Nehemiah, 15 of 66

I’ve had the joy or preaching parts or all of the book of Nehemiah on a number of occasions.  Presently God has put into my heart a book from this great story that evolved from some Tenth Dot work I had the privilege of doing back in January.  Every time I open to this book, I can’t read it without fixating on eight words (in the NIV anyway.  Your translation may have a few more or less).  They come in the middle of a verse in the middle of a passage moments before Nehemiah speaks to the world’s most powerful man.  [warning, your participation in today’s Tenth Dot is coming...]

Ezra, 14 of 66:

If you’re like me, when you heard that today’s TD was in the book of Ezra, you had to start in Genesis and figure out where in the heck this book was in the Bible.  I don’t have many memorable sermons in my brain from this book — not too many coffee table books written about Ezra and his ministry.

But maybe there should be!  Enjoy today’s Tenth Dot and when you get to the last page, I hope you’ll be ready to respond as God leads through His Word!

Every once in a while it seems like God makes the Christian life pretty simple.  I’m not making matters easy, believe me, just sometimes it’s simple:  Simple and easy ARE NOT the same thing.

Growth happens in silence. It’s in the stillness that God can remind us of who He is. Somehow when we slow down enough to feel the wind in our face, it’s then that we realize that God has been trying to speak to us for so long. It’s when we are quiet enough to hear God’s creation that He whispers the secrets of eternity. It’s in the stillness that we embrace the wonder and majesty of the Holy One. Take time today to be still.

 Luke 23:46

⁴⁶Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit." When he had said this, he breathed his last.

 The critical question for our generation—and for every generation— 

is this: If you could have heaven, with no sickness, and with all the 

friends you ever had on earth, and all the food you ever liked, and 

all the leisure activities you ever enjoyed, and all the natural beau- 

ties you ever saw, all the physical pleasures you ever tasted, and no 

human conflict or any natural disasters, could you be satisfied with 

heaven, if Christ were not there? 

-John Piper, God is the Gospel

“If I wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers.  I know nothing to compare with this topic for its sorrowful self-confessions."  Dean C.J. Vaughan quoted in Spiritual Maturity by J. Oswald Sanders

It’s crazy to me how much like the Israelites I am. There are moments where my life is so focused on God that I literally can’t get enough of Him. I want to be in His presence, in His Word, in fellowship, serving wherever I can, living and moving in Him. Then all of the sudden I notice I am more concerned about Jack Bauer and the next American Idol then I am about hearing the voice of God. Continually in the book of Judges it says, "they forgot about their God". What a sad statement. How can we forget about God? How can we forget about His love? How can we forget about His love that crossed through the universe to be with us? Yet we do. We forget about His passion, His love, His mercy, His provision, His gift, His Word, and His story. Then by His grace He sends us a reminder. In the book of Judges after the Israelites had forgotten about their God and lived their own way. They cry out to God for help and God raises up a man to rescue them. I want you to think about this phrase:

This is part 3 of a 6 part series on worry from Philippians 4:4-9.  Today as we examine verse six of this passage, we will take a hard look at the two clear commands given in this passage.  The problem with today’s study is this:  When we see clear commands in Scripture the onus of obedience is placed on us.  In other words, when you know the truth, God expects you to live it.  James said it like this,

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

The great news is, as you and I learn to apply these commands from Scripture, we will learn to replace our fear, worry and anxiety with joy, gentleness and the peace of God.  So be readers AND doers today!

As busy as Jesus was, as consumed as He was by His mission, as overwhelmed as He must have felt at times, He withdrew often to pray. Even when it meant leaving the physical and spiritual needs of the crowds unmet, He withdrew to lonely places. In those quiet and intimate times, Jesus drew strength for what He knew lay ahead. . .By escaping the noise of His day, Jesus established a discipline all believers should follow. After all, if it was necessary for Jesus, it is vital for those who profess to follow Him.

-Charles Stanley,

The Glorious Journey 

PROGRESS:  Living for today, planning for tomorrow

Day 15 of 28 (start at day 1 by clicking HERE)

The Nehemiah Effect:  Day 1

“For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven…” Nehemiah 1:4

When I read the Bible I am truly struck by some amazing men and women who did things totally off the charts for God.  By most standards, most of these men and women were “ordinary” people, set apart by their extreme faith in God and their willingness to tackle great tasks.  David brought down a giant, Noah built an ENORMOUS boat, Esther saved a nation, Jael swung the course of a battle, Joshua conquered a land, Mary brought God’s Son into the world and Joseph fed the world.  When God’s children trust Him — He produces.  The result is that lives are changed and often, the very course of history is altered.

It’s not often we use this site to share stories with you, but today is one of those rare exceptions.  As we continue to celebrate the great gift of Jesus Christ and anticipate the coming of a new year (I hope you as excited about the Tenth Dot’s upcoming New Year’s campaign as we are!  MUCH more news to come on that, stay tuned!), I want to share a great miracle with you that my son and I personally experienced this Christmas.

I was reminded of a great way to pray for people. About  a month ago, I started praying very specifically for people. Instead of just praying out of my own head–I prayed the Scriptures. I know this isn’t a new idea. I have done it before but I forgot the POWER in praying the promises of the Scriptures for myself and others. If you haven’t done this before it’s pretty straight forward: 1. Take a verse. 2. Pick a person or ministry 3. Turn the verse for that person/ministry into a prayer.

Did you know that God actually wants to reveal His will to you and me?  I think Christians can easily fall into one of two traps when it comes to the will of God.  First, we just assume we can never know, that “His ways are not our ways” (which is true!) and that His will isn’t meant for us to know until after the fact.  So we get busy serving Him and doing our thing knowing that He is in control and that’s enough for us.  We often get too busy to actually stop and even consider what His will might be, so we think our busyness for Him is honoring.

