Nehemiah

I was moved by the scenery above when I was walking on top a hill in Turkey and stumbled upon this old wall and this single flower. As I was reading through Nehemiah, I couldn’t help but get this picture out of my head. A beautiful representation of physical and spiritual restoration. The former being worthless without the later. What God wants to do through us is secondary to what he wants to do in us.

[Final Theme Summary - Nehemiah]

Theme: “Enemies and Intercessors”, I will refer to it as opposition and prayer below. 

Nehemiah was called and dedicated to a seemingly foolish and near impossible task of building back up the walls of Jerusalem after the exiles returned from Babylon. The book begins as news of the state of his ancestors reaches Nehemiah in Persia, 900 miles away. He was immediately moved to brokenness before God and prayer over a his response. Through prayer, God leads Nehemiah to ask for royal permission and financial backing from the King of Persia and he is granted his wishes. Nehemiah heads to Jerusalem and it is not long before the opposition comes. However, with each opposer the original reader sees Nehemiah respond prayerfully, resulting in an immovable confidence in God’s plan.

Nehemiah is approached by two types of opposition, external and internal. Externally, Nehemiah met opposition from the ruling authorities around Jerusalem. They were not happy to see Jerusalem regain power and therefore lessen their own. They mock the Jews and threaten to stop the project and even kill Nehemiah. Nevertheless, Nehemiah responds in prayer, leaving vengeance to God. He is spiritually dependent on God for answers, yet practically responsible, taking up guard and not responding in anger. Nehemiah’s fierce reliance on God in such opposing circumstances brought fear to the nations when the project was completed. God was on their side. 

The second type of opposition came from within the Israel itself as their safety and comfort began to be infringed upon. The people did not like the attention Nehemiah’s project was bringing upon them and did not see the value in rebuilding the city. They were comfortable as they were, simple farmers and merchants with little national identity and hiding from God’s major calling on their lives to be a blessing to other nations. Nehemiah encourages them to remember their great and awesome God, who will fight for them.

With these internal and external opposers, Nehemiah never once stopped the work he was doing. Rather, he would turn to prayer for strength and confidence. God’s faithfulness and the monumental task at hand was the focus of Nehemiah. Although there was opposition, it was never a distraction and it was never central to the story. Prayer enabled Nehemiah to be a person of grace and wisdom, strength and wit, unshakeable from his solid foundation on the Lord’s faithfulness.

 

[Final Application - Nehemiah]

Nehemiah has met me in the most urgent and practical of ways out of any of the books we have read thus far. It is because I am in a season of my life where I’m trying to figure how God’s truth translates into daily action. How is God’s truth going to transform me into the person He wants me to be? Nehemiah is essentially the journal of a man who has done exactly this. The key to his successful translation of biblical truth and action was his adherence to prayer and communication with God at all times. He had the task in one hand and the word of the Lord in the other.

I have tasks in my hands. But I feel I have never truly filled the other hand with the word of God. Usually I am holding multiple tasks in both hands, leaving little room for intimacy with God.  I knew the CBCC was a time for me to dismantle the tasks from my hands and pick up that which gives live and purpose, God’s word.

As I ponder the tasks ahead, I am now focusing on what needs to be in my other hand. For me that looks like prayer. I need to get serious about prayer. I look at Nehemiah’s reactions to opposition and adverse circumstances and see him react with incredible resolve and patience. If I was in that position, I would not be so Christ-like. If our hands are filled only with the task, lacking prayer and intimacy, we become  reactionary, fearful, and ungraceful people.

In response to this truth, I am evaluating what God wants me to carry in the next season. The task is to lead communications, seek growth in multi-media communications, and most important and most scary lead and love and believe in the people around me here at YWAM Salem. God is telling me to fill my other hand with prayer. I am going to start using my time more wisely and pray more. At the gym in the morning, instead of listening to music, I will pray. I want to get into bed a half hour early every night and read the Bible and pray and journal. Also, at least once a week I will go to the coffee shop with no computer and no plans other than to journal and talk to God for an hour or so. I will also meditate on Nehemiah’s responses to the situations below:

2:4 Then the king said to me, “What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven.

[Nehemiah prays while in the midst of situations.]

4:14 After I looked these things over, I stood up and said to the nobles and the officials and the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your kin, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”

[Nehemiah doesn't react, he looks things over and gives wise answers because he takes the time to receive them.]

5:6-7 I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these complaints. After thinking it over, I brought charges against the nobles and the officials; I said to them, “You are all taking interest from your own people.” And I called a great assembly to deal with them,

[Nehemiah is rightly angered, but responds in justice, not vengeance. He didn't react but thought things through.]

