Rise up with Passion for God's call on your life

Background:The book of Nehemiah ends with a look at Nehemiah as a man, working towards fulfilling God's plan through him. The Jerusalem wall was dedicated and the chosen people started dwelling in the ruins of Jerusalem city and rebuilding it as they lived there. Nehemiah had set up a good organisation of people to manage the affairs at the temple of Jerusalem. There were singers(worship leaders), caretakers of the storerooms of the temple where all the offerings of grains and other materials were stored. There were priests, gatekeepers and people of all sorts to serve at the temple. Once all was settled Nehemiah had returned to his work at the king's palace and while he was away things didn't go so well. Remember that guy Tobiah who had harassed them throughout the time they were building, he had convinced one of the caretakers of the storerooms to make space for him in the one of the rooms in the temple and was living there. Not only that the portions assigned to the Levites hadn't been given to them. The people of Judah had gone back to working on Sabbath day. Some of the people in Judah had married women outside their tribe and their kids weren't taught of the ways of the Lord, rather they were speaking the language of Ashdod. All this made Nehemiah very very mad and angry at the disobedience, the same disobedience which had cost their ancestors to forfeit their blessings.

Lessons I learnt from Nehemiah 12-13

1. Beware of the usurper-Its easy to hang out with the people who have made it, but rarely will you find someone who will stick by someone who is working towards reaching their goal. They will be filthy from the days work, tired, not so famous..etc but would you still stick with them through their trials ? Tobiah is not such a guy, he used all his efforts in trying to discourage the builders of the wall(Nehemiah 2) and now when everything is all set, he managed to get himself a room in one of the storehouses(Nehemiah 13:4-5) of God!!! Beware of these for they are there not to support your work but at all times to destroy, even our enemy the devil, forever ready to encroach upon the territory that God has given us to build.


2. Never treat a usurper kindly-When Nehemiah found out that Tobiah had taken a room in the temple of God the Bible says "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. " He didn't give him a warning and wait for him to leave, he threw out his things. If there be something in our spiritual life, or our body the temple of the Holy Spirit that is not right, not from God, not bringing glory to God but rather stealing from God's Work in our lives, throw them out. Grab them and throw them out. Don't give such behaviours, feelings, thoughts that bring our spiritual life down, any foothold.


3. Passion for the Lord's work-Nehemiah was so passionate about the work God had given him, he was willing to do whatever it took for him to keep the work going just as the Lord wanted to. He became a violent man when it came to obeying God. He threw Tobiah's things out of the temple room, he beat some men and pulled out their hair when he found they had been disobedient and mingled with other women. Even Jesus turned over the tables at the temple where people were trading in the house of God. I wonder do I have a passion to do that?

Conclusion: Matthew 11:12 "And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize--a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion]."

Nehemiah did not go about the work God had given him, in a gentle calm manner. He had been assigned with certain plans and ideas that God had given and he was going to do anything to make God's plan happen. He suffered violent assault through the enemies who sneered and jeered at him as they built the wall, yet he stuck by his task with the weapons and everything and finished it. Now when all was done, he wasn't sitting by the wall and admiring the temple and the wall, he was guarding it with his whole passion and determination. Lets get God's work through our lives done in passion. Jesus finished His work in 3.5 yrs of His life and He did it with such a passion it still changes lives. The Bible says that same power is at work within us who believe, then why can't we see it. Believers in the Living God- rise up in passion to fulfil God's calling on your life.

18I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, 20which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, 21far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. 22And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

Ephesians 1:18-23

Volunteers

Background:Nehemiah 11 The time has now come for Jerusalem city, a ruin now, with broken homes to be rebuilt. God put in Nehemiah's heart to gather all the Israelites and I find that there were 3 ways people would be settled in Jerusalem. There is one thing common about them, they are all Israelites, God's chosen people, all are from the same chosen group of God.

