Encouraging Worship

8/23/2011 7:15:30 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                                                                                                             Focus:  Encouraging worship

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                                         Reference:  Nehemiah 7:70-73

                Message of the verses:  “70  Some from among the heads of fathers’ households gave to the work. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 gold drachmas, 50 basins, 530 priests’ garments. 71  Some of the heads of fathers’ households gave into the treasury of the work 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,200 silver minas. 72  That which the rest of the people gave was 20,000 gold drachmas and 2,000 silver minas and 67 priests’ garments. 73  Now the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the temple servants and all Israel, lived in their cities. And when the seventh month came, the sons of Israel were in their cities.”

                We have seen in this long chapter a list of names, names that are important to the Lord and that should be important to the believer, for if those names were important to the Lord then our names are important to the Lord.  When you go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible you can see that each day of creation was important and each day built upon the other and then you see the final day of creation as the Lord made the man and the woman to tend the beautiful garden that He had prepared for them to live in.  That was what the preparation was for the creation of the man and the woman so that they would bring honor and glory to the Lord.  This shows us how important we as believers are to the Lord, so when we see this list of people we can be assured that they were important to the Lord for it would be through these people and the generations that followed that would prepare the way for the greatest event that ever came upon this earth the birth of the Messiah who came to bring salvation to God’s people and purchase us from the slave market of sin as He hung on the cross almost 2000 years ago.

                Dr. Wiersbe points out four different lessons that we can learn from this chapter of mostly names.  The first lesson is that people are important to God and this can be seen from the paragraph above.

                The second lesson that can be gleamed from this chapter is that it reminds us of the fact that God keeps accounts of His servants, and this can be seen in the work that had been accomplished in building the wall in the previous chapters and also in the giving of these gifts that are spoken of in the verses above.  As believers we will one day stand before the judgment seat of Jesus Christ (Romans 14:7-12) and we will receive rewards for the work that we have done through the power of the Holy Spirit for the cause of Christ.

                A third lesson we can learn from this chapter is that the Lord is able to keep His work going.  If we were on the earth at the time when Judah went into captivity we may have thought that God’s work in Jerusalem was finished, but that was not the case as seen in the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, Ester, and the post exile prophets of which Daniel was one of them.  Dr. Wiersbe writes “No matter how discouraging the situation might be, God is able to accomplish His purposes if we will trust Him and do His will.”

                The fourth and last lesson that Dr. Wiersbe points out that can be learned from this chapter is the most important and it is something that I went over in yesterday’s SD and that is we must all be sure that we know we are in the family of God.  Some of the priest could not prove that they were really priest because they were not found in the genealogical records but we can be sure that our names are written in the Lambs book if we confess that we are sinners and that Jesus Christ has paid for all of our sins and we believe in our hearts that Jesus truly did pay it all.  We then need to thank the Lord for this gracious gift that He provided for all who believe and invite Jesus into our lives to be our Savior and our Lord.

                Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for the reminder that I am important to the Lord, for there are times when this slips from my mind and this was a good reminder of this very precious truth.  I suppose that when I think of all that Christ did for me even before I became His child then I have to realize that I am important to Him, and this is important to me to realize.

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1.       Live my life like I am important to Christ.

2.       Continue to learn contentment.

8/23/2011 7:53:57 AM