9/15/2011 9:29:37 AM
SPIRITUAL DIARY
My Worship Time Focus: The support promise
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Nehemiah 13:10-14
Message of the verses: 10 ¶ I also discovered that the portions of the Levites had not been given them, so that the Levites and the singers who performed the service had gone away, each to his own field. 11 So I reprimanded the officials and said, "Why is the house of God forsaken?" Then I gathered them together and restored them to their posts. 12 All Judah then brought the tithe of the grain, wine and oil into the storehouses. 13 In charge of the storehouses I appointed Shelemiah the priest, Zadok the scribe, and Pedaiah of the Levites, and in addition to them was Hanan the son of Zaccur, the son of Mattaniah; for they were considered reliable, and it was their task to distribute to their kinsmen. 14 Remember me for this, O my God, and do not blot out my loyal deeds which I have performed for the house of my God and its services.”
As I begin this SD I want to go back again to one of the promises that these Jewish exiles had made with Nehemiah in the tenth chapter of Nehemiah in order to show that they are now in this chapter breaking that covenant that they had made with him and most of all with the Lord: “For the sons of Israel and the sons of Levi shall bring the contribution of the grain, the new wine and the oil to the chambers; there are the utensils of the sanctuary, the priests who are ministering, the gatekeepers and the singers. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God” (Ne.10:39).
Nehemiah takes care of this problem and gets the people back to where they should have been. What we seen in this passage are a couple of items that need to be addressed. The first one is the importance of the temple worship, and keeping the temple worship going that way that God had intended to operate. This was the center of worship for these people and the Lord had set up how it should work through Moses when he had built the tabernacle and then when David planned for the temple he set up other things that went along with what Moses had set up because the temple was much bigger than the tabernacle. God had led David to do things like having choirs at the temple to sing and he even wrote the music for them to sing.
It is easy to make worship just a process that does not flow out of the heart and that makes it wrong. We all worship in one way or another and worship is 24/7/365. How this worship is going is up to us.
The other item that is discussed is giving. The giving of the tithes and offerings stopped and so the room where these things were stored became empty and so that is why Tobiah could stay in it. Dr. Wiersbe speaks of giving in this section and has some very good things to say, and so I wish to quote a couple of them here. “When God’s people start to decline spiritually, one of the first places is shows up is in their giving. ‘For where your treasure is, there will your hearts be also.’ (Matthew 6:21) “Giving is both the ‘thermostat’ and the ‘thermometer’ of the Christian life: It measures our spiritual ‘temperature’ and also helps set it at the right level.”
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Spiritual meaning for my life today: Since we left a church that we had gone to for many years and have not joined with another church, my giving has not been as “normal” or as regular as it was before. I am grateful for this reminder from this section and will get back on track as soon as I can.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
1. Do your giving while your living so your are knowing where it is going.
2. Continue to learn contentment.
9/15/2011 10:10:39 AM
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