1. Leaders of the people
2. Chosen by casting lots
3. Volunteers

Lessons I learnt from Nehemiah 11

Jerusalem, the city is still in ruins and for anyone to even think of staying there would require them to build their house, or rebuild the ruins. In human terms it was not an easy or grand affair that they had to go for. Yet those that were leaders of people, those that were chosen through lots would have to stay in Jerusalem. What I was impressed with, were some who volunteered to live in the ruined city, despite of the fact that it would need a lot of hard work to get a home into working condition. Even in Nehemiah 11:2 "2 The people commended all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem". Isn't that a challenge.

The leader-Once someone has been established a leader, they have no choice but to remain as a leader whether they like it as a task or not. Though they may not want to live in Jerusalem, they would have to live in Jerusalem. So they are only left with 2 choices, to live happily ever after or to live groaning about it. If they live happily they will surely be a blessing to others, if they groan it will only be a pain for them and no one would reap any benefits out of it, whether them or someone else.All the leaders God called to lead His people were of one or the other kind. Most of them would take up the leadership happily yet they would always have something to moan about.Remember this dialogue between God and Moses Exodus 4:10-13"10 Moses said to the LORD, "O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue."
11 The LORD said to him, "Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD ? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say."
13 But Moses said, "O Lord, please send someone else to do it."

The one chosen by lot-As long as their name wasn't picked out in the lot they would have been much relieved, but once called they would probably feel the same way as the not-so-happy leaders would feel. .Acts 1:26 choosing the 12th apostle was by lot.

The volunteer-As I think about a volunteer, I am reminded of one beautiful person from the Bible, her life has always taught me some very very powerful lessons. Ruth, a moabite woman, who volunteered to her mother-in-law Naomi "16And Ruth said, Urge me not to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. [b]Your people shall be my people and your God my God. 17Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts me from you."(Ruth 1:16-17) What was there for her that she go with Naomi? Also Moab was a group of people rejected by God, then how would she find favor with Naomi's God? Yet she volunteered and worked in obedience to her mother-in-law becoming faithful, expecting nothing, but to just be with her mother-in-law. Knowing, her life was practically over if she volunteered to go with her, Naomi tried to talk her out of it but it didn't work. She had made up her mind to go with her, no matter what she'd have to face, when the Israelites back in Naomi's town would see her, the moabite, in God's town. Her faithfulness brought her to a wonderful place and put her name in a list of record even she would have never imagined. Yes in Matthew 1, as the great grandmom of David the king and thereby great great great .....grandmom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Can you see the blessing of a life volunteered? Not even from a chosen group of people, yet she saw something about Naomi's God and her people that caused her to be drawn into the family of God. Wow.

Conclusion:We are not Israelites, so essentially not chosen people of God. Yet when Jesus Christ our Lord came into this world, He broke down all socio-political barriers of faith and opened the way for even Gentiles to enter into God's precious promise. Ruth the volunteer, found her way into the geneaology of Lord Jesus Christ, that, being a tremendous blessing for a moabite woman. For us our Lord Jesus has already opened the way, its upto us to go on forward as a willing volunteer, who knows the cost yet chooses to follow God, the Living God that Ruth chose to call her own and the same God who changed her life into such a tremendous blessing to this entire mankind, even to us.

Through Jesus 1 Peter 2:9 ".. you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." Can we willingly volunteer to rebuild the broken city of Jerusalem, our Jerusalem being this group of people estranged from their family of God. God never created anyone to perish, but that all may see His love and come back to His family. Can we volunteer in whatever way we can, no matter how awkward or difficult it may seem, like it might have been for Ruth, to participate in God's plan of restoration of lives to Him.

All of Life

Background:After days of reading the word of the Law of God which God had given Moses, the Israelites now take steps to carefully obey the Laws. They are now experiencing the returns on the disobedience of their ancestors and they have realised while God was faithful their ancestors were not and they want to take steps to change their lives so that from now on things will start getting right. They get together by families and heads of families and sign a document (Neh 10:28) to the Lord saying they will obey the Lord in all things about their life.

