Hello Everyone,
It was an ordinary Sunday when I first heard and understood the gospel and I was saved and my life has been very different than what it would have been...all for the better!
It was an ordinary invitation like a thousand others with my head bowed and eyes closed when God spoke to me at the age of 19 and called me, and I'll never forget that moment and all that has followed it.
Large doors swing on small hinges. And this could be your pivotal moment.
Granted, sometimes God gets our attention by shaking us in ways that aren't ordinary. September 11th was an ordinary day until about 9 AM, but God used it for a wakeup call to the church not the world.
God said it was time to get 'out there' into the fields, WHITE unto harvest!
Where did Nehemiah take place?
1:1 "in Shushan the palace."
What was Nehemiah, the Jew, doing in the Babylonian King's palace?
150 years before this the Babylonians had conquered Israel, destroyed Jerusalem, taking many of the Jews off to Babylon as prisoners?
Why did God allow this? I believe it was because Israel repeatedly ignored God's pleas for them to abstain from idolatry.
They returned to idols over and again, and so God said, you want idolatry; I'll send you to the source of it all! Be careful about what you want so badly.
God may give you what you are insisting, and give you a shove in that direction so you can see His way really was best after all. Then you can learn the lesson better and come back to Him.
100 years later, 50 years previous to Nehemiah's day, a group of Jews was permitted to return and rebuild the temple, but the walls were never repaired.
Who cares about the walls? In those days, they were everything.
They stood for protection [sitting ducks], for separation [we need these walls still today], for glorification [curb appeal, for God's glory, not high class, but first class, clean, etc.], and for anticipation [the prophets had foretold that the walls would be rebuilt for the coming of the Messiah].
1:3-4 When Nehemiah heard about the broken down walls it broke his heart.
It became his burden, and his responsibility to fix it.
Why was he in Shushan the palace?
1:11b It was a great position to have. It was a lucrative government position like being in the Secret Service or bodyguard to the President, because you would taste his food first and be his personal assistant.
History tells us that to have this position Nehemiah had to be handsome, cultured, and knowledgeable. And because he had daily access to the king, he had great influence.
Here was a man who had it made. He lived the way the king lived, and ate the way he ate, and dressed the way he dressed. (In the lap of luxury).
Who cares about the sins of his ancestors and some walls a thousand miles away? It wasn't his fault!
Many people don't want to know what's going on, because knowledge brings responsibility. But Nehemiah's heart was broken by the news and he volunteered to do something about it.
He left comfort and security, trading it all for the rigors of a ruined city.
He exchanged prestige for poverty, and comfort for criticism, and royalty for ridicule. He left an easy job to do an impossible task.
The lesson of this book: The Kingdom of God and His Church are built by those who are willing to sacrifice and leave their comfort zone.
Comedian Flip Wilson used to say when people asked him what was his religion he would reply, "Jehovah's Bystander".
"I was invited to be Jehovah's Witness but I didn't want to get that involved."
Jehovah has plenty of bystanders, but I wonder who God is calling right now on this ordinary day to do something extraordinary?
Oh How HE Loves Us!
Pastor Phil
