`God has promised to give you a flourishing, thriving life by loving and obeying His Law (Ps. 1). God’s Law was given to us a loving guide to lead us away from destruction and into maximum blessing from God. God did not give His Law to make us miserable prisoners of gloom. He gave us His Law so that we would live thriving lives in this sinful world.
God's power is yours through prayer. God's encouragement is yours through prayer. God's wisdom is yours through prayer. God's purpose is yours through prayer. God's joy is yours through prayer. God's forgiveness is yours through prayer. God's reconciliation is yours through prayer. The list goes on and on. What is the greatest thing that you can do for your spouse, children, neighbor or yourself? Pray for them. Where will your greatest accomplishments come from? Prayer. Your prayers can accomplish anything that God can do. As Nehemiah shows us, when you pray - God works.
How Can We Guarantee That the Joy of the LORD Will Be Our Strength?
October 27, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 8
You get bad news and life changes quickly. Where do you find your strength to be steadfast in your faith? The greatest strength on earth that you will find in difficult times is the joy of the LORD. God is eternally, essentially, and entirely joyful and He wants His joy to be your strength in every circumstance you find yourself. “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). To know God is to know His strong and powerful joy.
God of Mercy
October 20, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 7
Here we are in Nehemiah 7 and 8. God’s people had been confronted daily for hundreds of years with great hardships and sufferings. Finally, and by God's mercy alone, the walls around Jerusalem were completed and the city was secure. God’s people were protected from the enemies that surrounded them. What is the first thing that Nehemiah leads them to do? He leads them to do what God had created them to do, worship Him together (Neh. 7:1-3, 8:1-12). In the midst of hundreds of years of physical attacks on them, Nehemiah led God’s people to give back to God the honor and glory that He deserved. You may think, if Israel had been exiled and Jerusalem and the Temple destroyed why honor the God who let this happen? Well, in short, God’s people broke the covenant with God (Deut. 7). God had promised blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. The covenant said that if God’s people welcomed the gods of other nations “the anger of the Lord would be kindled and He would destroy them, His own people” (Deut. 7:3-4). So, what did God do? Destroy them? No! He poured out His mercy on His people even in their disobedience. You see, God’s mercy is tied to His covenant. God’s mercy is a product of His sovereignty. God can give mercy to anyone He chooses and Nehemiah knew that it was only by God’s mercy that God’s people were alive and together under the covenant promises of God and so they worshipped the God of mercy in their hardships.
How To Respond When Satan Makes An Attack From Within God’s People
September 22, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 5
Nehemiah found himself in a dismal situation with God’s people. The future of the kingdom of God was at stake. Jerusalem was a divided city from within. The problem was not coming from the outside any longer. The problem was coming from among the people of God. Brothers and sisters were oppressing each other financially. The poor were complaining that all the wall-building was not putting food on the table. There was a famine so the cost of food had increased significantly. God’s people could not buy grain so they borrowed money from the more wealthy of God’s people, the nobles and the officials. This resulted in great financial problems because of the exorbitant interest that God's people put on the loans. Many had to give their children to be slaves to their lenders to pay off the debt. This created great anxiety, fear, division, hatred, disunity and so the work of the Lord quickly halted in Nehemiah chapter 5. Nehemiah had to quickly exhort/rebuke his people in the fear of God to bring them back into unity, love, and trust for the glory of God. If this did not happen quickly the enemy nations would see their weakness and attack them physically (Neh. 5:1-13).
What Is Your Enemy Saying That Is Actually True?
September 15, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 4
As a child of God, a follower of Jesus Christ you will sooner or later be opposed and criticized. You may be opposed by family, friends, co-workers or those even within your own church. Have you ever considered what truths may be intertwined in the words of those who oppose you?
Nehemiah found himself in an escalation of opposition in Nehemiah 4, as he steadfastly continued to pour himself out in obeying God’s call on his life. Nehemiah could have lashed back in verbal intimidations and physical coercion and even more colorful lies but he did not take the bait. Instead, he quietly considered any truths in the comments of Sanballat and Tobiah (Neh. 4:2-3). So he set a guard night and day to protect themselves (4:9). He made sure the people of God were armed with swords, spears and bows (4:13). He declared that God will do the fighting so do not fear (4:14, 20). He prayed and without hesitation moved forward in the work God had called him to finish. Nehemiah considered the truths of the enemy's words and used them to make him and the work of God more resilient.
Like Nehemiah, we need to view opposition and criticism as God’s appointed means for us to humble ourselves and embrace difficult truths that are many times only communicated to us through those who oppose us. Opposition is part of our sanctification process, a tool that God uses to reveal idols and accelerate our growth in humility and effectiveness in the Kingdom of God. Count it all joy... (James 1:2-4).
To do good in this world, we must endure the great opposition of this world.
September 8, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 4
Wherever and whenever you see the Lord moving forward, working out His plan through His obedient servants, you are going to see some kind of opposition. Nehemiah was absolutely committed to God’s call upon him to lead the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem. These were walls that were essential for the security and the blessing of the city of God, Jerusalem. When Nehemiah started the work, they were opposed by enemies from the North, East, South and West. The opposition mostly came in the form of anger filled ridicule and mocking. They hoped that by mocking the people of God they could make them embarrassed, ashamed and discouraged to quit and give up!
