SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/4/2011 7:23:53 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
The
Pattern of the Work
Bible Reading
& Meditation Reference: Selected Scriptures
Message of the verses: Nehemiah can be identified as a man who
planned what he worked and worked what he planned and that is an important part
of who Nehemiah was, and also this quality makes him a good leader.
As
in yesterday’s SD there are actually no assigned verses for this SD, but it is
good to remember that this is introduction material to the third chapter of
Nehemiah. In this third chapter we find
that there are thirty-eight individual workers identified along with forty-two
different groups. There are many who are
not mentioned who worked on this project and it is important to know that each
of these people had an exact place to work that they were assigned to, and this
too is another good example of a good leader who plans his work before he
begins it.
In
his commentary on this section of his book Dr. Wiersbe compares the work that is
done on these walls to the work that is a part of the Church and the comparison
is eye opening. In his commentary he
quotes from the great evangelist D. L. Moody and I wish to quote these
important words in this SD. “A great
many people have got a false idea about the church. They have got an idea that the church is a
place to rest in…to get into a nice cushioned pew, and contribute to the
charities, listen to the minister, and do their share to keep the church out of
bankruptcy, is all they want. The idea
of work for them—actual work in the church—never enters their minds.” Along with the Apostle Paul, D. L. Moody is
another hero of mine.
In
the book of 1Corinthians chapters twelve and fourteen the Apostle Paul compares
the members of a church to the body.
Each member, like each part of the body, has a specific job to work
at. Not all of the members, like not all
of the parts of the body are not “honorable”
parts, but like in a human body all the parts are necessary for the function of
the church, and all must work together for the glory of God just like all of
these named and unnamed people in this third chapter of Nehemiah worked
together for the glory of God.
Here
is a paragraph out of the twelfth chapter of 1Cor. that speaks of the human
body compared to the body of Christ, the church: “12 For
even as the body is one and yet has many members, and all the members of the
body, though they are many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one
Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether
slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. 14 For the body is
not one member, but many. 15 If the foot says, "Because I am not a hand, I
am not a part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part
of the body. 16 And if the ear says, "Because I am not an eye, I am not a
part of the body," it is not for this reason any the less a part of the
body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the
whole were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But now God has
placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He desired. 19 If
they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now there are many
members, but one body. 21 And the eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no
need of you"; or again the head to the feet, "I have no need of
you." 22 On the contrary, it is much truer that the members of the body
which seem to be weaker are necessary; 23 and those members of the body which
we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less
presentable members become much more presentable, 24 whereas our more
presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body,
giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked 25 so that there may be
no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one
another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one
member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”
Dr.
Wiersbe writes that the word “build” is used six times in chapter three and its
meaning is actually “rebuild.” Many of
the parts needed to accomplish this work on the walls were right there to just
put back together. The point he is
making here comparing this work to the work of the church is that there are
times when the church will get new ideas that are not too good when all they
need to do is “rebuild” what they started on in the first place.
There
are many gates in the walls around the city of Jerusalem and if one wants to
look at them they can “Google” Jerusalem gates and many websites will come up
to chose from. I have a picture of one
of the gates to get an idea of what they look like.
The Jaffa Gate in Jerusalem
Gates
were there for the protection and the entrance and exit of the citizens of
Jerusalem. It is said in the Psalms “The LORD loves the gates of Zion More than
all the other dwelling places of Jacob.”
This statement presents a question as to why it is that the Lord loves
the gates of Jerusalem. Protection of
His people could be part of the answer.
John Mac Arthur expands on this answer from the note in his study
Bible: “Zion is a poetic description of
Jerusalem, seemingly used by the OT writers when special spiritual and
religious significance was being attached to the city. Though God certainly loved other cities in
Israel, He did not choose any of them to be His worship center (cf. Pss 122,
125, 132, and 133). The gates represent
the access of the potential worshiper into the city where he could come into a
special worshiping relationship with God.
The other cities in Israel were not chosen by God to be the place of His
special dwelling.”
These
gates locks and bars on them making it difficult for anyone outside to open the
gates. When we as believers are doing
the work that the Lord has called us to do then we must make sure that the
enemy does not have access to us in order to harm us or stop the work. John warns his readers that they need to
protect their work from the enemy or else they could lose the rewards from the
work: “Watch yourselves, that you do not lose what we have accomplished, but
that you may receive a full reward.”
Spiritual meaning for my life today: There is a verse that I have been thinking
about that is becoming very precious to me and that is Philippians 3:13 “Brethren, I do not regard myself as
having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies
ahead.” As a believer I need to
forget the things in my life that have caused me harm, I need to learn from
them, but then move on. Israel surely
needed to learn from their captivity and why it came about, but they had to
move on and part of that was rebuilding the walls to keep the enemies out.
My Steps of
Faith for Today:
1.
Trust that the Lord will give me the right words to
say to the prisoners today, as it seems that He has given me a somewhat
different message that I am to give to them since I prepared it a few days
back.
2.
Trust that the Lord will give me the grace of not
having problems with my IBS while I am speaking this afternoon.
3.
Continue to learn contentment.
4.
Trust the Lord to work out our exit plan from Kauai
and part of that is the selling of our car.
8/4/2011 8:55:49 AM
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