PREPARATION AND PLANNING
CHAPTER ONE—Q&A (BUT NOT FAQ)
The temple is rebuilt. It wasn’t easy, lots of hard work and determination was required. There were obstacles and even periods of inactivity. But after the pages were turned on about 100 calendars, the temple was finally rebuilt.
When the world around them looked at them, they didn’t see a beautiful temple that reflected how awesome, marvelous, and powerful the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob really was. They saw a city that was in shambles and it was surrounded by brokenness; walls that were broken, burned, and beyond recognition in many places.
Many of the Israelites had a heart for God, but their testimony was greatly weakened because of the brokenness that they lived with everyday. We, too, can have a relationship with God and still have broken things in our lives that reflect poorly on our God.
The children of Israel lived with all of this shame and reproach until God called Nehemiah to a God-honoring, God-empowering task. What task? The same task God desires for all of His children: To see the broken areas of our lives restored so we can truly reflect God’s glory to the world around us.
Once I heard a young man say, “Why would I want what my mom has, just look at her life.” What do you say to a statement like that? Especially when he is telling the truth, her life is in shambles. His mom is a believer, who strives to love God, but when people see her all they see is a life of emotional chaos. Spiritual bondage to religion. Legalism as a safety net. Relationships in disarray. Where is the glory of a life-changing relationship with Jesus? Where is the Christ-likeness in her? Before I become judgmental, where is the life-changing relationship with God in my own life? I see it every now and then. But I need to see it more actively in my life. The passion for Christ-likeness should flow freely through my veins. I cry out, “Lord, I want to know You more. Lord, I need Your Spirit in me to produce the Fruit of the Spirit, evidence that my life is fully surrendered to You.”
We are going to closely examine how God used Nehemiah to bring healing and restoration to His people. The principals that we see in the book of Nehemiah have the potential to bring healing and restoration to our very own souls as well. As we study through the book of Nehemiah, may we all find the healing and restoration that we so desperately need. Instead of bringing shame to His name, let’s bring glory to His name. Let’s reflect God’s glory brighter to a lost and dying world!
Why do we bring shame to His name instead of glory? I think it’s because we are afraid to ask ourselves and God the tough questions? If we do not ask the right questions, by default, our lives will stay the same. Things will not change.
“Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.” Nehemiah 1:2
So many times, we just live in survival mode. We don’t ask ourselves the tough questions. Or we ask ourselves the questions instead of God. “God, why do I struggle with this issue? Is there a deeper issue? What are You trying to teach me though this struggle? Is there something I am supposed to be doing differently? Am I bringing this problem upon myself? If so, how?” There are many questions that we can ask. In Psalms, King David does a great job of not holding anything back. He fires off his questions to God and at Him. The questions fly like arrows up to heaven.
I remember hearing Joyce Meyers saying, “There is a different between a reason and an excuse.” She is right. So many times we are looking for excuses. But when we understand the reason we do things the way we do, we can seek with God’s guidance and power to go after the root of our issues.
We even need God’s help in knowing the right questions to ask. He is faithful. James 1:5-6a tells us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt…” If with faith and belief we ask Him, He will help us to know the right questions we need to be asking.
Also, when we don’t know the right questions to be asking, take comfort in the fact that the Holy Spirit is praying for us. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” Romans 8:26-27
As we trust that God Himself is praying for us and we with hearts filled with faith ask God for wisdom, God will lead us in a journey to know the right questions to ask.
Once we start asking the right questions, we need to respond to the questions correctly. It is important that we realize that every issue we face, has its own set of right questions to ask and the right responds to those questions will be different. There is not a simple three-step process—Ask yourselves these three important questions and you will be heading in the right direction. It does not work like that. But we can learn to seek God for the right questions. And He may chose to answer the questions or He may just let us ponder them for awhile or He may never answer our questions on this side of Heaven. But if He chooses to show us the answer, we need to trust that He will tell us how to appropriately respond to the answer He gives us.
As I think about questions, answers, and responding correctly a few Bible stories come to my mind. Can you think of any? I think of the rich, young ruler. “What must I do to inherit eternal life? (Mk. 10:17) He asked the right question. He received the right answer, but it wasn’t the answer he wanted to hear. He walked away instead of selling it all and following Jesus.
