NEHEMIAH 3:15 - 5:13
IT'S HOPELESS! Satan will tell you that your situation is hopeless. Even God can't fix you! Satan magnifies the damage and minimizes the progress already made. He is insulting God, though, not you! Nehemiah prayed and put it all back on God. When the enemy sees UNITY, he goes ballistic, because the gaps are being closed.
INTERNAL PROBLEM: Our flesh never quits. It is like being infiltrated by our enemies. Our strongest opposition is from within, when we get frustrated, exhausted, discouraged, feel intimidated. FEAR comes when we feel victimized, too small to stand up to the enemy, afraid of the enemy's ability to take something away from us.
PRAYER & ACTION: (1) Confront fear by instructing your heart with TRUTH: "Remember the Lord, great and terrible." (2) Keep going forward. Don't stop working. (3) Rely on the Body, realize you are not alone - visible signs of unity runs discouragement out the door! (4) Arm yourself with the "Sword of the Spirit" - the Word of God and stay inside the walls. (5) Listen for the trumpet (warnings of the Holy Spirit). (6) Keep yourself clothed with the Spirit. (7) And talk to God about everything! Pray, pray, pray.
LEADERS FLEECING THE SHEEP! It angered the Holy Spirit, Who rebuked the leadership. They had ENSLAVED the very people that God had freed! The leaders had to repay, with 12% interest on top of anything they had gotten through taking advantage of the lack in newcomers. (newly saved) The leaders were supposed to be producers and examples, not consumers.
1 CORINTHIANS 7:25-40
HOLD IT ALL "LIGHTLY" (with an open hand). "Time is short": The "last days" began at Pentecost. In Luke 12:51 Jesus said He came to bring a SWORD, not peace! We live under the incessant and painful tension of the struggle of the new life in Christ, and the old life which is passing away. Adding marriage to the mix is more pressure. The Real Issue: Abuse, overuse, misuse of external "things" and conditions - which will all pass away. We live in a higher sphere called the "spirit" and as mature believers live detached from worldly concerns and "things". We hold everything "lightly so it won't distract us or hold our attention.
"SERVE THE LORD WITHOUT DISTRACTION": Here we have it folks! Married people must learn to please each other. What is being stated is that we can't live to ourselves or make unilateral decisions when we are married. We can't refuse to support one another or tend to one another's needs "because we are Christians". BUT, being married or not does not make anyone more or less HOLY. Some people would be distracted by "necessity" (they want sex or intimacy with another human) and should get married in order to serve God better. You can't hold marriage and family "lightly", but you MUST hold it SECOND (to your commitment to the the Lord, which is first) (SEE MATTHEW 10:34-38).
RESPONSE: As we mature spiritually, "things" hold less and less value to us. They lose their attraction. "Things" become tools that are the means of obeying God. People, on the other hand, are what Jesus died for - and everyone is significant. People are NEVER the enemy. God loves the world, and we should too.
When my mother first got saved (see yesterday), my father looked at the Church as his competition for her attention and her affection. Indeed, it was. He could NEVER compete with the Lord. But he tried. Then he tried to defeat Jesus by force. That didn't work either.
Now, when I got married, I EXPECTED my husband to love the Lord more than he did me. I got angry with him in my immaturity, when he would put what God said ahead of what I wanted. I was not that mature, and I put my husband ahead of EVERYTHING - God, the church, my job, my relatives. You name it. It was years of growing that brought me to the place where the Lord Jesus means more to me than any human ever could. Fortunately for me, we are not divided by the Presence of God in our home. Hubby and I want the same things. It was extremely difficult the first 30 years of our marriage, because I didn't always want what God wanted, even though my husband often insisted on it. I am grateful that God gave me who I really needed.PSALM 32:1-11
REPENTANCE is a process of getting re-connected to God and staying connected. If we don't turn to God and get into His Presence again, we have fallen short.
HOW TO REPENT (according to Psa 32): "Blessed" (empowered) is the person who acknowledges his lawbreaking, his disconnect, his revolt, his betrayal of God - and quits hiding it, and turns away from it and TOWARD GOD. Forgiveness is immediate. Consequences may actually be lifelong (like David's were). But, as you draw near to God, He draws close to you, too - and begins washing you (surrounds you with songs of deliverance). Immediately begin praising Him and thanking Him for His deliverance - "Be glad in the Lord and rejoice..." and build up your confidence in Him again. Our confidence is not in our ability to get a formula correct - it is in God and God alone - in the finished work of Jesus Christ to forgive and restore us.
PROVERBS 21:5-7
LEADS TO GAIN: Must be honest, industrious, diligent - attend to details, don't take shortcuts. Do the right thing and be fair in dealings.
LEADS TO LOSS: Glosses over details, skips steps in their haste, cheats and lies, violently usurps what isn't theirs, just take what they want.
RESPONSE: There have been times in the past when I was so caught up in my sin that I didn't know HOW to repent. I didn't know where to start. I wasn't sure what all was expected of me. I wasn't even sure God would accept me anymore. When I was finally so broken that I was desperate, I turned to Psalm 32 and 51 for instructions. In fact, I read them both out loud.
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