God's Protection

Ezra 8: 21-23

There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before our God and ask Him for a safe journey for us and our children, with all our possessions. 
I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road, because we had told the king, The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to Him, but His great anger is against all who forsake Him.
So we fasted and petitioned our God about this, and He answered our prayer.

Ezra weighed out as much silver and gold and polished bronze that would be worth about $20 million today to twelve of his trusted leading priests, and entrusted them with this great wealth to safeguard and carry it all the way to Jerusalem to be counted out again at the Temple (Vs. 24-30). 

This is exceptional faith in God to protect them on this 4-month journey carrying such great wealth, to not even ask the king who would have given them lots of bodyguards and protection from robbers and enemies they could encounter on that long road. They bragged on God, so they couldn't turn around and ask for the king's protection. So they prayed and fasted and depended on God. And God did protect them. 

When they arrived in Jerusalem, they counted out all the treasure, and recorded it all by number and by weight, and it was all there (V. 34). God came through.

O my Father, You are totally trustworthy! Even though Ezra may have felt for a while that he'd "shot himself in the foot" by bragging on You, they humbled themselves before You to depend only on You for this dangerous journey, travelling through these territories with such great treasure! 

Because they humbled themselves and asked, You answered by putting Your protection over them so that no enemies and no robbers attacked them to take that treasure. 

This is a wonderful doing, Father, that You did for Your people who were obeying You to return to their ancestral home, the land You originally gave them. 

You will always protect those who obey You and ask specifically for Your help to accomplish what they couldn't on their own, of what You've told them to do. You draw us to depend utterly on You, Father. 

O my Father, continue to teach me to trust You utterly, to seek Your face constantly in all that I do, and to accomplish all that You made me to perform, even those things I am not able to do, but that You will do in and through me. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Ezra Returns To Jerusalem

Ezra 7

This chapter records Ezra's actual journey from Babylon to Jerusalem to promote revival among the people by teaching them the Law. Ezra was a Scribe, and he set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to practice it, and to teach His statutes and ordinances in Israel (V. 6). 

These people were encouraged and supported by the king in Babylon, Artaxerxes (Xerxes, Ahasuerus) where the Israelites had been deported, to now return. 

Now this foreign king had favor toward them, and allowed them to not only return to their own land, but also sent a letter with Ezra giving him the authority to take with him all the silver and gold that had been taken, and from Bablylon, and from the whole area of Trans-Euphrates, to provide everything they would need to worship God, lest there be wrath against the kingdom of the king and his sons (V. 23).

Also, the Trans-Euphrates governors were forbidden to collect any taxes or tribute or duty from any of this priestly clan, whether they be Levites, priests, musicians, gatekeepers, temple servants or any other workers in this House of God. 

And Ezra was to appoint magistrates and judges to administer justice to all the people of the whole area of Trans-Euphrates, to those who were already familiar with the Law, and to teach the others who didn't know it. 

This was the main duty of the Tribe of Levi, who were not given their own territory in Israel, but were scattered among all the other tribes; to teach them all God's statutes and ordinances. In Jesus' day, these were the Pharisees (the conservatives) and the Saducees (the liberals).

And Ezra was even to enforce that Whoever does not obey the Law of your God and the law of the king must surely be punished by death, banishment, confiscation of propery, or imprisonment. (V. 26.)

Ezra testified: ... Because the hand of the Lord my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leaders from Israel to go up with me (V. 28).

It looks as though Esther had a very good influence on her husband after the problem with Haman was dealt with, and her Uncle Mordecai was promoted into his high position with the king. (See the Book of Esther.)

This is King Xerxes, who is also known as Artaxerxes and Ahasuerus. All the same man. 

When the time comes to accomplish the next step in God's Plan of the Ages, it doesn't matter what mere Man wants to do, because even The king's heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: He turns it whithersoever He will (Proverbs 21:1). And He turned this king's heart to favor His people and send them back home with all the worldly riches they could ever want.

God is doing everything He can to show His people how good and kind and generous He is, to draw them to Himself, if they they would only decide to turn to Him. 

O my Father, You are amazing! Over and over You have done everything possible and impossible to show us Who You are! You really do want all Your people to know You, and love You as You love them! 

