When Nehemiah finally completed the reconstruction of Jerusalem’s wall in Nehemiah 12:27–47, the Israelites met the accomplishment with hymns in praise to God. After decades of darkness, the people could see that God truly was moving among His people! Find joy with Pastor Chuck Swindoll as he demonstrates how the secret to happiness is continual trust in God.
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Read 1 Kings 17:5-7
Part of every boot camp experience is the gruelling, grinding, and sometimes daunting obstacle course. It is neither fun nor easy, but its demanding discipline prepares the recruit for whatever situations he or she may face in the future, particularly under enemy fire. In the spiritual life, before we can truly benefit from “the hidden life” that God uses to prepare us for whatever future He has planned for us, we must overcome at least four major obstacles. I think of them as four tough membranes of the flesh: pride, fear, resentment, and long-standing habits. Conquering these layers of resistance will prepare us for the future and harden us for combat with the adversary.
In a very real sense, God has designed a boot camp for His children, but it doesn’t last just eight weeks or ten weeks. Nor is it a weekend seminar we can take or a day-long workshop we can attend. God’s training course takes place periodically throughout the Christian life. And there, in the very centre of obstacles and pain and solitude, we come to realize how alive God is in our lives—how alive and in charge. He will invade us, reduce us, break us, and crush us, so that we will become the people He intends us to be.
No matter how many years we walk with the Lord, we must still, at times, pass through our own Gethsemane. It happens every time He sends us to the brook to live the hidden life. It happens every time He disorients us as He displaces us; every time He pulls out all the props; every time He takes away more of the comforts; every time He removes most of the “rights” we once enjoyed. And He does all this so that He can mould us into the person that we otherwise never would be. He knows what He’s about.
Elijah went to Cherith as an energetic spokesman for God—a prophet. He emerged from Cherith as a deeper man of God. All this happened because he was left beside a brook that dried up. Alone, but not forgotten. Tested, but not abandoned.
Taken from Great Days with the Great Lives by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2005 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Used by permission of HarperCollins Christian Publishing.
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Amazing Predictions
If you aren’t Jewish, then you’re what the Bible calls a “Gentile.” Most folks who follow the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, are just that—Gentiles. And as Gentiles, most of us don’t always understand Jewish Scripture, the Old Testament. This is particularly true when it comes to reading the prophetic books of the Bible. It’s helpful, however, to keep in mind that the Old Testament makes the first announcements of Messiah’s coming and ministry. And few prophetic books have more prophecies about Messiah Jesus than the book of Isaiah.
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Our aim is to finish this month having reached a fundraising goal of $430,000. We stand on the threshold of a new year with new doors of opportunity open before us. Reaching this goal will help to seize the opportunities God graciously opens to us.
Nehemiah’s discernment helped him frustrate the plots of his adversaries. In the same way, God-given discernment can help us face intimidating circumstances in our own realms of leadership.
One of the most basic and helpful things in understanding the concept of God's will is to understand the Bible's distinction between what we call the moral will of God and the sovereign will of God.
Let’s consider Andrew Bonar’s example of perseverance, faith, and hopeful prayer. During this time when we need hope in the midst of chaos, remember Bonar’s words, “We can never hope for too much!”
