BEGIN/CONTINUE THE WORK GOD HAS GIVEN YOU VISION FOR! I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me.  They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” So they began this good work.   —Nehemiah 2:18             It only takes one person whom God has given a vision to stir others to join in the work that God is doing.  Nehemiah was that person and after He shared with the Israelites how God’s gracious hand was on him and what the king had said to him the people were ready to start rebuilding the wall.             The work was divided up with…

YOU WILL BE MY WITNESSES! “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” —Acts 1:8             Have you called on Jesus to be saved from sin, self and Satan to a relationship with God by calling on Jesus?  (Romans 10:13).  If so then “you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the…

GOD’S WRATH “The hand of our God is for good on all who seek him, and the power of his wrath is against all who forsake him.” —Ezra 8:22             So we have two groups according to this verse.  Those who seek the Lord God Almighty and want to live for Him is one group.  The 2nd group is those who forsake the Lord God Almighty and do not want to live for Him.  God’s good hand is on those who seek Him.  But on those who forsake Him His wrath is against them— “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see…

TEMPLES! And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the LORD, the priests in their vestments came forward with trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, with cymbals, to praise the LORD, according to the directions of David king of Israel. And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” 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…

BE FAITHFUL IN THIS SINFUL, FALLEN, DARK WORLD! Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. —John 19:31-32             Crucifixion was a form of torture and execution.  Man comes up with all kinds of evil.  Horrific as it was, when Jesus was crucified the Jewish leaders did not want the bodies of Jesus…

 OUR FAITHFULNESS OR UNFAITHFULNESS WILL HAVE AN IMPACT “I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the LORD.” —II Chronicles 34:15 “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it before the king. And when the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes.  —II Chronicles 34:18-19  “Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD,…

HE HELPS US AND FIGHTS FOR US! With him is an arm of flesh, but with us is the LORD our God, to help us and to fight our battles.  —II Chronicles 32:8        We are in spiritual warfare, but we are not in so by ourselves.  No, Jesus said that He is with us until the end of the age (Matthew 28:20) and in Hebrews 13:5-6 we read that God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can mere mortals do to me?” Those are both quotations from…

TRUTH SPEAKERS WILL FACE OPPOSITION Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?” —John 18:23             Now here is the same evil spirit in this verse that is seen in our culture today.  Instead of being able to dialogue differences, people are becoming violent.  So, if a person has a disagreement with another they cannot talk about that disagreement, but instead need to be physically aggressive toward the one they do not agree with.             Somebody can be in the right, but if another person doesn’t like the right position a person…

YOUR INFLUENCE He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper. —II Chronicles 26:5 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense. —II Chronicles 26:16 So Jotham became mighty, because he ordered his ways before the LORD his God. —II Chronicles 27:6 For the LORD humbled Judah because of Ahaz king of Israel, for he had made Judah act sinfully and…

OVERCOMERS! I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” —John 16:33             Why do evil things happen in the world?  Children and adults being shot and murdered in schools, in churches, in shopping malls, in medical facilities, in war…  People are being attacked in broad daylight while others stand around and video it.  This surely is a sin sick world and a coldness of heart seems to be intensifying.             Who sits around and plans a strategy to sexualize our school-aged children?  There are those in prison who are…