Take some time right now and read John 9. You we find lots of characters asking lots of questions. How many right questions can you find? How many wrong questions do you hear being asked? Who is asking the right ones? Who is asking the wrong ones? It is a interesting study. Go for it. Read it and examine the quality of the questions.
I would have loved to have titled this chapter “FAQ” (Frequently Asked Questions). It would have been creative, but it would unfortunately also be a lie. Most people are not willing to ask themselves the tough questions, let alone God. Are you willing to ask God the right question? Where is the best place to ask Him? The workshop of prayer. Why don’t you join me there, because it is where Nehemiah is going and we should join him.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
NEHEMIAH-INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Seven in the morning on January 2, 2010, and the only light in the room it the dim light of my computer. Because the wife and three children are still sleeping, the only noise I hear is the buzz of the water heater. My mind is pondering a new year. New opportunities. New chances. New hope…Hope that this year will be better. This year I will finally get things right. Lose some weight. (Last year I lost 25 pounds, but there’s still more to lose!) Lose the weight of sins, the ones that so easily entangle me and weight me down. Look here are some attitudes that need an overhaul. Maybe an overhaul is an understatement. Like my weight, I just need to lose them too. Then there are relationships that need mending. A new year offers a clean slate.
New Year’s Day reminds me of one of my favorite days of the year, the opening day of baseball. Every opening day my mind is filled with this startling truth: Even the last year’s last place team starts the new season tied for first place. 0 wins and 0 losses. Trust me, as a Detroit Tiger baseball fan, that truth excited me for many seasons!
We love clean slates. That’s why we like New Year’s Day. But why do we wait for the calendar to clean the slate? I woke up this morning thinking of the Scripture, “God’s mercies are new EVERY morning.” If we cry out to God, each new day is a clean slate. Let’s call out to Him this morning for His new mercies, for fresh grace. The grace we need to make it through today. Not yesterday’s grace or the grace we will need tomorrow. Ask for today’s grace, today’s new mercies.
Ketchikan is the closest big city to where I live. It is only three hours away. Three hours of riding on a ferry boat. Ketchikan is where I go when I need a WalMart and McDonalds fix! But I don’t have to go there to get the morning paper. The Ketchikan Daily News is only daily paper I can buy on Prince of Wales Island. On New Year’s Eve, the paper printed some responses to what people wanted to see happen in 2010. One person’s response I found interesting. She wrote, “…I want to see our town continue to grow. I want to see everything stay the same.”
She speaks for many of us. A profound riddle of impossibility. We want to grow. We want to become more like Christ in our actions and attitudes. More like Christ in our thought lives. More like Christ in our relationships. But, deep down inside we want everything to stay the same. We cannot have both. We will either commit to personal growth or we will by default simply choose to stay the same way. We will either grow physically, spiritually, mentally, socially, emotionally or we will stay the same. Like a pool of water that is stagnant. Nothing new is happening in me. Just the same old same old. The alarm goes off. A new day. Time to put on the survival suit. Just plow through it. Do what needs to be done so that when the day is over I can call it a day. (I have always wondered: Why do we wait until it’s over to call it a day. At that point shouldn’t we be calling it a night?)
It doesn’t have to be that way. God’s calendar says, “My mercies are new every morning. You don’t have to wait for a new year. Call out to Me and I will rain new mercies down on you!” New mercies. I love new mercies. I need God’s new mercies. How about you?
That is what Nehemiah is all about. New opportunities to see God do in us and through us what He desires for today. We can choose to let God’s glory shine through us or we can choose to let everything stay the same way. We cannot have it both ways. What will it be: stay the same or grow?
Seven in the morning on January 2, 2010, and the only light in the room it the dim light of my computer. Because the wife and three children are still sleeping, the only noise I hear is the buzz of the water heater. My mind is pondering a new year. New opportunities. New chances. New hope…Hope that this year will be better. This year I will finally get things right. Lose some weight. (Last year I lost 25 pounds, but there’s still more to lose!) Lose the weight of sins, the ones that so easily entangle me and weight me down. Look here are some attitudes that need an overhaul. Maybe an overhaul is an understatement. Like my weight, I just need to lose them too. Then there are relationships that need mending. A new year offers a clean slate.
New Year’s Day reminds me of one of my favorite days of the year, the opening day of baseball. Every opening day my mind is filled with this startling truth: Even the last year’s last place team starts the new season tied for first place. 0 wins and 0 losses. Trust me, as a Detroit Tiger baseball fan, that truth excited me for many seasons!
