October 9 Nehemiah 4-6 Prayer and Personal Responsibility

Nehemiah teaches us about several things, but two of them are the importance of prayer and the necessity of assuming active personal responsibility. In v. 4:9, the text says, "But we prayed to our God and posted a guard..." By praying to God, the people showed their total dependence of God for their protection. By posting a guard, they assumed active personal responsibility for protecting themselves. Protecting themselves (defensively) against those who would stop the work of God is completely moral and consistent with God's will.

We are to be totally dependent on God AND to act decisively to bring about God's will in a moral way consistent with His law. We are never to do anything immoral to achieve God's will.

We are to pray to God for a job AND to work hard to find one! We are to pray to God to grow our churches in numbers AND to be faithful disciples to be healthy spiritually.

Praying without acting in a responsible manner is laziness. Working without prayer is self-dependence. Neither is correct.

Nehemiah was a strong decisive leader who at the same time was totally dependent on God evidenced by his active prayer life. READ THIS CAREFULLY: Nehemiah's total dependence of God made him a confident leader, because it was God Who made Nehemiah successful. Nehemiah was successful because he was operating in the will of God - that's a great place to be.

October 7 Ezra 9-10 Keeping the Holy Race Holy

Ezra came back to find a number of men who were unfaithful to God by marrying pagan women from their surrounding area. God specifically forbade it because God knew that the women would lead their families astray - toward idol worship. This fear has been borne out in Biblical history. Now some of the men returning from exile had begun to defile Israel yet again. Ezra and the elders take drastic, but necessary action.

Does this have any bearing on today's life? It certainly does. Christians should only marry other Christians. Christians have a hard enough time staying faithful - they shouldn't complicate things further by getting yoked with unfaithful people.

Now, you might point to some Christian you know that married an unbeliever and the unbeliever got saved after marriage. Praise God. It happens. But most of the time, the Christian ends up falling away or living a frustrated life with someone with different values. Since we all tend toward spiritual sloth, the children of mixed marriages usually end up as unbelievers.

Christians should marry Christians. One of the purposes of marriage stated by God in Malachi 2 - "He was seeking godly offspring." In the vast majority of cases, it takes two godly parents to make godly children.

Some Christians date unbelievers and claim they won't marry him/her. The problem is two fold:

1. While they are dating an unbeliever, they are blocking God from bringing a godly believer in their life.
2. They are risking falling in love with this person and letting their feelings getting the better of their judgment and eventually marrying the unbeliever. 

Psalm 1 implores us to stay away from sin - to not even go near it. Trust God and wait for the godly believer. Marriage is for a lifetime - that's a long time.

October 6 Ezra 7-8 Watch God Move

One of the interesting things about today's reading is that a letter from a pagan king is part of sacred Scripture. But its import is not about the pagan king, Artaxerxes, but of the Great King, God, over Artaxerxes. We see God moving through Artaxerxes to achieve God's will - to rebuild the Jewish people in Israel. God uses the treasuries of Persia to do so.

Equally interesting is the safe, but unguarded, 4 month journey of Ezra's band across dangerous territory with untold riches. Ezra was embarrassed to ask Artaxerxes for protection, but instead asked God Who delivered the band and their cargo safely.

We need to step back and see the movement of God in this reading. But, we also need to step back and discern this same God moving in our lives and the lives of others each and every day now. When God determines something to happen - it will! God worked mightily in Ezra's life and he does in our lives, too.

Note, Ezra was committed to God's word and to prayer and fasting and to making disciples of others.

October 5 Malachi Honoring God Appropriately

Malachi is about giving God the honor due Him. Malachi chides the people for using their injured, crippled, or diseased animals for sacrifice when they have a perfectly good one to offer. They are giving God their throw away offerings and keeping the best for themselves. God asks the people if they would try such a thing on their governor!

God says, "My name will be great among the nations." He says, "I am a great king." We should bring God our best worship, never our leftovers.

You might say, "OK, but how does that apply to me. We don't sacrifice animals any more." If you have an important meeting or appointment, aren't you well prepared for the meeting and on-time and alert during the entire meeting. Do you try to get a good night's sleep beforehand and come appropriately dressed to impress those in the meetings? Well, of course you do. Then if you do that for business:

• Get a night's sleep on Saturday night
• Come smartly dressed to service
• Be on-time
• Stay alert
• Be active.

We are given the opportunity to worship THE great king. Unbelievers will be in church watching you to determine if you fear this great king. Give God His due - He is more than worth it.

October 4 Esther 5:1-10:3 Providence of God

The Jews could have been wiped out by the evil plot of Haman. Satan was the one really behind the plot - the plot to destroy the seed of the woman promised of God. However, through a long series of fortuitous occurrences, the Jews were not only saved, but also avenged and let to a time of safety and prosperity in the Persian Empire.

God's name was not mentioned and the Jewish people did not seem overly concerned about their relationship with the LORD. Nonetheless, God, not forgetting His covenant, worked behind the scenes through people to save His people.

God is always superintending over His creation and is continually bringing all His good promises to fruition. The divine plan promised of God will happen.

Our hope is sure. God can not be defeated by any plot of Satan. have faith in God - he is faithful.

October 3 Esther 1-4 Sin Has Long Term Consequences

God, through Samuel the prophet, ordered King Saul to completely annihilate the Amalekites. Saul did not and the wrath of God was on him for His disobedience. Saul certainly felt the brunt of his sin, but so did his family and the whole kingdom at his time.

Now, in Esther, 500 years later, Haman the Agagite, a descendant of of King Agag of the Amalekites, has engineered a plot to wipe out the Jews. Because of Saul's disobedience, the Jews are about to be wiped out.

Saints, we live in community with other people and no matter what we do, we leave a legacy to the next generation and beyond. What we do as ripples through the next generations. So the question for all of us is, "What will my legacy look like - good or bad?"

Make the decision today for good!

October 2 Zechariah 9-14 Mourning for the One They Pierced

There will be a time in the future when all Israel will realize that Jesus is and was indeed their long awaited Messiah. In Zechariah 12, the people will mourn and grieve that they have pierced Him - allusion to the spear in his side and/or the nails in His hands and feet. But in the true character of God, He will not open their eyes to destroy them but to cleanse them. Chapter 13 promises that God will cleanse His people from sin and impurity.

All here and now must come to the point of grieving over their sin - it caused Jesus to need to be pierced for its forgiveness. God did not just turn His head from sin - He is just - it was paid for - by Christ in His pierced body. All sin is costly - to us but even more so to Jesus and His Father.

Praise God that He loves us so much that He paid the penalty for our sin for us. This is Good News to be shared with all. I believe that the more that we understand the cost of our sin to Jesus, then the more we will evangelize - the bad news about us makes Jesus' Good News even better.