That is how You designed this Universe to work, and how You wanted Mankind to build our World on this beautiful Earth. When Your people follow Your ways and live their lives and run their governments accordingly, then You allow us to enjoy the abundance You put here for us. 

But we are susceptible to the World, the Devil and our own defective DNA that all work against us even wanting to know You. So You are continuing to unfold Your Plan through the Time we experience day by day, and Your Son came, fulfilled all the Law and the Prophets, and will return to wrap up the rest of the prophesies, just as You told us You would. 

So help us, Father; to prepare for "the rest of the story," to persevere and endure until the final battle that will cause the Earth to explode and the Universe to implode (II Peter 3:10), and You remake and rebuild a New Heaven (Universe) and New Earth, suitable for us to live with You, Father, forever and ever (Revelation 21:1; 22:5). 

And every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess Your Majesty and Authority over all kings and lords throughout all Time and Eternity!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

God's Word Stands Forever

Zechariah 1: 1-6

In the eighth month of the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Zechariah son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo: 
The Lord was very angry with your fathers.
Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: Return to Me, declares the Lord Almighty, And I will return to you, says the Lord Almighty. 
Do not be like be like your fathers, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices. But they would not listen or pay attention to Me, declares the Lord.
Where are your fathers now? And the prophets, do they live forever?
But did not My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets, overtake your fathers?

Then they repented and said, The Lord Almighty has done to us what our ways and practices deserve, just as He determined to do.

Zechariah reminded the Jews who returned to Jerusalem how God had been angry with their ancestors for not listening to Him, and He deported them. 

But now God's Word has outlasted their ancestors, who have died, and God brought the people back, just as He said He would do. Now it's time to listen and heed what God says. 

They admitted that God had done exactly what He said He'd do, and that He had dealt with them according to their own ways and deeds. 

This encouraged the people to continue to rebuld the Temple, which at this point in time has sat for 15 years.

Zechariah 2: 12

The Lord will inherit Judah as His portion in the Holy Land and will again choose Jerusalem. 

Now God is again choosing Jerusalem to possess as His own along with the territory of the Southern Kingdom, Judah. 

And all this prompts Darius the king of Media-Persia (Babylon) to support them. (See Ezra 6:1-12 for his decree).

Daniel tells us that this Darius was the son of Xerxes (Ahasuerus, the husband of Hadassah, aka Esther) (see Daniel 1:1-2ff). 

God always keeps His Word. Whenever God says He will do something, you can be sure He will do it, so sure that it's as if it's already done. 

God had told Jeremiah at the time Judah was being deported to this far country, that God would bring them back in 70 years. Then, seventy years later, Daniel was reading Jeremiah's writings, and realized that the seventy years had passed! So he began to pray, and received a lot of his visions of the future. 

But Zechariah is reminding the people who had returned to Judah, that the reason their people had been in the foreign land to begin with was because they had not listened to what God was telling them back then, disobeying His commandments and precepts. God had told their ancestors what He would do, and He did it.

Now the people have returned, and it's time to start listening to God, listening to what His prophets were saying. All their ancestors from back then as well as the prophets who spoke to them were by now all dead, but the prophesies that they had given were coming true--God's Word had outlasted all those people. 

God's Word will always stand. Not one word, not one tiny part of a letter of a word, of God's Word will ever not come true, no matter how much time passes and no matter what people do. 

Mere Mankind cannot tamper with what God has established, whether it be His Creation or His Word about it. (See the First Law of Thermodynamics for the science of Creation, and Matthew 5:18 and Luke 16:17 for the permanence of His Word.) 

So when God has promised to give me something that I don't have yet, I will thank Him for giving it to me, and look for it to appear. He is never early or late, but always just on time. 

O my Father, thank You for Your faithfulness and Your patience with us, with me. Thank You for all the wonderful answers to my prayers that I have seen so far in my life, and I thank You also for all the things that haven't happened yet in my timeline that You have already done for me, to answer the rest of my prayers according to Your goodness and generosity. 

Help me, Father, to trust You more each day, as I draw close to You and learn more of Your character and personality. Teach me how to love You back, as You have loved me; and how to love my neighbor, my fellow man, as You have loved me, too. 