Their treaty covered their marriages(v30),their business(v31), their earnings and tithing(v32-33) , the priests give their word to bring wood for the altar of the Lord(v34), their firstfruits(v35-37) above all they end their treaty with God with this line "We will not neglect the house of our God." in v39 of Nehemiah 10.

Lessons from Nehemiah 10

1. Never too late to turn around and change your future-More than once, the Word of God gives examples from the lives of people who didn't look back when they turned to God and their future never became like their past.God has already laid down a law and it works exactly as it was supposed to work for blessings as well as for curse to them who will submit themselves to obey and be blessed or disobey and remain in slavery. Its upto us to choose and live blessed.
2. Cover all bases of life with God's power-The Israelites signed the treaty before God to follow His Law regarding all aspects of their life, marriage, business, firstfruits. For us, through Jesus Christ our Lord God's power is needed deeper than just our physical life. We need to over all bases of life in spiritual matters too. Where do we choose to let our mind wander too or find union with, what idea, what philosophy, what thought do we choose to unite with. What first thought do we choose to have when we wake up first thing in the morning.
3. Not neglect the house of the Lord-For the Israelites it meant to take care of the temple of Jerusalem, for us "1 Corinthians 6:19 "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;" So have we neglected in caring for the house which God's Spirit dwells in. Have we fed our spirit with the Word of God to nourish?

Conclusion-I read further through the book of Nehemiah and was sad to find, that in spite of all that they wrote and did when they read the Book of Law, the chiefs and nobles of the Israelites did wrong and forgot so soon that they made a written promise to God. Man is so fickle minded and lives in what they see now, makes decisions on what is seen now, while God is waiting to show man what more God and man as a team can do to change the world. Our Lord Jesus the perfect example of One who lived out the Law of God not only to the fullest but to the deepest touching the soul of the Law, the origins of it from God's heart. We see the impact of such a living in this world even now. History was divided because of Jesus our Lord, (BC and AD), lives are changed because of Him even now, miracles are seen even now because of the power of those who chose to believe Lord Jesus and His Words and abide in Him. This kind of life changes lives not only in the now but in the ages to come too.

Not because of who we are-but because of Who He is

Background:A rejoicing feast of the booths is over. The Israelites now gather once again, this time not as a celebration but for an extensive time of repentance and recognising what God has done for them. They have been reading/hearing from the Book of Law everyday since they finished the Wall of Jerusalem and it has been showing them the light they much needed. Now they realise Who God really is and who they are in the light of the Book of Law being read. They repent. How could have God managed to walk in love with selfish, disobedient people such as them and me? Here we'll see

Here I list some beautiful lessons from Nehemiah 9

1. God is righteous(v8)-"You have kept your promise because you are righteous. " I have heard this many times, "oh I have been good and thats why God has blessed me" I had that attitude too. I cannot totally vouch my blessings on any qualification I have before God, except that He has been bountifully generous to me. I just qualify as a human being a child of Adam whom God has been seeking to restore from the beginning of His creation since my first forefather sinned and separated himself and us from God.
2. God is abounding in love(is love Himself)(v17)-"But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love". The Israelites see their ancestors' behaviour one of arrogance, ungratefulness, selfishness, dissatisfied even when they were well fed by God in the middle of the desert and then they see that God still did not abandon them even at the point when they built a calf for themselves saying thats what delivered them out of Egypt. God fogave them because He loved them and had compassion on them. He delayed His anger.
3. God is compassionate and merciful(v9-v19)-"19 "Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the desert" Where would I be without God being merciful, surely in hell. My name means mercy in hindi and I have enough evidence and experiences in my life where God has been so merciful to me. The Israelites realised how far they stretched God's patience with them. While the Israelites rebelled against God, God still gave them guidance with the pillar of cloud and fire, God still fed them with heaven's food manna. God sustained them through 40yrs of desert life and they lacked nothing. Never abandoned.
4. God is our Saviour and Redeemer(v26-28)-The Israelites rebelled against God and killed His prophets and thats when we read for the first time in this chapter "27 So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them." This punishment didn't happen to them when they made an image replacing God, but when they touched/harmed God's people. Whenever I read God handed them over I view it as the disobedient people of God have broken out of the hedge of protection and gone out of the line of security God had given for them, choosing rather to go back to slavery than to live in freedom and peace. In all this the verse continues to say "But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies." Can you comprehend that!!! This happened not once but repetitively through the Israelites journey with God.
5. God is faithful(v32-v34)-33 In all that has happened to us, you have been just; you have acted faithfully, while we did wrong.". God is a God who kept His covenant of love with that one man Abraham and has still kept it till this day. We have strayed, we have disobeyed, we have rebelled even when God provided, yet God has remained faithful to His covenant of love.

