The Games of the XXXI Olympiad, or commonly known as the 2016 Olympics, hosts 10,500 athletes representing 206 nations. The games feature 28 Olympic sports and award 306 sets of medals. Do you get tears in your eyes or a swelling in your chest when your home country wins a medal?
How about when your national anthem is played as your country’s flag ascends the flagpole? Do you sense a national honor or pride? Nehemiah possessed a deep Jewish soul mindset for his native homeland – God’s promised land – back in Jerusalem.
Nehemiah felt strongly about God’s people and city. What a wonderful lesson for us to long for becoming a “chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that we may proclaim the excellencies of him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).” Is your heart set on heaven and the kingdom of God?
Prayer: Heavenly Father, just as Nehemiah had a strong devotion and connection with his Jewish heritage, may you also allow me a sense of connection to your holy nation that I too may recognize the need for prayer for your chosen people. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Nehemiah 1:10 KJV Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand.
Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
Isaiah 43:19 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/isa.43.19.KJV
It’s been a week and this is a recall on everything we have read this past week.
Chapter 46: You see Jacob’s journey to Egypt and the list of names of family he brings with him.
Chapter 47: Joseph introduces his family to Pharaoh and is then in turn told to give the best land to his famiy. Joseph also helps the Egyptians when famine strikes the land. Jacob asks Joseph when the time comes to take him back to his home land as Egypt is not his home.
Chapter 48: Jacob is coming to the end of his life and bestows his blessings unto his grandsons. Yet here he puts the youngest before the eldest once again as this is the 4 time it has happen within this family. Notes from my Bible: Remembering back to Isaac over Ishmael, Jacob over Esau, Joseph over Reuben, and Ephriam over Manasseh (Joseph’s sons).
Chapter 49: Jacob’s dying blessings unto his sons is what chapter 49 is about.
Chapter 50: Jacob has passed and Joseph goes to Pharaoh and tells his promise to his father to burry him in his home land and promises to return. This request is granted and he burries is father there. Upon his return his brother’s fear retribution for the sins they committed against him. Joseph tells them to fear not and that what they meant for evil God meant for good. Below is photo of more about Joseph in my Bible to share with you.
Yesterday we began a new book and chapter beginning with Exodus chapter 1. Below is a introduction of the Book of Exodus.
Chapter 1: Joseph has passed away and his descendents are left being the Israel nation in Egypt. This new Pharaoh having come to not know anything of Joseph feared the growing rate of the Hebrews as he calls them. He asks the two midwives to slay the sons born unto the women. Yet they did not for they feared the Lord more so than Pharaoh and said that to him when he asked why they didn’t kill them. So, Pharaoh sets out a charge unto his people being the Egyptians to cast the sons into the river and spare the daughters. Note from my Bible: (All this is about 400 years after Joseph that this takes place).
Today’s chapter 2: Verses 1-10: Moses is saved by Pharaoh’s daughter when she sent her maid to see what was the ark floating and found a nurse to nurse him and later brought up as her son and she named him Moses. Rest of the chapter we see Moses gets upset by the mistreatment of another and takes that person’s life. He then flees for fear of his own life for what he has done. He once again saves the ladies from the shepherds and then is taken into their home at the request of their father. Who gives his daughter to Moses and she bares him a son. The previous Pharaoh passes and a new one takes over. The cries of Israel the Lord hears and remembers his promise unto them.
God Bless you and your loved ones. See you next Sunday for a Re-cap of all we read in the week to come.
What is it like to be a people or a city of God? What an amazing spectacular place to be! Augustine wrote a book nearly 1,500 years ago called the City of God in which he points the way forward to a citizenship that transcends the best political experiences of the world and offers citizenship that will last for eternity. It is a classic; still in print in English translation from the Latin. Let us bear God’s name carefully and prayerfully.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, today we come before you thankful to be included in the family of faith. Thank you for adopting us as sons and daughters. We don’t carry the name ‘Christian’ lightly; we do so with care, caution, and confidence. Help us to share the good news of your love and sacrifice and enlarge your ‘family’ even further. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Daniel 9:19 KJV O Lord, hear; O Lord, forgive; O Lord, hearken and do; defer not, for thine own sake, O my God: for thy city and thy people are called by thy name.
Are people saved because of their goodness, kindness and attractiveness? Impossible! We are not rescued, helped or saved because we are good… but because we received mercy. We do not need fairness; we need merciful grace. Daniel had already seen and spoken about God’s justice. Now he was pleading for His mercy and grace. We could learn from his example.
Prayer: Dear merciful God, we come to you with nothing in ourselves. You have proven yourself as faithful, trustworthy, and kind. Thank you for the many times you’ve shown mercy and grace to me in the past. I am forever grateful. In faith I focus my eyes on you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Daniel 9:18 KJV O my God, incline thine ear, and hear; open thine eyes, and behold our desolations, and the city which is called by thy name: for we do not present our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but for thy great mercies.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
Psalms 23:4 KJV
https://bible.com/bible/1/psa.23.4.KJV
On the basis of the perfect righteousness of God, Daniel petitions the Lord to turn away His anger toward Jerusalem and His people. He begs God to take another look at the city in ruins; the temple broken in pieces and empty. Desolate. God had rightly judged the nation, and now Daniel is seeing restoration as consistent with God’s righteousness as well. What would righteousness look like for you and your city?
Prayer: Lord in Heaven, have mercy on our land and people in our city. There are still hundreds of thousands who have yet to turn to you. Give us a passionate heart towards the lost; open doors of opportunity to share your wonderful good news with those we work with and encounter each day. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
Daniel 9:16 KJV O Lord, according to all thy righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem, thy holy mountain: because for our sins, and for the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us.
Kirsten's Christian Corner 