Continue to teach me, Father, how all the dots connect in the story of Scripture. Thank You for telling us our past, so that we can trust that You know what You're doing; and to believe You when You tell us what hasn't happened yet in our Time. 

All Your plans will be successful, and all Your purposes for which You made every detail of every part of all Creation will be fulfilled--have been already done, to unfold day by day as Time passes, until we can see it all finished. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Rulers Or A Ruler

Proverbs 28: 2

When a country is rebellious, it has many rulers; but a ruler with discernment and knowledge maintains order. 

It seems to me that when the people of a Nation do not know the ways of the Lord, and rebel against His ways, then they wind up with several different shades of political opinion, and those of each pursuasion try to assert authority; leading to "many rulers." This is chaotic.

But when a leader stands out as one with the ability to see through all the shades of opinion to discern the right way to lead the people, his authority will be able to govern with justice and equity, maintaining order. 

That is how I understand these verses. This concerns the governance of a Nation, a whole country. But it's the people of that Nation that determines what form of political power will have the authority to rule them. 

People who know the Lord and His ways will set up leaders who will govern according to the needs of the people. 

But when the people are foolish and only care for themselves and this World's things, then they will allow evil men to ascend into power in the Nation, and govern in a way that takes advantage of the people, using them only to grow the coffers of those in power. 

So the individual people do best to live their own personal lives in a right and responsible way, paying attention to not only their own affairs, but also aware of what they can do to promote godly leaders into power, to have authority to rule righteously, to the benefit of all. 

O my Father, please be with Your children in every Nation, to strengthen us for the troubles to come, and to do what we can in every realm to encourage the good, and elevate the righteous. 

And remind us to pray for those who have the power of authority over us, whether in a local or a national level; to pray for them individually to come to You, Father, and to govern us righteously and justly; so that we will have the freedom to live our lives according to the Love wherewith You have loved us.

And may Your righteousness reign in our hearts and in our halls of power. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Walk Circumspectly

Ephesians 5: 15-21

V. 15. Therefore be careful how you walk,
(See then you walk circumspectly,*) 

"Circumspectly" comes from "circum," around, like a circle; and "spectere,"to look." So it means looking around so as to stay within the circle; intentionality.

Walking is taking one step at a time, living our lives one moment at a time. 

Not as unwise men (fools*) but as wise. 

The Bible always uses the word "fool" to denote someone who has no spiritual understanding, or one who rebels against the spiritual knowledge he's been taught. 

"Wisdom" refers to knowing, understanding, and applying God's principles by which He designed this Earth, and laid out in a form we can follow in His Law. 

V. 16. Making the most of your time,
(Redeeming the time,*)

To "redeem" is to buy back or recover. We are to make the most of the time, the era, in which we are living. Pay attention to where you are, when you are, and how to avail yourself of the advantages and avoid the pitfalls of the times and culture we are in, wherever we are in the World; in every place, and in every time. 

Why? Because the days are evil.

Whatever days we are living in, there is evil all around us. That's why we need to pay attention to our culture and environment and be wise in our use of it. 

V. 17. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Don't act like a fool who ignores how God designed the World to work; but get to know Who our God is, and how He wants us to cooperate with how He made it all. And as our Father, He wants us to do well and be successful, as even human fathers and mothers want for their children. 

So how do we do this?

V. 18. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation (debauchery**)(excess*), but be filled with the Spirit,

"Dissapation:" when energy is used or lost without accomplishing anything useful. 
"Debauchery:" excessive indulgence in sensual pleasures. 
"Excess:" going beyond what is regarded as customary or proper. 

Getting drunk on wine is allowing yourself to be contolled by the influence of the alcohol on your brain and thinking processes. 

Being "filled with the Spirit" is allowing yourself to surrender your thinking to the control of God's Spirit in you, to think accurately according to Truth. 

V. 19. Speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

Conversing in words from Scripture, God's ideas.

Singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; 

Being in constant prayer in the presence of the Lord with us. 

V. 20. Always giving thanks for all things in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father:

This presence with the Lord is to keep us aware of God's constant goodness to us, and prompt appreciation and thanksgiving to Him. 

