Do I Live In My Own Little World?

Esther Chp 1

What strikes me here is Xerxes' focus on his own little world.  Early in this chapter, great lengths are taken to describe how vast Xerxes' rule is and how splendorous his wealth is: 

¹ This is what happened during the time of Xerxes,^[a] the Xerxes who ruled over 127 provinces stretching from India to Cush^[b]: ² At that time King Xerxes reigned from his royal throne in the citadel of Susa, ³ and in the third year of his reign he gave a banquet for all his nobles and officials. The military leaders of Persia and Media, the princes, and the nobles of the provinces were present.

  

⁴ For a full 180 days he displayed the vast wealth of his kingdom and the splendor and glory of his majesty. ⁵⁶ The garden had hangings of white and blue linen, fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl and other costly stones. ⁷ Wine was served in goblets of gold, each one different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant, in keeping with the king’s liberality. ⁸ By the king’s command each guest was allowed to drink with no restrictions, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man what he wished. When these days were over, the king gave a banquet, lasting seven days, in the enclosed garden of the king’s palace, for all the people from the least to the greatest who were in the citadel of Susa.

Yet for all of the vastness of Xerxes' rule and the splendor of his wealth, it of course does not compare with the majesty of Our Lord:

`¹ In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Genesis 1:1)

Is there anything more vast than the heavens and the earth?  No.  Is there anything more splendorous than the heavens and the earth? No again!

Yet here is Xerxes in all his glory with a focus on his own greatness - failing to comprehend how his greatness is NOTHING compared to God.

My Prayer: Lord, your works and your splendor is indeed great!  Yet you find time to love me, to seek me out and of course you died for me!  How great is that!  I feel that I am not worthy because of my uncleanliness and my sin.   In particular, I focus on myself far too often and I neglect you and for that I am truly sorry.  I do pray Lord that you will purify me of my sin, that you will transform my heart and my life so that I can truly focus solely on you.

No Surprise Here...We Are ALL Unclean

Nehemiah Chp 13

To the dismay of Nehemiah (although no one should be surprised), the Israelites, despite there "new" covenant with God, continue to neglect the house of God and God's will for them.

Here I learned about the evil thing Eliashib had done in providing Tobiah a room in the courts of the house of God. ⁸ I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room. ⁹ I gave orders to purify the rooms, and then I put back into them the equipment of the house of God, with the grain offerings and the incense.

 ¹⁰ I also learned that the portions assigned to the Levites had not been given to them, and that all the Levites and musicians responsible for the service had gone back to their own fields. ¹¹ So I rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then I called them together and stationed them at their posts.

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 ¹⁵ In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, together with wine, grapes, figs and all other kinds of loads. And they were bringing all this into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. Therefore I warned them against selling food on that day. ¹⁶ People from Tyre who lived in Jerusalem were bringing in fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them in Jerusalem on the Sabbath to the people of Judah. ¹⁷ I rebuked the nobles of Judah and said to them, “What is this wicked thing you are doing—desecrating the Sabbath day? ¹⁸ Didn’t your ancestors do the same things, so that our God brought all this calamity on us and on this city? Now you are stirring up more wrath against Israel by desecrating the Sabbath.” 

Why should we be surprised - I mean c'mon I know of myself I cannot avoid sin - how silly is this?

While one can view Nehemiah as a great man, we can fault him for expecting too much.

We need Jesus and Jesus alone as our savior for only He can take away our sins and help us lead a life worthy of God's glory.  Even with Jesus, we are going to be who we are - humans.  And as such we will continue to sin until the day we die.  Until then we need to go to Jesus and ask forgiveness and to ask for Him to purify us of our sin as only He can do.  We also need to see others as Jesus does and pray that we can do this even when we don't want to or won't.

My Prayer: Lord, only you are a perfect Jesus...and You are.  And it continues to amaze me that You - our great God - love me and you died for me and that you desire me.  Lord, please forgive me for my sin because it is daily and painful.  I do wish that you can help rid me of my sin and that you will transform my heart and life so that I can more pure and more like you.  Please do help me Jesus.