6:2-3 Sanballat and Geshem sent to me, saying, “Come and let us meet together in one of the villages in the plain of Ono.” But they intended to do me harm. So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it to come down to you?”

[Fear did not stop Nehemiah from carrying out God's purposes.]

6:14 Remember Tobiah and Sanballat, O my God, according to these things that they did, and also the prophetess Noadiah and the rest of the prophets who wanted to make me afraid.

[He did not take things personally and hold grudges or get bitter. He left vengeance in God's hands]

7:5 Then my God put it into my mind to assemble the nobles and the officials and the people to be enrolled by genealogy.

[Nehemiah's great ideas were inspired by God. His intimacy with God allowed his mind to be filled with the plans of God.]

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ezekiel

CBCC Week Six – Ezekiel

[Final Theme Summary - Ezekiel]

The theme of Ezekiel was God’s sovereignty and presence. It reads as a rebuttal to the current wave of thinking about the temple among the Judean exiles in Babylon. History has known nothing outside of God’s sovereign presence; He is omnipresent. But God has always given his chosen people the gift of his presence penetrating time and space, making his glory accessible to them. This is why the temple was so significant to the original readers, it was the place where God’s glory resided. The significant events in Ezekiel, including God’s glory leaving in the temple and prophesies about the future “temple”, understood within the context of God’s presence through time, gives us a clear understanding of God’s true purpose in his presence.

The first place God’s presence rests is in the garden of Eden, where man and God lived effortlessly together. His presence left as a result of sin, and the next place we see it again is in a pillar of smoke by day and a cloud of fire by night as He is bringing the Israelites out of Egypt. As the Israelites became more established with a camp, they built the tabernacle; a tent of animal skin, filled with his glory. God’s glory was concentrated in the arc of the covenant, which moved with them from place to place. Hundreds of years later, King David brought the arc of the covenant into Jerusalem. A few years later, his son Solomon built the temple of the Lord, and God’s glory momentously filled the temple.

This brings us to the time of Ezekiel. Hundreds of years of bad leadership and idol worship, the state of Judah was in shambles. The Babylonians take control of the city, and the first wave of exiles gets sent to Babylon in 597 BC and Ezekiel is among them. During the few years before the city and the temple were demolished in 586 BC the people expressed their wrong mindsets regarding God’s presence. They believed that God would not destroy the city because, they were his “chosen” people. They loved that they could say that God gave them the land, but did nothing to steward it or make it function in the just way that God intended. They loved the title, but didn’t take responsibility and they had gotten arrogant because of it. They also believed that God’s presence resided in the temple, so if the temple was destroyed, God’s presence did not reside there anymore. Neither of these things were true and Ezekiel’s visions centered around addressing the truth. God was going to destroy the land in order to bring it back to the way it was supposed to function in the first place as a blessing to other nations. God’s presence was not bound to a building, he could move everywhere. More than that, He was with them even in Babylon, as a surgeon is with his patient. Wounding only to heal, and very present in that healing process.

Ezekiel is bookended by the departure of God’s presence from the temple, and his promise of a new presence, a new temple, a new identity. God was going to put his spirit in them. The Israelites had never heard anything like this before. God’s spirit had only rested in one centralized location before. Previously, the identity of the Israelite was being a child of Abraham and getting land and being blessed. They felt had the right to all these things, but had lost the reason behind it. God’s opinion on presence through the words of Ezekiel, revealed to the Israelites the new identity of God’s people. It was God presence inside the person, not the material things, but the outward expressions of holiness derived from the Holy God inside of you.

Ezekiel ends and the glory has not returned in the temple, but the original readers would have hopefully seen that God was not bound by that anyways. He was with them. And was going to bring them back to the land once again.

But we have seen his glory return. And we have seen the fruition of this 4,000 year old promise. Jesus came, as a tent of God’s glory covered in human skin. It is by his spirit we live and move and have our being. We have seen what the Israelites did not see and this is why we believe all the more. This is why we rejoice all the more.

2 Corinthians 3:10-18

10 Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory.

12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

 

[Final Application - Ezekiel]

God is in control, but man is responsible for what he does and our choices effect our future. For us to trust God, he has to trust us and so he He gives our choices.

God continually emphasizes this point to the Israelites through the words of Ezekiel. They thought they were going through their political and spiritual problems because their ancestors had done bad things. But they were twisting a Biblical truth. We are certainly effected by those that come before us, but God would never punish someone for the sin of another. There was 1000 years of history behind the Israelites at this point, where God had sent warning after warning to stop doing wrong and learn to do right through the prophets. God had to destroy Jerusalem in order to uphold his covenant. But even up until the last day the city stood, he never took away the opportunity for individual salvation. Everyone has the option to choose life and choose death. I think God wants us to realize how each small choice moves us along in either of these directions.

