the lips of a priest should preserve knowledge, and men should seek instruction from his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts (Mal. 2:7).”  One must remember that the priests were from the tribe of Levi and from the clan of Aaron.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Life is different today as we live in the age of the New Covenant, the Church age and we are greatly blessed to have the Word of God so accessible to read and have wonderful commentaries to help understand the Word of God.  In this Church Age we are to be instructed by Pastors who preach the Word of God to us similar to the way that Ezra was doing in this passage.  A godly Pastor is very important in the life of a local church today.  The qualifications of Pastors are found in the Apostle Paul’s writings to Timothy and Titus who were Pastors in the early Church age.

                I am so thankful that I have copies of the Word of God today so that I can read and study it every day.  2Timothy 2:15 “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.”

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Continue to study the Word of God so that I can be approved unto God and be a workman who does not need to be ashamed.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

3.       Trust the Lord to make me a better husband to my wife.

8/28/2011 8:17:25 AM

He Opened the Book

8/27/2011 11:03:14 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  He opened the Book

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 8:5-6

                Message of the verses:  “5  Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. 6  Then Ezra blessed the LORD the great God. And all the people answered, "Amen, Amen!" while lifting up their hands; then they bowed low and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground.”

                In these two verses one can see the respect that these people had for the Word of God and for the teaching of the Word of God.  This experience that they had is written of in the NT book of 1Thessolonians:  “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”  When Ezra opened the scroll that contained the portion of the Word of God that he wanted to read and to teach about the people stood and remained standing for a long time, honoring the Word of God. 

                Dr. Wiersbe points out that this kind of worship and honoring of the Word of God is not present in many churches in America today, and this is a sad commentary on the Church in America.  He also points out that the people who were “behind the iron curtain” of years past would risk their lives and stand in line to hear the Word of God read and taught.  When the former Soviet Union was ready to fall there was a man who was visiting there, a man who had a high position in a mission agency.  The people that he was ministering too took him out into a remote part of the countryside so that they could worship the Lord and they were there for the greater part of the evening when one of them said to him “let’s stay up all night to worship the Lord,” and so they did for these people were starved for the Word and for worship and because they felt safe where they were they wanted to take advantage of this opportunity and worship the Lord all night.

                The Word of God is not to be worshiped, but it surely is to be respected and reverenced for what it is.  There is much in the Word of God that speaks about the Word of God and one passage that jumps into my mind that does this is the 119^th Psalm, which is the longest chapter in the Word of God taken from the longest book in the Word of God.  It is a beautiful portion of Scripture written by a man who loved the Law of the Lord and showed his love for it by writing this wonderful Psalm.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I desire to have a greater respect for the Word of God and continue to study it each day and read it each day, and honor it by doing these things each day.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Read and honor the Word of God.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/27/2011 11:35:49 AM