Can We Truly Say "We Will Not Neglect The House Of Our God"...I Think Not!

Nehemiah Chp 10

What is striking here is the very last verse of this chapter:

“We will not neglect the house of our God.” 

While I can appreciate what Nehemiah and the others were trying to do to create a new covenant with God whom they had already repeatedly neglected, the Truth is that we WILL neglect God!

It says so here in that famous exchange between Jesus and Peter at the last supper.

²⁷ “You will all fall away,” Jesus told them, “for it is written:

   “‘I will strike the shepherd,

     and the sheep will be scattered.’

   ²⁸ But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee.”

 ²⁹ Peter declared, “Even if all fall away, I will not.”

   ³⁰ “Truly I tell you,” Jesus answered, “today—yes, tonight—before the rooster crows twice^[e] you yourself will disown me three times.”

  

³¹ But Peter insisted emphatically, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the others said the same. (Mark 14-27-31)

Truth says we ARE fallen and we ARE lost and this can only be reconciled through the birth and resurrection of Jesus and our own acceptance of Christ as our Lord and Savior.  We can't say we will not neglect God because we will!  But when we do we can take comfort that if we repent we can ask God for His forgiveness, for Him to purify us of our sin and for us to grow in our love and trust in Jesus that we can follow Him with all of our heart as we are commanded to do.

My Prayer: Lord, that you came to earth for us, lived a perfect life, then died for us is MORE than anything I can ask anyone to ever do for me and for that I am in awe that you love me and desire me.  Thank you Jesus.  Forgive me that I DO neglect you (daily) and help rid me of my earthly idols and laziness and help me live a life that truly glorifies you and serves you and your will.

Our God Will ALWAYS Welcome Us Back...However, We Must Repent

Nehemiah Chp 9

I see here a great testimony of God's love and mercy in the face of consistent sin....and repentance.

Of the Israelites:

¹⁹ “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. ²⁰ You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. ²¹ For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. 

I see a God that will always welcome us back.  I fail to read my bible everyday as God desires, but God loves it when I do come back to be with Him.  I never have to worry about this...no shame.  How awesome is that!  God YOU are awesome. 

My Prayer: God, you ARE awesome!  You welcome me back every time and it is AWESOME to spend time with you!  Please forgive me of my neglect and rid me of my laziness so I can truly give my life away to you....so I can die to self and be born again of you.  Help me truly love and follow you.

God's Word Brings Great Joy!

Nehemiah Chp 8

For all of humanity, many have struggled to understand and find purpose for their lives - people instinctively know that they can find joy in knowing that they are bringing value into the world.   Simply said, knowing you are on task brings you great joy. 

For us believers, it should be straightforward...we exist to glorify God because He has a purpose for us all.  While one might quibble about what "glorify" means for us specifically, one thing is clear - we glorify God by knowing Him, loving Him, trusting Him, and following Him (among many things we must do to be in relationship with God).

This is reinforced in Nehemiah after those who hear the word of God are joyful:

¹² Then all the people went away to eat and drink, to send portions of food and to celebrate with great joy, because they now understood the words that had been made known to them. 

My Prayer: Lord, I know you made me for your glory and I have seen your work in my life and I am amazed at your power and might.  Yet I am humbled because I cannot see sometimes how a sinner like myself can be used by You.  Forgive me for not trusting in you to work through me.  Help me know you more, love you more, trust you more, and follow you more.

Am I Fighting For the Glory Of God For His Will?

Nehemiah Chp 4

We know it is a battle.  Pastor Scott has also indicated in a recent sermon that the cost of following Christ is great.  The questions become:

• Am I fighting for the glory of God
• AmI fighting for my family
• Do I trust God that He will protect me

Nehemiah did.

⁴ Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. ⁵ Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of the builders.

...

In the face of opposition and harm, and in light of Nehemiah's prayer, Israel continued to do God's will:

⁶ So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart. 

...

