PRAISE OUR LORD GOD ALMIGHTY FOR HIS MERCY AND GRACE And the Levites—Jeshua, Kadmiel, Bani, Hashabneiah, Sherebiah, Hodiah, Shebaniah and Pethahiah—said: “Stand up and praise the Lord your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting.” —Nehemiah 9:5 Nevertheless, in your great mercies you did not make an end of them or forsake them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. —Nehemiah 9:31 “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.” —Acts 4:19-20             It is right to listen to God rather than man when it comes down to…

REJOICING OVER THE WORD OF GOD! So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. —Nehemiah 8:2-3 They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. —Nehemiah 8:8 And all…

BE AT THE READY! Those who carried burdens were loaded in such a way that each labored on the work with one hand and held his weapon with the other.  And each of the builders had his sword strapped at his side while he built. —Nehemiah 4:17-18 So we labored at the work, and half of them held the spears from the break of dawn until the stars came out. —Nehemiah 4:21 So neither I nor my brothers nor my servants nor the men of the guard who followed me, none of us took off our clothes; each kept his weapon at his right hand. —Nehemiah 4:23             Nehemiah, and…

REBUILDING BROKEN WALLS And the king said to me, “Why is your face sad, seeing you are not sick? This is nothing but sadness of the heart.” Then I was very much afraid. I said to the king, “Let the king live forever! Why should not my face be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers’ graves, lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?”  —Nehemiah 2:2-3 Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control. —Proverbs 25:28             Nehemiah was noticed by the king to be having “sadness of heart.”  Why? Because “the city, the place of my fathers’ graves,…

BE DEVOTED TO PRAYER And when they had entered, they went up to the upper room, where they were staying, Peter and John and James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot and Judas the son of James. All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.  In those days Peter stood up among the brothers (the company of persons was in all about 120)… —Acts 1:13-15             I have to ask, “How devoted to prayer are you and I?”  Prayer is talking and listening to our…

SET YOUR HEART ARIGHT! For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. —Ezra 7:10 This is the disciple who is bearing witness about these things, and who has written these things, and we know that his testimony is true. Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. —John 21:24-25             Through the ages, our Lord has had those who sought to be faithfully sharing His Word.  “Ezra had…

BE LOVINGLY OBEDIENT— WE ARE SENT BY JESUS TO SHARE THE GOOD NEWS! Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you.  As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” —John 20:21 As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. —John 17:18 For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?…

OUR LORD GOD’S CHOSEN VESSEL FOR HIS PURPOSES! In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him…

FAITHFUL FOR LIFE! For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was yet a boy, he began to seek the God of David his father… —II Chronicles 34:3 And the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to walk after the LORD and to keep his commandments and his testimonies and his statutes, with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that were written in this book. —II Chronicles 34:31             What a joy it is when a young person seeks the Lord God Almighty in their youth and that they make a commitment to follow…

GETTING THE ATTENTION OF THOSE WHO WON’T LISTEN The LORD spoke to Manasseh and to his people, but they paid no attention.  Therefore the LORD brought upon them the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria, who captured Manasseh with hooks and bound him with chains of bronze and brought him to Babylon.  And when he was in distress, he entreated the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. He prayed to him, and God was moved by his entreaty and heard his plea and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was…