Month: July 2016

It’s always a thrilling moment for the leader when boots hit the ground and the dream, the vision, the plan begin to come together.

Nehemiah spent three days (2:11) surveying day and night the reality of the task. Four months of planning at a distance now had to be adjusted to an eyes-on survey. He took no one. The leader’s role is seldom a group process. He looked at the rubble. He listened to God.

And when he spoke to the Jews who were there, he spoke words of motivation steeped in the reality of what he had seen with his own eyes.

It would have been amazing to be in the room that night when gloom and despair turned to joy and enthusiasm: “Let us arise and build!” Why are we sitting here with an unfinished task? Our enemies mock us. Our walls are broken down. Let us do this together! We can do it with God’s help!

And together they arose… and built! What task in your life is needing completion? What “wall” needs to be rebuilt? Isn’t it time to arise…

…and build?

FOR MEDITATION: “Let us arise and build!”     Nehemiah 2:18

FOR REFLECTION: Read Nehemiah 2:11-20. What are the walls in your life that have been knocked down? What are you prepared to do as you “rise up and build?”

The first steps out of the relative security of the city of Susa must have been hard ones to take. Nehemiah, now carrying official documents and passports provided through the personal signature of the King, moved on toward his destination: Jerusalem. Nehemiah 2:11, tells us through Nehemiah’s personal journal that he was there “three days.” This in all likelihood was his first personal visit to the city and his first moment of true exploration of the reality and enormity of the task.

It could not be done alone. As he walked and camped around the city, probably drawing diagrams and projecting material needs, he perhaps wondered how a labor force could be gathered to accomplish the work. But where God guides, God provides. But it was in that three day period that he first encountered a reality that would follow him throughout the project: opposition.

Nehemiah encountered two men named Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite. We are told in the Bible that “they were deeply disturbed that a man had come to seek the well-being of the children of Israel.” (Nehemiah 2:10) The first encounter of opposition for Nehemiah was with two officials who were threatened by Nehemiah’s desire to rebuild the city.

We can expect that whenever a God-driven, Spirit-led plan is put into place, the Enemy will seek to frustrate that plan. It threatens his hold on people when the Kingdom comes. He operates best in the dominion of broken walls and broken lives. His power is greatest when people are “in distress and turmoil.” (Nehemiah 1:3) But his grip is lost when redemption appears; when hope returns; when God’s promises become reality in people’s lives.

But we can expect to incur Satan’s wrath whenever we move by faith into territory with an intention to redeem and restore that which the enemy has captured. Don’t be surprised lonely missionary family, when opposition surrounds you. Your presence brings the Kingdom to bear in occupied territory. Don’t be discouraged church planter, when you feel like the only Christians in the urban center where God has placed you. The Kingdom is coming through you! Don’t be distressed pastor, when the church pews are not filled to overflowing on Sundays. The kingdom is coming in power through your testimony of quiet persistence. And the enemy will stay busy to frustrate you.

Nehemiah did not enter the city alone. He was surrounded by “captains and kings of the army” sent by King Artaxerxes himself. And when you move to your assignment; when you fly the banner of the King in the face of the broken walls and broken lives around you, know that you are not alone. The captain of the Lord’s army and His horsemen accompany you as well! Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you….”

…even when opposition comes.

FOR MEDITATION: So it pleased the king to send me… and I set him a time.   Nehemiah 2:6

FOR REFLECTION: How can opposition in our lives be interpreted as the enemy trying to stop our forward movement? Usually this is true: if we are walking in the path and plan God has set for us, opposition is evidence that we are on the right path! On the other hand, to move in what we believe to be God’s direction and not encounter opposition may be a sign that we have set off on our own path! While these statements cannot be absolute, the tendency will be for this to be true. Don’t resent opposition… it may just be evidence that your walk is right where God wants you to be!

It’s hard to move forward when we are looking backward. Psychologists tell us that one of the main causes of stress in our lives is when we try to undo or redo something from our past. For the most part, we don’t get a do-over. WE must move forward. There are two pieces of glass in our cars that are directly in front of us. One is a large piece called a windshield. The other is a small piece called a rear view mirror. There is a message in the size of those glass pieces. There is a clear reason why the windshield is larger: moving forward is more important than looking backward. Now this is not to say we can’t or shouldn’t learn from the past. We certainly should. BUT WE CAN’T LIVE THERE! We will be an accident waiting to happen if we are flying down the highway glaring into what is behind us. (Ladies putting on their makeup as they travel late to work notwithstanding!)