I find myself tempted to excuse my attitudes and actions on the faults of other people or other institutions. I read the news and see that the world is suffering from this lack of personal responsibility too. We stumble forward with our heads down, weighed heavily by our excuses and rationalizations, often missing truth.

But God has given us power in our choices, to choose life and to choose freedom. I believe that our purpose as believers is to be a blessing to all people and all nations. The gift that God has given us is a light, not just a blessing for us, but meant to be useful to those around us. We are the ones with a light in a dark room. People are supposed to be drawn to it. I want my choices to align with this purpose.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war according to human standards; 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not merely human, but they have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments 5 and every proud obstacle raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. 

Here are the main things I feel I am responsible for:

  • I have a responsibility to be positive and not critical of people
  • I have a responsibility to make decisions based off of God’s truth, not societal truth
  • I have a responsibility to be generous with my time, giftings, and money
  • I have a responsibility to share with others the truth God reveals to me through his word
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YWAM University of the Nations

Here is a cool video giving a bit of a history on YWAM. It also explains the modular learning system which I really have benefited from in my Discipleship Training School, Basic Leadership School, and now the Chronological Bible Core Course. Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of this organization I feel privileged to work with and this environment I get to learn in.

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IMG_3672

CBCC Week Five – Isaiah

Photo from the area around Izmir, Turkey that I talk about below.

[Final Theme Summary - Isaiah]

Isaiah is truly a special book. No other prophet spans so much into the future, to events even today we wait for. For such an important book, the theme of trust was fitting. There is no relationship in the world that can exist without trust. If trust does not exist in a marriage, it is broken. If a client can’t trust a business, they won’t buy it’s product. Trust must define our relationship with God. If we don’t trust him for the past, present, and future, do we really have a relationship with him?

Although they were alone among the nations with mandated trust in a single God, Judah was rejecting this foundation of trust in God. By their actions, they questioned if God was trustworthy.  At a time of political turmoil and the serious threat of Assyria, they had to choose whether to trust in God’s ability to protect, or what made sense politically. God demanded trust beyond a whimsical warm thought about his character from an individual. Rather, he wanted collective confidence on His ability to do big things. Not only could they trust in God’s loving character, but in his sovereign abilities.

But the people chose otherwise. Except for the exceptional handful of good kings, they have always chose otherwise. The eventual outcome for Judah is their foretold destruction. But God remains trustworthy in Salvation, and details his plan for their ultimate redemption. The readers hear this message of hope among their dark circumstances in the Babylonian Exile. God teaches them that he is to be trusted despite circumstance and beyond what the eyes can see.

Isaiah 51:1-3

Listen to me, you that pursue righteousness,
you that seek the Lord.
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
and to the quarry from which you were dug.

2 Look to Abraham your father
and to Sarah who bore you;
for he was but one when I called him,
but I blessed him and made him many.

3 For the Lord will comfort Zion;
he will comfort all her waste places,
and will make her wilderness like Eden,
her desert like the garden of the Lord;
joy and gladness will be found in her,
thanksgiving and the voice of song.

Isaiah 48:3-5

The former things I declared long ago,
they went out from my mouth and I made them known;
then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.

4 Because I know that you are obstinate,
and your neck is an iron sinew
and your forehead brass,

5 I declared them to you from long ago,
before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, “My idol did them,
my carved image and my cast image commanded them.”

Remembering God’s faithfulness in the past and believing in God’s future promises give a person unshakable trust in the present. These are the ingredients God gave the original readers to make their lives unquestionably defined by trust in the power and salvation of the one who formed them.  If this truth is taken to heart, here is the right response and perspective on life:

Isaiah 12:1-2

You will say in that day:
I will give thanks to you, O Lord,
for though you were angry with me,
your anger turned away,
and you comforted me.

2 Surely God is my salvation;
I will trust, and will not be afraid,
for the Lord God[a] is my strength and my might;
he has become my salvation.

isaiah-design

[Final Application - Isaiah]

I was packed in a loud and tiny bus driving through the countryside in Izmir, Turkey this time last year. Though shaken by the bumps in the road I could not take my eyes off of one tall cliff in the distance. I wanted to be on top of it. I thought of how much more beautiful the view be from up there. In the other world inside my head I was plotting my method to do so.

Later that evening, one of my students came up to me and said that they were praying and they got a word for me. Just one word. Pinnacle. They didn’t know what it meant, but in an instant I did. God wanted me to be a pinnacle person, seeking the most high vantage point for the most broad and clear picture of his truth.

And today, one year later, I feel as if I have climbed that mountain and am finally taking in the beautiful view. Not only has God showed me the climbing process, but he has shown me the perspective he wants me to have from this pinnacle book of Isaiah. What is this perspective? What am I seeing from the top?

