…discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose… –Ezra 4:4-5 Tim Stanley writes: The religious persecution in Iraq has seen one of the most vibrant Middle East Christian communities almost wiped out – forced to covert, driven from their homes or murdered. Conditions deteriorated after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, improved a little with the US-led surge in 2007 and now, with the advance of Isis, has descended to what might be described as genocide. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11000168/Iraqs-persecuted-Assyrian-Christians-are-in-limbo.html There are those who are out to frustrate the purposes of God’s people and they will use fear and discouragement to accomplish…

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. —Ezra 3:11-13 Remember the “good ole days?” Now, what…

…the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia… —Ezra 1:1 C’mon, the sun is up, the day has started, let’s get going. “Ooooh is it time to get up already?” came the reply. He was stirred and now his feet hit the floor, ready to start the day. It is interesting how the Lord stirs people of all types and backgrounds to do His will. In the above verse the Lord stirred up King Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to their homeland which was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. “The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he guides it…

Should not shepherds feed the sheep? … you do not feed the sheep … the strayed you have not brought back …the lost you have not sought … My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. —Ezekiel 34:2-6 If you lost $1000, would you seek for it? How about if you lost $10, would you seek for that? If we misplace something or something we value is lost, then we seek it out. How many of us have looked for lost keys to the car, a lost wallet with all the valuable information in it or something else that…

Our ancestors sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment. —Lamentations 5:7 Does our generation largely have the attitude that it is OK to economically enslave the future generations with our irresponsible spending? That was the mindset of King Hezekiah. He thought it was OK that hard times would be on the future generation as long as peace and security existed in his life-time. “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says…

My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray… —Jeremiah 50:6 Unfortunately they were not reading the compass correctly and were leading the whole group in the wrong direction. Fortunately they caught their mistake and headed in the right direction to find the next point in the compass course. They found the next point and finished the course, but they lost time with their error. In Jeremiah’s day the shepherds were leading God’s people astray and the people were like lost sheep. Some things do not change. In our day, in America, there are shepherds that are leading people astray. They call themselves “spiritual leaders” but they…

Yours is the day, yours also the night; you have established the heavenly lights and the sun. You have fixed all the boundaries of the earth; you have made summer and winter. —Psalm 74:16-17 Give me evidence that car was created. Give me evidence that house was created. Give me evidence that boat, train, chair, brick, computer, glass, phone, copier, clock was created and had a creator. Give me evidence or I will not believe it had a creator. No, these things just evolved all by themselves and came into being. Yet so many say that trees in their variety, flowers in great assortments , birds of numerous array, animals…

(They) will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs. —Jeremiah 44:28 I don’t believe what the Bible says! There is no heaven or hell and when we die that is it. There is no existence after this body dies. Jesus did not die for man’s sin and there is not judgment of man after death. There is no such thing as sin. Some man made all this up and made up the Bible as well. Are you really that sure? Are you going to put your eternal destiny on the line with those statements? Be very sure that one day you will know, but if you adhere to the ideas…

They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison. —Jeremiah 37:15 Pastor Saeed Abedini is still being held prisoner in and Iranian prison. Twenty-seven year old Meriam Yehya Ibrahim was held in a Sudanese where she gave birth to her second child. What was their crime? They are followers of Jesus and the countries they were in at the time of their arrest were Muslim dominated. There are those in this world who hate the Lord Jesus and those who follow Him, but this is nothing new. In the verse above the prophet Jeremiah…

Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. —Jeremiah 36:23 Years ago I read a book about the persecution of Christians in Russia. This guy, Sergei, was enlisted by the KGB to go around to where Christians were meeting, beat them, confiscate the Bibles and Christian literature he found and burn it all. Those ordering him to destroy God’s Word had no problems whatsoever in having him do so. Fortunately, in this case, Sergei came to the Lord after reading some of what…