Conclusion: By the end of their analysis of the way God has dealt with their forefathers in the past and what they are going through now, the Israelites realise something is not right "36 "But see, we are slaves today, slaves in the land you gave our forefathers so they could eat its fruit and the other good things it produces. 37 Because of our sins, its abundant harvest goes to the kings you have placed over us. They rule over our bodies and our cattle as they please. We are in great distress." . The Israelites make yet another effort to re-establish their connection with God "In view of all this, we are making a binding agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests are affixing their seals to it."

What about us? God has made things much more simpler for us, through His Son Lord Jesus Christ, just so we would believe in Him and live rightly before God. Thats all that is required. On the day God made the covenant with Abraham, He put a deep sleep on Abraham so Abraham did not have to walk through the sacrifice laid out for the covenant. God walked through it alone, knowing the traits of a fallen man. He took the whole responsibility of keeping that covenant, all we have to do is accept this great outpouring of love and see how it fills our lives and overflows into the lives of others. All we have to do is believe in our Loving God and obey, not to gain something from Him but because we love God in return for His love toward us.

Remembrance

Background: The Israelites took their first step in returning to their Living God after many years of disobedience. They read the Law of God given to Moses and realised how far from the mark they were. Now they are ready to follow the written Word of God, to observe the feasts, to worship God and to obey. Nehemiah 8:13-Neh 9 shows us the beginning of their walk in obedience to the Word of God given to them, through Moses.
Nehemiah 8: 14-17 says "14 They found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to live in booths during the feast of the seventh month 15 and that they should proclaim this word and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem: "Go out into the hill country and bring back branches from olive and wild olive trees, and from myrtles, palms and shade trees, to make booths"-as it is written. [b]
16 So the people went out and brought back branches and built themselves booths on their own roofs, in their courtyards, in the courts of the house of God and in the square by the Water Gate and the one by the Gate of Ephraim. 17 The whole company that had returned from exile built booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated it like this. And their joy was very great.

Lesson I learnt
The Feast of the Booths is also known as Sukkos or Sukkot meaning booths. I love the meaning of celebrating this festival. It was to imitate their ancestors' walk with God and living in tents during their time in the wilderness as they undertook their journey towards the promised land. This festival serves as a reminder to the Israelites, of God being their sole provider in the desert and how God sustained them in the desert for 40 yrs; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen. Isn't that a wonderful reminder.

We as believers of that same Living God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, have this episode to remember quite a number of lessons
(1) Living in tents- It shows a temporary arrangement. The life we live on this earth is temporary, we're here one day and then we'll be gone tomorrow. There is nothing permanent this world can offer to us.
(2)Promised Land-Like the Israelites we're also on our journey to the promised land. "2In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am".(John 14:1-3 )
(3)Getting rid of unbelief/flesh-Among the Israelites who started the journey many died on the way for they longed for fleshly stuff more than the promised of God and obeying Him. Longing for their slave homes in Egypt, or for food or for false gods which will say nothing do nothing ...They all died. Before we reach our promised land, our flesh must die too, nothing from the flesh can enter the promised land.