V. 21. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

To love our neighbor as God loves us, putting their needs before our own, as Christ did when He took our death upon Himself to save us. 

This is all laid out so orderly, simply, and able to carry out in our daily lives, from moment to moment, day by day. Simple, but not easy, considering that our own flesh distracts us from the Lord. How can we be constantly aware of His presence with us, in the busy-ness of our lives in this World we live in? 

That's why we need to pay attention, and not just slide through the days. We will never slide into rightousness, only into sin. We slide downwards--it takes effort and attention to improve every day; to grow closer to our Father, and into the molding He is shaping us constantly into the image of His Son. 

O my Father, help us all to live our lives circumspectly, paying attention to Your presence with us all the time, and teach us Your ways as we interact with others in our worlds. 

Continue to mold us and shape us into the very image, the character, of Your Son, our Lord Christ Jesus. 

And send out Your workers into Your fields, Father, so ripe and ready for harvest.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!





Scriptures from the New American Standard Bible.
* King James Version of the Bible.
** New International Version of the Bible.

Positive Thinking

Luke 6: 45

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

Jesus put it out very clearly, that whatever we put into our hearts--our beliefs, our thinking processes, our attitudes--that's what will overflow out our mouths. 

When we determine to look for the good, the positive, the honorable and praiseworthy in other people, that's what we will find. And we will be filling our hearts with all these good things.

But if we allow ourselves to notice and pick up on all the things we disagree on, or disapprove of, or consider wrong; then we will be filling our hearts with all these negative things, that Jesus called evil, and our words and lives will go accordingly. 

So if we want to live our lives in happiness and joy and well-being, we would do well to heed what has been called God's Thought List. 

Philippians 4:8 says: Finally, brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of a good report, if there is any virtue, and if there is anything that deserves praise, think on these things. 

These are all very positive things to look for, notice, and pay attention to. 

Norman Vincent Peale wrote a book on the values of thinking positively, and even people who don't acknowledge God will "ask the Universe" for what they want, and maintain a positive point of view on life. 

This is one of God's principles of living that He tells us about in His Word. Whenever the World finds something that works, it turns out to be a Biblical principle. Because God designed the World to work this way. So even when unchristian people run their lives according to God's principles, they will work, and the people will gain this World's prosperity to enjoy. But that's all. 

Jesus said, What shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole World, and lose his own soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37). That is the situation of these people who only consider the Universe to be their "higher power." 

We live only a few days, a few moments, in this mortal life; we will spend all eternity, forever and ever, in the next. This life is our schooling as children, and how well we listen to our Teacher and learn what He is teaching us, and living our lives according to His ways, will determine our positions at our "graduation," our "adoption," when we will receive our spiritual bodies in exchange for these carnal bodies. 

Both the saved people and the lost people will receive spiritual bodies: the one, suitable to live with God forever; the other, suitable to exist forever in the absence of all that God is, since they rejected Him. 

So we all would do well to focus on the good that God gives us all every day, and turn to Him as our Source of everything we need. 

O my Father, fill my heart with Your good things: Your Word, Your attitudes, Your understanding and discernment; Your ways. 

When I speak, may my words reflect Your character. 

Help me to renew my mind and thinking, and to put on Your Full Armor of God each day as I face this World and the spiritual authorities in the heavenlies. 

Help me to remember that I battle not flesh and blood, that people are precious; and strengthen me day by day. 

And enable me to promote Your Kingdom every day, Father. That Your Name be honored and glorified, that You will receive all the praise and all the credit, that Your Throne will reign over all Creation forever.

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Test Me, Try Me

Psalm 26: 2

Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind. 

King David wrote this Psalm, and asked God to be his examiner. David really wanted to do things God's way, and he knew that he didn't always do that. So he wanted God to judge him now, so he could change his ways when he needed to. 

This is like a seed that David thought on for a long time. He later wrote Psalm 139, which is all about God's greatness, and he ends it with this more familiar and more complete thought:

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. (Psalm 139: 23-24.)

I understand David's thinking here, and this is also my prayer. I would much rather God judge me now, showing me what I'm doing wrong, so that I can change my thinking processes in renewing my mind (Romans 12:2) so that the words and actions that come out of my heart will be according to God's way for me, not what I want to do. 

