Post Sunday Devotional January 25 2009

READ NEHEMIAH 8:8-12

“…Do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Challenging month! So challenging that you may want to throw in that towel before you even pick it up, if that were possible. Having change occur in our lives, real change in our lives can be and is an overwhelming process to go through. It was just a few short months ago that we were all challenged to bring God into His proper place in our lives and that was an incredible amount of information and it alone challenged us with numerous items and then thank goodness Tenley Westbrook came and sang for us to give us a week rest from another challenge but then we charged on out into the Wild Frontier and were challenged to live a life away from the comforts we are used to and rough it. Then of course we Ho Ho Ho’d into the Christmas season and were challenged with the fact that Christ has arrived and there is no reason not to live the whole year with that Christmas spirit (the life, peace, joy, hope and love of Christ) and now we’ve all been challenged to find my personal vision and call of God in my life, to pray for my 222 and use my personal call to mesh into the corporate call of God at New Heights to encourage and strengthen the body of Christ! Ahhhh! Can’ t we just have Tenley sing every week, no more challenges! Don’t bring that towel any closer, I’ll treat it like a hot potato!

So before you surround yourself with junk food and turn on the TV and melt into the couch for the remainder of your days, let’s bring this into some perspective. After the walls of Jerusalem were finished, all the people gathered together and the Law of God was read (the books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, not all of it was read, but parts of it), the response of the people after not simply hearing the Law of God, but having it told to them in a way that they could understand (understanding is key, we can listen to the Bible being read, but if we don’t understand it, we obviously could care less what is being read). So after they heard and understood it, it brought them to tears. The Word of God once again had brought light into the darkness and their actions, their words, their deeds were all brought to light and they were convicted by it. They were challenged by what they heard and probably wondered just like we all do, how can I possibly live by this standard, I know I need to change, but this is too great of a challenge for me.
Nehemiah and Ezra the priest told the people, stop crying! Not because they were being babies, but because they didn’t understand. They said this day is holy to the Lord your God no more crying! Before you react to that word holy and think oh, great clearly yet another church service they would have to go to, that is what being holy is all about, go to church, pray, fast, stop smiling, look like life causes you great pain, no football, no video games, no shopping at Kohl’s, just sit and meditate and be quiet, yup that is holy. So the people went and did that…..nope….think again….check this out……

So Nehemiah and Ezra said: “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10)

Modern translation to that: Go ahead and depart from this church service and go eat, don’t go eat Fat Free chips and a Veggie Burger, go grab a bag of your favorite Doritos, have a Bacon Double Cheeseburger (OK, the Jews would not have had a Bacon Double Cheeseburger, so remember this is our Gentile modern translation), a tall glass of icy cold Coke and multiple Nestle’s Toll House Cookies. Enjoy the good that God has given us, oh and don’t forget about everyone else, bring others in that may not have all that you have and connect with other people, you aren’t a lonely, no one loves me island off to yourself, there are others out there that want to celebrate life with you!

Do not sorrow! The joy of the Lord is your strength!

Great, but what does this have to do with me being challenged and overwhelmed by all that needs to take place in my life? I’m overwhelmed remember, not joyously celebrating, me being overwhelmed is no cause for celebration! As Princess Buttercup in “The Princess Bride” yelled at the Dread Pirate Roberts, “You mock my pain!”

No, I’m not mocking your pain and neither are Nehemiah and Ezra in fact we are directing you to the source of healing for that pain. You see your feeling challenged is a form of repentance. Allow that repentance to bring you where it should. Repentance should cause you to turn away from what you know is not right before God and turn toward and to God. That repentance shows your belief that you do not have the ability to change yourself, but God does. Repentance sounds like a bad thing, but how can repentance be a bad thing when it turns you to God, it turns you to a God that is a God that “so loved the world.” It is turning you to someone who truly and deeply loves you. So now you are before Him, you repented because you believed that you have sinned and He has not and you place yourself at His mercy. He in His grace and mercy forgives you, you are free now to give yourself over to Him and the only way you can give yourself over to Him is through Christ, through the gospel. The same gospel that Romans 1:17 tells us…For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: "The righteous will live by faith."

That repentance that you have experienced, that faith that you are now placing in God by turning your life over to Him reveals the righteousness of God, from the first to the last. That righteousness is perfectly displayed in Christ and it is in Him that we find the source of all our joy and it is in that joy that we will find our strength to grip more tightly unto our towels.

Confused? That’s OK, so am I, but slow down, grab a cup of coffee and read that again and then move on.

Your struggles with the numerous challenges that have been posed exposes you fully before a Magnificent, Holy God and being before Him is exactly where we need to be. For in Him we see that we can’t create a better life ourselves by ourselves, but only through faith in the risen Christ. Only through faith in the risen Christ can our new life in Christ begin to happen.

OK, fine, but where does the celebration come in?

Psalm 27:13 “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed That I would see the goodness of the LORD In the land of the living.”

Because you have heard the Word of the Lord and been challenged and that challenge has driven you to repentance and that repentance has driven you to the Lord and in seeing the Lord you see the gospel of His Son, you are once again, all over reminded that all will be restored because of Christ, all will be redeemed because of Christ and all that was once broken will again one day be restored. I will not throw in the towel because now that I have once again come into the presence of Christ, I once again believe that I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

That last part of the previous sentence is the celebration. His goodness is all around you, enjoy Him today. He is the One who will change your life!

Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. When is the last time you have taken time to truly celebrate the life that God has given you? (Celebration is not a drunken party, but neither is it a night of Parcheesi with a Lawrence Welk album playing in the background, unless of course you all really enjoy that)

2. Do you think you properly understand how to celebrate? Do a search on the word joy in the Bible (www.biblegateway.com) and start reading those verses to gain a deeper sense of a true celebration of joy.

pastor e