It was time for Nehemiah to move forward. The past was the past. The damage had been done. The walls of Jerusalem had been decimated by the force of the Babylonian army. Their king now sat before Nehemiah, waiting to hear the request to be made. Nehemiah did not demand restitution for what had been done to his beloved, home city. He did not want the soldiers who did this marched out and punished. He pushed forward. He moved ahead. He didn’t look back.

So many of us get stuck in reverse. We nurse long-held grudges against the person who “tore down our walls.” We long for revenge, smacking our lips over the feast of vengeance served hot, not realizing the feast we are anticipating is really our own flesh and blood. As I watch the protesters and demonstrators crying for vengeance in a vain effort to feel justice done, I wonder how productive we could really be if we just refused to look back and look forward instead?

How many opportunities has God graciously laid before us that we have squandered by refusing to look forward? If our eyes are fixed on a past that we cannot change, we will never seize the opportunities to bring needed change and a new beginning. Maybe the walls in your life are broken right now. Someone… some person, some entity… has “broken down your walls” and now, like the people of Israel, you are “in great distress and turmoil.” In other words, your problems are somebody else’s fault! You can focus your energy and attention on getting even… or you can focus your eyes before you… “turn your eyes upon Jesus….”

…And begin to get better.

FOR MEDITATION: And I said to the king, “If it pleases the king, and IF your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you send me to Judah, to the city of my father’s tombs, that I may rebuild it.” Nehemiah 2:7

FOR REFLECTION: Where have the walls been broken down in your world? What needs to be repaired? The reality of your circumstance is that dwelling on past injuries and bitterness will not get the walls repaired. Focus forward. Look into the future God wants you to enjoy. And then, by faith, go there.

Our nation has changed over the past seven days… again. Our nation has moved toward a deeper divide racially than we have seen since the volatile ’60s. And while none of us want to admit that terrorism is winning the war against America, fear is. As a result of the events this past week in Dallas, our nation has moved further from unity than ever. We are suspicious of one another… and fearful.

Politicians CANNOT fix this. Their job is to protect the citizens of our nation but WE must be the solution to this awful circumstance. WE must change how we think, how we decide and how we act. The answer is not to buy better guns or even to create harsher laws to prevent the purchase of guns.

The answer is to change the hearts and minds of the people who make up this nation. Stopping hatred and prejudice and the need for vengeance and retaliation is a spiritual battle; not a political one. It requires an intervention from the God we have asked to leave us alone. And unfortunately, we are seeing signs that He has honored our request.

But as I have advocated in the past few weeks from the pulpit and from these blog posts, it is GOD’S PEOPLE who must return to Him first. It is our responsibility as the churches of our land, as the Christian conscience of our nation, to begin to live what we believe and to model what we would like to see others do.

So how do we as Christians respond to the events of the last few days and of the divisions that have deepened between us?

1. We can pray. We must pray for our nation. If we spent twice as much time praying about our problems as a nation as we spend lamenting about them perhaps God would be moved to intervene in power and glory.
2. We model racial harmony and reconciliation. We need to stop being fearful of others who are different than we are in color, nationality and clothing. We should watch our language around our lost neighbors as we talk about “the white man” or “the black man.” We are just… men. Build relationships cross-culturally. Celebrate those who are different than you are. WE are all just people… same dreams, same hopes, same fears. We share a common heritage… the human race. We are ALL created in the image of God… His stamp abides on all of us. And when we take a life or advocate the taking of any human life, we have taken something that God values deeply.
3. We stop making decisions that are fear-driven. We have allowed fear to make us do things that were unthinkable to us five years ago. Reach out to people you don’t know. Fight your fears. Bo Jackson, the athlete, tweeted the night of the Dallas shootings, “Do something kind for a complete stranger tonight before you go to bed. Our world needs that right now.” And so it does.
4. We can refuse to allow bitterness, anger and rage to control us. Nowhere is it justified for us to seek to “even the score” for injuries and wrongs done to us, whether to people we know or people we don’t. We must recognize bitterness on a personal level or a corporate one will always lead us to war… not peace, to injustice… not justice. “The wrath of man does not accomplish the righteousness of God.” (James 1:20)

Days like these test and reveal who we really are as a nation… and as individuals. They will serve as a catalyst to make us bitter… or as a cause to make us better. Our hope must be that we can now say, “enough.” That we can learn to respect people who are of different races, nationalities and stop allowing fear and misunderstanding to drive us. We can respect those who serve us by wearing uniforms as first-responders and police officers and pray for them that there will never be a reason for them again to attend the funeral of a fallen comrade.