We love clean slates. That’s why we like New Year’s Day. But why do we wait for the calendar to clean the slate? I woke up this morning thinking of the Scripture, “God’s mercies are new EVERY morning.” If we cry out to God, each new day is a clean slate. Let’s call out to Him this morning for His new mercies, for fresh grace. The grace we need to make it through today. Not yesterday’s grace or the grace we will need tomorrow. Ask for today’s grace, today’s new mercies.
Ketchikan is the closest big city to where I live. It is only three hours away. Three hours of riding on a ferry boat. Ketchikan is where I go when I need a WalMart and McDonalds fix! But I don’t have to go there to get the morning paper. The Ketchikan Daily News is only daily paper I can buy on Prince of Wales Island. On New Year’s Eve, the paper printed some responses to what people wanted to see happen in 2010. One person’s response I found interesting. She wrote, “…I want to see our town continue to grow. I want to see everything stay the same.”
She speaks for many of us. A profound riddle of impossibility. We want to grow. We want to become more like Christ in our actions and attitudes. More like Christ in our thought lives. More like Christ in our relationships. But, deep down inside we want everything to stay the same. We cannot have both. We will either commit to personal growth or we will by default simply choose to stay the same way. We will either grow physically, spiritually, mentally, socially, emotionally or we will stay the same. Like a pool of water that is stagnant. Nothing new is happening in me. Just the same old same old. The alarm goes off. A new day. Time to put on the survival suit. Just plow through it. Do what needs to be done so that when the day is over I can call it a day. (I have always wondered: Why do we wait until it’s over to call it a day. At that point shouldn’t we be calling it a night?)
It doesn’t have to be that way. God’s calendar says, “My mercies are new every morning. You don’t have to wait for a new year. Call out to Me and I will rain new mercies down on you!” New mercies. I love new mercies. I need God’s new mercies. How about you?
That is what Nehemiah is all about. New opportunities to see God do in us and through us what He desires for today. We can choose to let God’s glory shine through us or we can choose to let everything stay the same way. We cannot have it both ways. What will it be: stay the same or grow?
I AM NOT NORMAL...AND I AM OK WITH IT! (Written 12-01-09)
I am not normal. Let’s get that straight from the very beginning. Here is an example taken right out of my life. It happened today...the day I started documenting my non-normalcy. It started like any other day.
It is my wife’s birthday. I didn’t sleep very well, which had nothing to do with the birthday, as I have already bought her gifts and so I don’t have to fear sleeping on the couch tonight. I woke up, ate a quick breakfast and left to go to the church to make a few copies for the Birthday Girl’s Bible study she was going to do this morning. I got in our SUV and shut the door. The passenger side window was icy, but still I drove over to the church. Partway to the church, I noticed my door was not shut tight. But I didn’t let it stop me.
When I arrived at the church, I went to open the door…It was stuck. I pulled on the handle and pushed as hard as I could. It was stuck. “Maybe the seatbelt is caught in it.” No, the seatbelt wasn’t stuck. I immediately called my lovely bride and asked her if she has ever had a problem with the door. “No,” was her answer. I told her, “I guess I will have to climb out the passenger door.”
I hung up and climbed onto the plastic thing in the middle. It didn’t look pretty but I could reach the door. Pulling on the lever, the results were similar to my door. It didn’t move an inch. Not even a centimeter. “That door must be frozen shut.” So I reached back and tried the door on the passenger side in the backseat. “That’s frozen too.” I was down to one door and fortunately it was not on the icy side of the car. I reached back and, “oh, no.” It wouldn’t open.
Before I left the driveway, I had picked up a metal baseball bat that I needed for a comedy performance my youngest son and I am going to use for a talent show on Saturday. I noticed it sitting up front. “Maybe the Lord had me grab it because He knew I was going to need it to smash a window.”
Before I did that, I called my wife. She answered, “Well, are you free?” I cried, “The power doors are broken and I cannot get out of the car.” I was really beginning to panic. My wife was flustered and was racking her brain trying to figure out why this could all be happening to me. She thought, being the wise woman that she is and having been married to me for seventeen and a half years, that she should ask me a very important question. “Are the doors locked?” I hit the lock button and tried to open the door and low and behold, it opened right up. My wife had a really good laugh at my expense. So did I. One of those deep laughs that are uncontrollable. She said, without stopping her laughter, “I have heard of people who lock themselves out of their cars, but I have never heard of someone locking themselves in their car.” More laughter. Ha, ha, ha. That’s my point. I am not normal. Normal people would lock themselves out; not in.