Again in the face of opposition, harm, and threats, Israel pressed on with Nehemiah's prayer:

But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat. 

...

And of course, God delivers and protects.

5 When our enemies heard that we were aware of their plot and that God had frustrated it, we all returned to the wall, each to our own work. 

My Prayer: Lord you strength and might is great and you are my rock!  Forgive me when I forsake you for my own strength or my lack of trust in you.  I seek to be near you and I pray that I can love you more, trust you more, obey you more and also that I can glorify you with my life.

Amen, Ezra - We Are Unclean!

Ezra Chp 9

As I ponder what I read, it strikes me that Ezra's shame, guilt and humility in the face of God, in the face of God's grace despite the Israelites' sin, reflects a place where we must all start in our faith.  We are sinful and we need God - desperately! 

¹³ “What has happened to us is a result of our evil deeds and our great guilt, and yet, our God, you have punished us less than our sins deserved and have given us a remnant like this. ¹⁴ Shall we then break your commands again and intermarry with the peoples who commit such detestable practices? Would you not be angry enough with us to destroy us, leaving us no remnant or survivor? ¹⁵ LORD, the God of Israel, you are righteous! We are left this day as a remnant. Here we are before you in our guilt, though because of it not one of us can stand in your presence.” 

Is Ezra not reflecting what we all reflect or what we all should reflect?

If we are to draw close to God, and walk with God closely, we must start with we NEED God.  Of course we need God for many reasons but one key reason why we need God is that He is perfect, He washes away our sin and He provides heart and life transformation, and He provides eternal life!

My Prayer: Lord, indeed how righteous and glorious you are as you are full of love and grace for us, for me, for all humanity that our sins can be washed clean and that we can sit beside you in heaven forever and forever  - this is AMAZING!  I am deeply sorry for how I sin daily and I KNOW I need you so please purify me of my sin and help me glorify you with my life.

How Bold Is My Faith?

Ezra Chp 4

After Israel falls into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, exiles begin to return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the template and the altar.  The boldness of their faith was on display:

³ Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the LORD, both the morning and evening sacrifices. (Ezra 3:3)

 Yet as soon as opposition builds against the rebuilding, all work stopped.

²³ As soon as the copy of the letter of King Artaxerxes was read to Rehum and Shimshai the secretary and their associates, they went immediately to the Jews in Jerusalem and compelled them by force to stop. 

 ²⁴ Thus the work on the house of God in Jerusalem came to a standstill until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.

I cannot criticize Israel here as my own faith is weak.

My Prayer: Lord, you work is amazing and you are amazing God and I should be shouting from the rooftops how great you are.  Yet I am not and I am deeply sorry for not loving you with all of my heart and soul as you command.  Please forgive me for this and please DO help me love you more, seek you, trust you more, be BOLD in my faith and more than anything glorify you.

Do I Listen, and Am I Deserving of Grace?

2 Chronicles Chp 33

Wow...in the face of the evil Manasseh did in the eyes of the Lord, God exercised great mercy.

 ¹ Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-five years. ² He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. ³ He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had demolished; he also erected altars to the Baals and made Asherah poles. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. ⁴ He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “My Name will remain in Jerusalem forever.” ⁵ In both courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. ⁶ He sacrificed his children in the fire in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, practiced divination and witchcraft, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger.  

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Even though the Lord spoke to him, Manasseh continued to do evil in the eyes of the Lord.

¹⁰ The LORD spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention. 

So the Lord allowed Assyria to siege the armies of Manasseh and Manesseh was take prisoner.

¹² In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his ancestors. ¹³

And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.  

What does it take for me to listen to the Lord? For I know that I don't listen to the Lord in many areas of my life and I sin willfully.

My Prayer: Lord, your love and mercy abounds as I am blessed by you despite my failings. Oh how great you are!  Please forgive me for my worship of other idols and Gods and for my sin.  I desperately seek for you to purify me of my sin and for you to transform my life and my heart.  Help me love you more, seek you out, trust you more, follow you more and obey your will for my life.