Sunday, 15 April 2007

Sunday School Class Proverbs 22:29 Are you skilled in your work?

“Sometimes Alleluia”;   “We worship & Adore you”;

Isaiah 53:1. Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? 2. For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.

3. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. 8. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.

9. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. “He was wounded for our transgressions…”

Scripture reading: #638

Sunday evening Vesper's 5-6 p.m. Matthew 8:23-27 Fear & faith...

Wednesday evening a time of prayer

Going places? Set your heart to study! 

Ezra 7:6. this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.

7. Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants, also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes. 8. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.

9. He had begun his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was on him. 10. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel. 

Quite a few years had passed between the time of Cyrus, King of Persia, giving the decree for the repatriation of Jerusalem and rebuilding of the temple - and the time of Ezra arriving in Jerusalem to take over the faltering project.

The book of Ezra isn't easy for me to follow. The chapters bounce back and forth using different kings names and eras. It covers a period of years seeming to retell the same story but with different 'enemies' and different kings.

The reality is found in the loop of good and evil which cycles repeatedly through our lives and through the history of mankind.

The 'same' story seems to be retold in our own epochs and eras. The 'loop' seems to be getting smaller and shorter, with our difficulties coming back around, perhaps with different names and amounts, but the same difficulties none-the-less.

One of my favorite axioms is, "No good deed shall go unpunished." And, indeed, such was the case in Jerusalem.

The people in Jerusalem had grown discouraged. Their lives revolved around the work on the city and the temple. The future was uncertain because the present was in a short loop of start-stop, start-stop, start-stop.

The new direction that came, bringing the rebuilding of the temple through to completion was because one man had studied until God thought it time to use him.

Those verses in Ezra 7 said: ...the gracious hand of his God was on him. 10. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.

Whatever your task or career, devote yourself to study and preparation - and God will take you places. It might not always have much, if anything, to do with what you have studied. Sometimes the process is of more value than the information. God told David (King of Israel), “Be still and know that I am God.”

"It is God who is at work in you to Will and to do His good pleasure."