Friday 13 December 2013

The Joy of the Lord is My Strength

In the days of Ezra the walls of the city of Jerusalem were broken and Ezra asked the king, Artexerxes, to rebuild the walls of the city. When the walls were restored, Ezra gathered the people (Nehemiah 7:5) because the Lord put it on his heart to record them by their geneologies. While they were gathered there he read the book of the law to them. I love what it says in Nehemiah 8:8 :

They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. (ESV)

The words of the law were explained clearly so the people understood exactly what was being said...and it caused the people to weep, because they understood the words of the law and recognized their fallen condition. But Ezra told them not to weep because the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemian 8:10)

When we understand the Bible correctly, it causes us to see our sinfulness and it is not pleasant to see that ugly condition. There are many ways to react to this understanding....

Thursday 5 December 2013

The Message that We Preach

Each of us that has a blog is preaching a message whether we realize it or not. Is the message that we send out glorifying God and bringing honor to His name, or is it defiling it and casting doubt on His word and His goodness?

Unintentionally we all from time to time send out an errant message that detracts from what God says, I am just as guilty as anyone because none of us are perfect after all. The Bible does make clear, however, that there will be deceivers among us,