Enough. God, it is enough. May America be great again, not because of our economy or our military prowess. May we be great again because we are”One nation, under GOD… INDIVISIBLE… with LIBERTY and JUSTICE for ALL!”

And may God have reason to bless America once again.

After our brief time walking through 2 Chronicles 7:14, we now return to our reflections on Nehemiah. This Old Testament book, though maybe not familiar to us as some, has powerful and relevant applications for us especially as it speaks to those who are leaders.

To review briefly, Nehemiah had been called by God to do a difficult if not impossible task; to rebuild the decimated walls of the city of Jerusalem. The first wave of Jewish exiles had returned and began a process of resettling in the city. But without the protection of a wall around the city the people could not thrive.

And so God raised up a leader. A layman, working in the personal service of the most powerful king on earth, was chosen by God as His instrument to lead the reconstruction of the walls.

Never believe for a moment that God cannot or will not step into the midst of your world and completely redirect your life for His purposes. Maybe those purposes will be very task-specific as was Nehemiah’s. Or maybe He will call you to service in another nation or to adopt a child.

Nehemiah was willing to go. But several obstacles stood before him, most formidable the king for whom he worked.

A tough conversation was on the horizon. Wisely Nehemiah prayed before he spoke. He also was willing to wait. And wait. For four months Nehemiah prayed.

Proverbs 21:1 tells us, “The heart of the king is like a stream of water in the hands of Lord. He turns it wherever He will.” If God can move a king’s thoughts and incline them toward His purposes, the heart of any person can be moved; a difficult and capricious boss, an unreachable spouse, a wayward child. Without violating their personhood and ability to choose God can sovereignty act to achieve His will.

And so a divine preparation which had been under way for four months came to a moment of opportunity for Nehemiah. He had prayed. Now his faith required action. He stepped out and laid his request before the king. Humbly but with specific detail he made his request known. The king heard and gave what Nehemiah had asked!

Amazing things happen when we pray believing. But we need to be ready to move when the moment arrives…

… and not look back.

FOR MEDITATION: And the king granted me what I asked, for the good hand of my God was upon me. Nehemiah 2:8c

FOR REFLECTION: Do your dreams and ideas have an action plan? A dream remains only a dream until it is expressed in concrete acts. What is the next step you must take to make the dream a reality?

The challenge in the prayer of 2 Chronicles 7:14 ends with a challenge for change. We can pray all we want but if the end result does not produce the necessary change that God requires then we are just reciting “vain repetition.”

When was the last time you prayed with an expectancy that God would produce a change; making you a better husband or wife, a wiser parent or more obedient child (yes students, I am addressing you too!), a better leader or supervisor of people? When did you pray, “Speak Lord, for your servant hears?”

We pray wanting God to hear our prayer, but not just to nod in assent to what we are saying. We pray asking God to do something that we are asking, to give something that we need, to provide something that we lack.

In short, when we pray fervently, seriously, we pray with an expectation that SOMETHING WILL BE DONE. But do we pray with the same understanding that God expects change from us?

We are to make choices. “If My people….will turn from their evil ways.” (HCSB). This is about choosing the direction and trajectory of your life and hoping that it is in accordance with God’s plan, will and purpose for our lives. Jack Hayford once told a gathered group of pastors that change is choice and choosing to do what WE want or what GOD wants.

Sometimes choosing means saying YES to something good by saying NO to something bad. We must “choose against ourselves.” Our flesh wants to sleep in. God calls us to meet early with Him. Our flesh wants to eat the wrong stuff. Our diet says, “eat healthy.” We will watch this summer as the world’s top athletes meet in Rio for the Olympics. Their skill, their physique all tell us that morning after morning, day after day, meal after meal, they have said NO to the wrong things and that they rise early to gain a prize that is, at best, temporary.

To “turn from our wicked ways” produces a result that is eternal. When God sees genuine change in the hearts of His people He pours out the blessings we most need: being heard from heaven… having our sins forgiven… healing for ourselves and our land.