Like David, I realize that I also make mistakes. I also am vulnerable to taking things into my own hands and making a mess of it. And how much better it is all around to just cooperate with how God designed this World to work, and do things His way in the first place. 

But to know how to do all that, I need to know God. He is the Source. He is the Life I need to live, He is the Light that gave light to the Sun. He is the Love that put the order into the Universe. He is our standard for Beauty and Right. 

But we live in a broken World. Our environment has been polluted, being cursed by sin, and our DNA has been corrupted, and our enemy the Devil is also trying to destroy us. 

So we must defend ourselves from the World's ways, the enemy's ways, and our own flesh body we live in. It seems like everything's against us. 

That's why we're all desperate for God, whether we realize it or not. We all need to know Him to know that we can trust Him to be our kind, gentle, compassionate Father and Teacher and Mentor. The better we know Him, the more we are able to trust Him with our deepest selves. 

So I want God to examine me. I want Him to see my deepest secrets that I'm hiding from myself; to expose them so I can know myself, and confess and forsake every thought, every attitude, every passion that is not in alignment with His ways for me. 

Then I will be able to live my life according to the way He wants me to, and He will be pleased, just like a good parent is pleased with their successful child. I want Him to smile upon me, and take pleasure in what I do. 

So I depend on His Holy Spirit in me to lead me, to guide me into the footsteps of Jesus, not turning to the right or to the left, not running ahead or lagging behind, not pulling away or wandering off. That straight, hemmed in path that leads to everlasting enjoyments (see Matthew 7:14). 

Then I will spend eternity with Him, with the Source of all that is good and desirable and enjoyable. Without Him there is no light, only darkness; no truth, only deception; no pleasantries, only hardships. No order, only chaos; no love, only hatred; no pleasure, only pain. 

God wants to be good to all He has made, but He will not force Himself on anyone. Whoever would rather be deceived, God will allow them to believe lies. Whoever wants to do his own will, God will let him. He gave us a freedom of will, to choose for ourselves, and He will not interfere with that. (See Romans 1:18-32.)

But to all who want to know the Truth, He will teach them. All who want to know a better way, He will lead them. He is not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance, to realize that their own way is not really what they want after all, and that they deserve death for their rebellion against what is right. (See II Peter 3:9.) To repent is to turn around. 

When I realized that the religion I grew up in was not "working" for me, I went on a search for the "Truth." It didn't matter to me what that "Truth" would be, I just wanted to know it so I could believe it and not be deceived. 

God honored that by letting me investigate several "truth systems," knowing how seductive they could be, but none of them convinced me. Then He brought me back to the "hub of the wheel," and to Himself. He showed me that Jesus took my death sentence for me, in my place; and He freed me from the chains of an addiction I was not able to shake off myself. 

And I learned more of Him as time went on. Jesus is the Truth I had been seeking, and He is the Life I could never live until then. And He is the only Way to the Father, the only path that leads to Him. That is the path I am walking on now. 

God has been so good to me; the more I run to Him, the more I curl up in His lap and let Him love me, then the more He reveals Himself and His ways to me. 

So I want Him to clean out from my heart everything that interferes with His perfect, pure ways. This process is called Sanctification, and it will continue until Jesus returns (see Romans 8:23). That's when our carnal bodies will be changed into spiritual bodies, and we will be adults in God's family, fully responsible for helping Him run His Family Business, the Kingdom. 

Until then we still live in our mortal flesh, so we need to watch out for all the things we are vulnerable to here. And continually ask Him to test and try us to reveal whatever else is still lurking in the recesses of our beings. 

O my Father, try me, examine my heart and my mind. Expose anything there that needs to be cleansed and healed. 

Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and a right mind; renew my thinking that I may think Your thoughts, not mine. 

O my Father, Your ways are not our ways, nor are Your thoughts our thoughts. Teach me Your ways, my Father, and Your thoughts. Keep my feet on Your straight path, not turning to the right or to the left. 

And may I forever give You all the praise, all the glory, all the honor, all the blessings, forever and ever, Amen!

Even so, come, Lord Jesus!