I’m seeing God’s intention in creation, reason for grace, and purpose in redemption. Reading Isaiah has patched the doubts in my understanding of God’s master plan. These doubts have always held me back from truly trusting in him for the past, present, and future and from sharing the hope that I have. I now feel the full weight of the gospel and our need for a savior. What we couldn’t do, he made a way for. He has made us holy to be blessed and be a blessing to all people and all nations.

With the pinnacle perspective on humankind and the history of Christianity, although I am 23 years old, I feel as if I have been here for all of time. I think God wants us to follow him to the beginning of time to understand His whole story. To listen as He sets forth His case for our trust in his character and wise timing. On this pinnacle I can’t even see my little worries. I see is God’s love for both the individual and the nations.  I see God’s sovereignty in the grandest of actions, yet presence in every moment, whispering encouragement in the ears of the faithful. I will rest in the big picture that brings me to my knees in humility yet lifts my head up in confidence and wonder.

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amoscover

CBCC Week Five – Amos

Photo of Yosemite Falls from my trip there in 2011.

[Final Theme Summary - Amos]

God’s View on Injustice

Amos is a book of warning and judgement to the kingdom of Israel all based upon the injustice in their society. Spoken around 760 BC, Israel was in a time of political peace, economic affluence, and religious depravity. There were no conquests by surrounding nations like Syria and Assyria, so Israel had been able to focus on internal affairs. Unfortunately, this meant the rich getting extremely rich, and the poor getting poorer.

Amos begins with words of judgement upon the surrounding nations for crimes against humanity (1:2-2:3). Damascus was being punished for their brutally in destroying Gilead. Gaza and Tyre were being punished for slave trafficking. Edom was being punished for pursuing his brother Israel with a sword. The Ammonites were being punished for ripping open pregnant women in order to enlarge their territory. It is apparent that God is sovereign even over nations that are not considered “His people” and holds them accountable for the brutal injustice they perpetuate. I imagine the Israelites hearing Amos speak these words against their nations adversaries and cheering because God was going to punish them. But then, in 2:4 there is a sobering shift in thought.

The judgement shifts from surrounding nations to Israel and Judah, God’s people. Their crime was not following God’s commandments and statutes.  This transgression lacks the obvious brutality in the previous judgements, and it can be assumed Israel was proud of themselves for that. They weren’t “as bad” as other nations. They were doing all the “right” things. Celebrating God’s festivals 3 times a year, giving more than God required, worshiping God through public song, etc. But God calls them out for for rejecting the law of the Lord and not keeping his statutes.   They had all together threw out the heart behind the law, and were reduced to ego-boosting religious practices. God was especially upset with Israel for perpetuating injustice in their society, because they were supposed to be set apart in order to bring justice and mercy to all nations. Instead, their hearts were most adulterous against God. This judgement against their lack of obedience to God’s commandments comes before the long list of injustices, showing it’s centrality to the subject.

The injustice in Israel came from diversion from God’s standard. God’s law and commandments followed precisely, creates a society free of injustice. God’s law orientates the human heart to put first God, and then to love people. The Israelites were putting themselves first, so self-absorbed in seeking wealth, they could not see the poor being trampled underneath their feet. This was God’s evidence against them.

It is clear that the law in the Old Testament is based off loving your neighbor, loving the foreigner, and fair treatment of the poor. If you were blessed, you were required to be a blessing to others. Amos shows the overwhelming injustice of a society when God’s laws aren’t obeyed. God cares about justice among his created beings, therefore he could not let evil continue to prevail among the Israelites.

 

[Final Application - Amos]

It is easy to compare the pompous lifestyles of the Israelites during the time of Amos to the American lifestyle today. But to make any good application of this, we must look past the outward actions into the mindset that motivated the injustice.

Israel was rich. Very rich. But this wasn’t their problem. It was the love of money and selfishness that caused their grave sins. It was their overabundance and lack of awareness to the needs around them. God hates when people are not blessings when they have been blessed.

Genesis 12:1-3

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

God wanted to bless us so that we could lavishly bless others. And not just our own family, but all families on the earth. I think the same is true today. I believe God has blessed me and I also see that in general, God has blessed Americans with wealth. We should never feel guilty for having money, but we should always evaluate our hearts in this. Is there an imbalance in our abundance? Are we looking first towards the needs of others or only worrying about ourselves? Injustice is one of the most trending topics in our world today, and before we make any progress against it, we have to bring justice to our hearts in this regard.

What does God ultimately require of us? Christianity isn’t about looking good on the outside, but being utterly convinced of our call to be beacons of justice in our world. Worship and Justice are inseparable terms.

Amos 5:21-24 (The Message)

“I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.

 

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