And in all these lessons I find one glorious thing, the hope of following our Living God. Our God does not take us through the wilderness like abandoned children or slaves or vagabonds, but our God takes us through with love, with provision, with abundance, with strength and health and even wealth.

To me this means that no matter what kind of wilderness we're going through in life, God is able to provide, not just enough to get by the wilderness but such that the wilderness lifestyle does not even reflect through our journey.

Conclusion: What is it that the Lord has done for our ancestors, for our families, for our lives, let us bring our selves to remember it. Let us remember all that the Lord has done for us in the past, for therein lies our strength and hope in our neverfailing God.
Psalm 103:2 "Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my soul, and forget not [one of] all His benefits--"

The Original Plan

Background:The Israelites after the completion of the wall are now getting ready to settle down in Jerusalem. Walls are done, but the houses within the walls are still in abandonment, no one has rebuilt the houses yet. The Israelites realise they'll have to rebuild the houses before they begin their stay in Jerusalem. Jerusalem has been their own city their own place forever as given by their Living God. This chapter from Nehemiah 8 talks to us about their preparation in heart and mind before they rebuild and resettle their possession.

Lessons I learnt from Nehemiah 8

1. Begin at the Word- v1 all the people assembled as one man in the square before the Water Gate. They told Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. The Israelites had been living without the full and dedicated knowledge of God since the time after Solomon(837 BCE) and now its nearly 400 yrs of captivity, selfish rulers and now serving under the Persian kings. They begin at the beginning of the first document they received from God, the Law of Moses.
2. Understanding the Word-v2 So on the first day of the seventh month Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, which was made up of men and women and all who were able to understand. This Word of the Law was read before ALL who could understand. There is nothing tricky about the Word, nothing so difficult about it, nothing so confusing about it. For e.g. if one could understand this from Exodus 20:2-3 2 "I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 3 "You shall have no other gods before [a] me." the message/document was for them.
3. Repentance -9 Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to them all, "This day is sacred to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep." For all the people had been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law. The Israelites had not known how far away from God they had gone, how far from the Law of God they had been and as it was read they realised their sin and it was ugly. They mourned.
4. Rejoicing -"10 Nehemiah said, "Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." 11 The Levites calmed all the people, saying, "Be still, for this is a sacred day. Do not grieve." 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. " I find this verse very strange in the midst of a serious and life changing time in the life of the Israelites and God directs them through Ezra and Nehemiah that this day is sacred to the Lord and they should rejoice. Then again, of course it is a sacred day of rejoicing, God's people have returned to Him. It is a great day of rejoicing, the prodigal son has come home. The son might feel a little awkward to receive such a warm welcome, after all the grievous acts he had done, but his father's heart is rejoicing just to see his son return and he wanted his son to rejoice with him as well. Isn't that so with our Lord.

Conclusion: It is a time of great rejoicing, Israel has taken its first step in returning to their Living God, returning to that purpose of being an example before all the earth of their wonderful Living God. For us, Luke 15:10 "In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Israelites were returning to God, to their land to the life God had planned for them to have a life with blessings that overflowed from them out into all the nations of the world. Israelites had been in darkness thinking they were ok, it was ok as long as they were alive, even if it be under slavery to a Persian king, but that wasn't God's original plan for them and they realised this.

Our life is the most important possesion God has given us, for it is His very own breath. It is so precious to Him, that God willed and gave up His own life so that we might live in possesion of the life that God has given us. We are stewards of our own life and everything that God adds to our life, our husband, our wife, our children, our homes, our church, our jobs..... It is not for us to do our own living, thinking we're still ok even if we're addicted to some lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh or the pride of living, but the real face of it is, we're slaves to it. Only Jesus Christ and God's document to us, His Word can truly set us free and show us the original plan for our lives. Lets return and work at our lives as a service to our Living God and be blessed so it overflows into the lives of people around us.

There are a lot of faulty duplicates pretending to have and enjoy life, in the midst of it all, lets live out God's original plan for our lives.