Holland State Park, Holland, Michigan
How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when you yourself fail to see the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ~ Luke 6:42
Ten a.m. found us seated in the fairly expansive Beechwood Church. And I hate to say it, but despite people around us being very welcoming, we didn’t feel the Holy Spirit here like we did last week. Oh, they said the “right things” and did the “right things”, but somehow, for whatever reason, we didn’t feel Him. And it’s entirely possible that it was us and not them. Who knows.
Anyway, we once again find ourselves embroiled in a sermon series. 😊
This time, it’s the book of Nehemiah. Here’s a few things Blaine and I know about Nehemiah:
- He wasn’t a prophet.
- He was a VIP in the capital city of what was then, Persia (formerly Babylon, formerly Assyria)
- His position was the most trusted position – that of cupbearer for the King. I know that doesn’t sound very important, but it was. It was his job to keep someone from poisoning the King. And that was a big deal at the time when there was a lot of that going around.
- He was a Jew who’d been raised in Persia. (the Jewish exiles had returned to Jerusalem almost 100 years ago)
- He received word that the wall around Jerusalem (for protection) was still not rebuilt, and it saddened him so much, that he began praying about it.
- God opened doors for him to go and not only check it out, but get it built, and all with the King’s authority.
- So he did. And he was not always a gentle shepherd. But he got the job done, and done quickly.
- He stayed and became governor of Israel for (I believe) 12 years.
Today’s lesson focused on how, growing up in Persia as he did, eventually working in a pagan environment as he did, how did he develop such a close relationship with the Lord?
- Vision grows out of a vibrant relationship with God. His parents taught him. He read scripture and no doubt committed it to memory. He prayed. And during all this, he was groomed into leadership.
- Prayer enables us to connect with God and learn His ways. The prayer we have in Nehemiah 1:5-11 wasn’t his first. In fact, he’d spent about four months mourning, praying and fasting before God over the news he received. Four months! You can be sure that with that kind of commitment, he’d already developed a relationship with the Lord. He and God have both been working towards this climax.
As an aside, if you read his prayer, you may notice something – in the Old Testament, prayers were very formal. Their praise, the way they addressed God was very formal. In the New Testament, Jesus taught us that now, our praise and prayers are more like family, with God as the Father. Distant vs. Close.
Nehemiah’s prayer pattern (at least in the one we have from him), is praise, confession and expectation.
Hopefully, you know about praise already, and practice it every day.
Nehemiah’s confession of sins though is a bit different than what we’d probably do – – he (along with all the great men in Scripture) confessed not only his sins, but the sins of the nation as well. The people as a whole. There must be ownership of sin. We must be honest before God and others, recognizing our faults and limitations and don’t finger-point. Take out your log, before working on your neighbor’s speck.
As far as expectation – stop pursuing “all” and start pursuing “next”. Nehemiah asked God for an opportunity and God (after four months) granted his request. We must learn to do the same. Ask and trust God to go before us and pave the way first.
We must start by believing that God wants to do something through us – – because He does! It may not be a “Billy Graham” thing. It may not be a “Nehemiah” thing. But He has a plan for each and every one of us! But in order for Him to convey that plan, in order for Him to use us, He has to be able to communicate it to us. In order to do that, we have to have a relationship with Him. Have you ever had a relationship with someone you infrequently, or never spend time with?
We had a “Sunday” day today. In the past, when we lived in our sticks and bricks house and had jobs and a home and other responsibilities to care for, Sunday afternoon was almost always our day of rest.
We did that today. Blaine watched sports. And went for a walk – without his phone. I blogged and took a short read (aka nap). And then, when the time was right, we headed for the beach and another glorious sunset.
We learned some interesting information about this house when we visited the pump house museum.
You’ve heard of Amway? (we were in Amway once upon a time)
Well, this house belongs to one of the founders son’s!
And in addition, part of their deck extends onto government property (ooops!), so they made a deal – they keep their deck and lease the property with the money being used to upkeep the lighthouse and channel. : )