What did Nehemiah do to fight against the discouragement from outsiders and insiders? Two things, he was resilient in his prayers and strategic in his work. When we seek the Lord in prayer, leaving it in His hands, we must remember that those prayers then will include us in direct, strategic, participation in the work. Our prayers do not replace action, they make our actions effective for God's work. By prayer and action, Nehemiah lived out his declaration, “Our God will fight for us” (Neh. 4:20).
Your Individual Calling is Always for God's Bigger Calling, to Build His Church
September 1, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 3
Where do you want to be used by God, at the Tower of Ovens or down at the Dung Gate? The Tower of Ovens is most likely along the baker’s street in Jerusalem (Jer. 27:21) where much baking of Israel’s delicacies took place. Or you could serve at the Dung Gate where all the city’s stinky, nasty refuse was carried out and dumped. Or maybe you would like the Fish Gate, or the Sheep Gate or the Horse Gate, all equally difficult in their own way.
When God calls you to a difficult place of ministry like the Dung Gate, remember that His purpose is never just for you to work at the Dung Gate. You are serving the Lord Christ. Is God getting glory in your difficult calling? Are you growing in endurance, character and hope?
Five things to do when God gives you a mission to accomplish
August 25, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 2
Retreat to status quo or move forward in faith-filled risk?
August 18, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 2
“The average man doesn’t want to be free. He wants to be safe” (H.L. Mencken, 1926). Is that true in your life? Does a desire for a perceived safety get in the way of you being free to obey God’s call upon you to obey Him even with risk? What is risk? Risk is defined as “an action that exposes you to the possibility of loss or injury.” There is no way that we can avoid risks in this life on earth. Our pursuit of safety and security can be an endless fear-based pursuit fueled by selfishness. God calls us as His children, whom He cares for and loves, to move forward in this life with faith-filled risk taking for Christ. But we should do so knowing that to God there is no risk at all. God calls us to trust in Him, the One who takes no risks because He upholds everything by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3) as He works out His plan of redemption. No matter what "risk" we take for the Lord, nothing will separate us from the love God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:38-39).
Do Your Burdens Lead To Anxiety or Action?
August 11, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Nehemiah 1
Do you find yourself completely immersed in anxiety and worry that makes it impossible to do anything productive? You may be at work trying to focus on tasks or at home trying to spend time with your family, but you find yourself unable to shake the thoughts in your heart and mind that consume you with worry and anxiety. Anxiety and worry can be life dominating and consuming. Many times it is very difficult to break through. What do you do?
Look to Nehemiah as an example of how to move forward in God-empowered action to meet needs that He puts before us. Nehemiah let himself feel the burden and need of his people which led him to weep and mourn. But he did not stop there. He went to the Lord in prayer and fasting as he was committed to his daily job of being the cupbearer to the king. For about four months, Nehemiah showed up to work every day and did his secular job, not saying anything about the burden on his heart. He prayed and worked, prayed and worked, prayed and worked as he gave his burden to the “LORD God of heaven.”
Confession Requires Repentance
July 28, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Ezra 10
How many times do you confess your sins and yet continue to do the same sin over and over? You read or hear God’s Word and are repulsed by your sin; your friend brings a sin to your attention and are convicted; your spouse asks you to stop speaking that way and you are condemned; the Holy Spirit once again produces within you a heart-wrenching conviction because you continue to do that thing again and again. You confess the sin once again and yet no lasting change occurs toward Christ-likeness in this battle. It is all such a discouraging cycle.
God is not just interested in us feeling bad and confessing sinful actions. He wants our confession to lead to a commitment of Christ-like change, sanctification. True confession creates a commitment to a life reformed through repentance. Our language will be life-giving. Habits will be habituated. Devotion to God and others will be renewed. Relationships will be repaired. The purpose of confession is to lead to repentance, a commitment to Christ-likeness. Confession requires repentance.
Living In The Tension Between Trusting God and Living By Facts
July 14, 2024 • Steve Marshall • Ezra 8
Is trusting God opposed to living by facts? In other words, should we always be practical Christians who are responsible and cautious, not prone to take risks, always sniffing out facts and figures and possibilities to do an analysis to determine success or failure before we move forward in faith? Or should we be bold, daring and entrepreneurial in our faith moving forward trusting God no matter what the facts and risks reveal? Or do we do both, live in the tension between trusting in God and the reality of facts?
In Ezra 8, Ezra finds himself stuck between faith and facts. He was leading a caravan of around 5000 men, women and children on a journey about 1000 miles to Jerusalem carrying, in today’s value, over $223 million worth of gold and silver. He knew that the long journey would be filled with evil thieves and gangs wanting to rob them of all they had. There were no police, no cell phones, no GPS, and no fast-food stops. Ezra could have asked King Artexerxes for “soldiers and horsemen to protect them against the hand of the enemy and from ambushes” but he did not ask. Ezra had looked at the facts and chose to move forward in faith declaring to the king that the “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.” After making this proclamation to the king, Ezra determined that He needed to completely trust God and His promises, not the kings soldiers, to do otherwise would minimize God’s glory in the work He had called Ezra to accomplish.
