Hello Everyone,

Leaders patiently gather all the facts.

Verse 13-14 By night I went out through the Valley Gate toward the Jackal Well and the Dung Gate, examining the walls of Jerusalem, which had been broken down, and its gates, which had been destroyed by fire. ¹⁴ Then I moved on toward the Fountain Gate and the King’s Pool, but there was not enough room for my mount to get through;

Nehemiah is on a reconnaissance mission. He is carefully surveying the situation close up and first hand. Leaders don't rush into a project not prepared.

Before you can lead you have to learn. Leaders make a mess of things when they try to lead without doing their homework.

Nobody seems to have the time to do it right, but everybody finds the time to do it over. I Believe it is carpenters that say: "Measure twice, cut once!"

Nehemiah starts by the gate of the valley...that's on the SW wall of Jerusalem. Then he moves to the dung port, the SE wall. Then he moves to the gate of the fountain on the northern wall. He is obviously making a round of it all, making notes.

"Luck is where preparation meets opportunity."

Nehemiah wasn't lucky, he was prepared! Most of us would be shocked if we realized how many opportunities passed us by just this week. We didn't even recognize the opportunity, much less seize it because we weren't prepared.

We would rather pray for a miracle than prepare.

We would rather sit around and hope for a miracle in our finances than take a few minutes to budget and do wise financial planning.

We would rather ask others to pray for our kids to straighten out their life than to set ground rules of discipline and get off the couch and enforce it!

God will only do what He can do after we do what we can do!

When Lazarus died Jesus came and told the people to roll the stone away from the tomb. Once they did He raised him from the dead. Well if Jesus is that powerful why didn't He just wave his hand and roll the stone Himself? Because He wanted the people to do what they could do before He would do what ONLY HE can do!

If you want to be blessed be prepared.

Greater Things Are Still To Come!

Pastor Phil