The second trap is that we are paralyzed with fear and up doing nothing because we aren’t sure if it’s what God wants us to do.  Should I serve in the children’s department using my gifts with kids or should I help the beggar on the street?  Uncertain if God is leading, we do nothing as we “wait for a sign” that He is moving.

Which trap do you more easily fall into:  Too busy to listen or too scared to act?

 Almighty God

speak to us today.

Meet us in THIS place. 

TRANSFORM

us by the POWER of Your word.

Politics can be tricky business.  Just writing the word "politics" on this tenth dot already has some of you a little concerned.

Good.

The other night at my church we prayed Psalm 86. I want to encourage you to make this Psalm a prayer. In fact, this is one of the few Psalms that calls itself a prayer.

Take a few minutes to prepare your heart now to meet with God. 

This morning, I was reminded of the power of praying through the Scriptures. For some strange reason God woke me early this morning. 2 am early! I went to my office, I opened to Psalm 17, and prayed through it. Out loud. Making it my own. Changing some of the language from third person (he) to second person (you, O LORD). When I finished, I went right into the next Psalm, then the next. I found myself crying out to God. I was caught up in the power of His Word. Today, I want to challenge you to find a place where you can call out to God. Open up your Bible and make some of the Psalms your prayers. The next few pages will have the Psalms I went through. But feel free to open to any of the Psalms, turning these poems into prayers, your prayers.

 "I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion…I want all that God has or I don’t want any."

-A.W. Tozer

God is amazing and beyond words. Remember this as you pray to the Eternal One.

Jesus, please speak to us.

Psalm 19

The heavens declare the glory of God; 
       the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech; 
       night after night they display knowledge.

John 15:7

If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.

Jesus is concerned about the place His words have in your life. Do His words shape you, move you, and capture your heart? Do they motivate you? Compel you? His words have the power to transform us. Seriously. In the same way that a caterpillar is transformed into something radically different, God wants to transform you. He wants to make you into someone who asks and recieves because you have spent so much time with Him, and you listen to Him. It is because His words remain in you that you know what to ask for, and it is simply granted to you.

Today, I want us to think about our secret life. For some of you there is a secret life that is not of God or from God. There are patterns that you have established that are hidden from everyone around you. You fear what others will think. You think your struggles, your secret life, is unique to you. But as followers of Jesus, we all have a point when we come out of hiding and into community.

God calls us to community. Loss of community is one of the major dangers in today’s society. We think we have community because we have an app for it, we tweet, we FB, we IM, etc., but the more gadgets and programs that come out, actually distance us from real community.

In a real community, we are accountable, we are authentic, we are vulnerable, and we are physically present in the lives of those in our community. In a real community, we don’t hide, but reveal; we don’t spin the story so that we look good, but we share the raw truth; we don’t worry, but we trust; we don’t ask for a 140 characters or less, but we listen to everything; we don’t hide behind the gospel, but we call each other to be accountable for our words and actions, so that we live out the gospel; we don’t just talk, but pray. In real community, we love each other as we are and sharpen each other to become what we are meant to be.

Have you ever thought about why God wants to reward us? I know I do it for my children. They work so much more efficiently if they are motivated by a reward. And it’s just fun to see their faces when they receive a reward. Is it any different for us? Apparently not. God wants to reward us. 

Jeremiah 17:10

“I the Lord search the heart
and examine the mind,
to reward a man according to his conduct,
according to what his deeds deserve.”

What is it you want?

What do you really want in this life?

Honestly.

1 John 4:16

God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

These words are so deep. Profound. Who can understand the depth of them? Who am I that God should live in me? And me in Him?

I love the prayers in the Scriptures. Part of what we learn as we follow Jesus is to make these prayers our own. Some are simple and short prayers and others are longer more heart-felt prayers. Try to make each of these your own prayers today. Let’s start with a simple one. 

Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out,

“Lord, save me!”

 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?"

-Matthew 14:29-31

One of the dangers of following Jesus is becoming complacent: Grace becomes ordinary. Jesus’ sacrifice becomes familiar. God’s love becomes normal. The power of the Spirit becomes something we teach about but never experience. Prayer becomes boring. Life becomes mere existence.

The faith we are a part of is no less than extraordinary. Unless we constantly remind ourselves of the enormous lengths of God’s everlasting love, we will miss out on the life that God designed for us.

Today as you ponder these verses, your life, and God Almighty, let God remind you of the deep and remarkable life He has for you.

It’s easy to love those who constantly show me love.

Think about it, and then let God speak to you through His Word.

Prayer is where the action is.

- John Wesley

Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.

- Corrie ten Boom

Talking to men for God is a great thing, but talking to God for men is greater still.

- E.M. Bounds

Today, let’s begin with a challenge.

There are people all around us that need someone to encourage them and to pray for them. Today, be that person who takes the time to inspire those around you. Write out a prayer and give it to someone. 

Listen to Paul’s heart in the book of Philippians as he writes from a prison cell. 

It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart; for whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.

- Philippians 1:7-11

In this passage, we get to glimpse into a conversation with Jesus and a woman going out to draw water from a well. If you pay close attention, you can hear Jesus’ love, passion, and challenge to this woman. Stop when you get to the part where Jesus says, "Believe Me". Ponder the significance of those words and the implication of those words for our life.

Mark 1:35 – Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 

Luke 5:16 – But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.

My challenge to you is this: follow Jesus OFTEN into solitary places. Plan at least 3 times today to retreat with Jesus for 7 minutes or more. Put it on your calendar, and go into the secret place.