I started thinking, which I should have started doing a few minutes earlier. Why is it that as human beings, our natural tendency is to take things to the worst-case scenario? You’re not wearing a coat; you are going to catch pneumonia. A kid is climbing a tree and our first thought is, “Don’t fall out of that tree.” Or “If you fall out of that tree, don’t come running to me.” There is even a series of books that are called “Worst-case Scenarios.” We need to learn to trust God more and learn to live life to the fullest. Let’s all agree to quite looking for the worst-case scenario and start seeking for the “Blessed-case Scenario.” Because we are more blessed then we realize. I know I am blessed. God didn’t have me bring that bat to help me escape my man-eating car. But He saved me from myself before I smashed one of the windows to smithereens. Now I can laugh at myself. Had I smashed a window, I wouldn’t be laughing, I’d be crying! But even though I am blessed, please don’t confuse me for someone who is normal.
It is my wife’s birthday. I didn’t sleep very well, which had nothing to do with the birthday, as I have already bought her gifts and so I don’t have to fear sleeping on the couch tonight. I woke up, ate a quick breakfast and left to go to the church to make a few copies for the Birthday Girl’s Bible study she was going to do this morning. I got in our SUV and shut the door. The passenger side window was icy, but still I drove over to the church. Partway to the church, I noticed my door was not shut tight. But I didn’t let it stop me.
When I arrived at the church, I went to open the door…It was stuck. I pulled on the handle and pushed as hard as I could. It was stuck. “Maybe the seatbelt is caught in it.” No, the seatbelt wasn’t stuck. I immediately called my lovely bride and asked her if she has ever had a problem with the door. “No,” was her answer. I told her, “I guess I will have to climb out the passenger door.”
I hung up and climbed onto the plastic thing in the middle. It didn’t look pretty but I could reach the door. Pulling on the lever, the results were similar to my door. It didn’t move an inch. Not even a centimeter. “That door must be frozen shut.” So I reached back and tried the door on the passenger side in the backseat. “That’s frozen too.” I was down to one door and fortunately it was not on the icy side of the car. I reached back and, “oh, no.” It wouldn’t open.
Before I left the driveway, I had picked up a metal baseball bat that I needed for a comedy performance my youngest son and I am going to use for a talent show on Saturday. I noticed it sitting up front. “Maybe the Lord had me grab it because He knew I was going to need it to smash a window.”
Before I did that, I called my wife. She answered, “Well, are you free?” I cried, “The power doors are broken and I cannot get out of the car.” I was really beginning to panic. My wife was flustered and was racking her brain trying to figure out why this could all be happening to me. She thought, being the wise woman that she is and having been married to me for seventeen and a half years, that she should ask me a very important question. “Are the doors locked?” I hit the lock button and tried to open the door and low and behold, it opened right up. My wife had a really good laugh at my expense. So did I. One of those deep laughs that are uncontrollable. She said, without stopping her laughter, “I have heard of people who lock themselves out of their cars, but I have never heard of someone locking themselves in their car.” More laughter. Ha, ha, ha. That’s my point. I am not normal. Normal people would lock themselves out; not in.
I started thinking, which I should have started doing a few minutes earlier. Why is it that as human beings, our natural tendency is to take things to the worst-case scenario? You’re not wearing a coat; you are going to catch pneumonia. A kid is climbing a tree and our first thought is, “Don’t fall out of that tree.” Or “If you fall out of that tree, don’t come running to me.” There is even a series of books that are called “Worst-case Scenarios.” We need to learn to trust God more and learn to live life to the fullest. Let’s all agree to quite looking for the worst-case scenario and start seeking for the “Blessed-case Scenario.” Because we are more blessed then we realize. I know I am blessed. God didn’t have me bring that bat to help me escape my man-eating car. But He saved me from myself before I smashed one of the windows to smithereens. Now I can laugh at myself. Had I smashed a window, I wouldn’t be laughing, I’d be crying! But even though I am blessed, please don’t confuse me for someone who is normal.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)