To continue in the wrong direction brings disaster. At some point, the road that you may think is the right one will lead to death. It comes to a tragic end.

Something like that is happening in our land. People have chosen “against God” and “for themselves” for far too long. The road will end soon.

When it does, will you be on the right one?

FOR MEDITATION: If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sins and heal their land.     2 Chronicles 7:14

FOR REFLECTION: Are you on the road going in the direction that God sees as best? What must you do to turn back to the right road?

This week we have been reviewing the prayer of Solomon in 2 Chronicles 7, at the dedication of the magnificent temple he had led the people of Israel to rebuild. This happened at a time of great prosperity, unparalleled unity and unprecedented outpouring of God’s blessings on His chosen people.

We realize that it was not Solomon who brought this period about. He was riding on the shoulders of the Shepherd-King of Israel, his father, David. And it was because of God’s promises to David that the people of Israel were blessed and that this event could come to pass.

Solomon, tragically, was a leader who began well but who did not finish well. He started with an attitude of humility, a reverence for the one true and living God but finished a broken, doubting and sad individual and poor leader for the kingdom. This is a story far too common in the biographies of leaders both of our national life and of other areas of influence.

He started as a man who humbly sought God’s will… and God’s face. He did so with an undivided heart. He asked God for wisdom and God gave him not only wisdom but so abundantly that he became the wisest king the Israelites had ever known. But yet he ended foolishly. And it was for one reason and only one.

He stopped seeking God’s face.

Solomon was a knowledgeable, educated man. He turned the best of his thoughts, the fruit of his education to learning about the God he served. He sought God’s face, we can imagine, in prayer and meditation. He read his father’s writings and sang the songs David wrote.

But somewhere along the way his own reflection in the mirror became more attractive to him than God’s face. He began to seek after the pleasures of his flesh and the worldly offerings of his kingdom. He started to believe his own press clippings and lived an isolated, insulated life in the palace.

And he stopped seeking God’s face.

This is where the wheels fall off the wagon for many of us. Something becomes more attractive, more alluring, more captivating to us than knowing the Lord. And as we seek those things we forsake the One who can truly satisfy us.

We have stopped seeking the face of God when we begin seeking satisfaction through ways that are in conflict with God’s standards and God’s character. We have stopped seeking the face of God when we are more concerned in our prayer life with getting something from God than from simply being satisfied WITH God.

God called His people back to Himself by saying, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and SEEK MY FACE and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven….”

Today, are you seeking the FACE of God or His hand? Do you really want to know God or are you looking for a divine handout? The people most satisfied with God are those who seek His face, His favor, His presence… above any other.

What do you seek?

FOR MEMORIZATION: If you forsake the Lord, He will forsake you.      2 Chronicles 15:2b

FOR REFLECTION: My granddaughter McCail is just over a week old as of this writing. Last week I held her for a few moments when she was awake and as she stretched and I looked into her eyes for one of the first of what I hope are a million times, she reached up her hand and touched my face. Translated: She touched my face. It was new to her. She touched it once, and then again. She sought my face. I would have given her anything in that moment had she asked me. It is that seeking that pleases the Father. Touch His face. Seek Him. And you will find what you need.

When asked what is the most indispensable characteristic of a leader that people want to follow, humility will inevitably rise to the top of the list. The most loved iconic leaders in American politics and in business were known for a humility of personality and character that made them winsome, approachable, and pleasant to be around.

Some of the greatest leaders of our nation were humble presidents who were not afraid to admit they did not have the answers and who would move quickly to prayer. I think what attracts God’s attention most to a person, a church or a nation is the willingness of people to be humble.

When God calls His people, those “called by My Name,” to prayer He adds a prescriptive phrase first: “If My people……humble themselves and pray…” If we are truly His people, called by His Name, it is not hard for us to express that relationship with the humble response of prayer.

In yesterday’s blog I made the assertion that prayer does not show doubt as some have claimed but it does show DEPENDENCE. We pray because we are dependent upon God to shine His Face toward us; to send His Spirit upon us; to give us heavenly wisdom to guide our lives and our nation toward safe harbor.

But we will not humble ourselves. Our spirit of independence makes us self-reliant, even if we have to destroy our lives and our others to prove that we are “Master of our own fate and Captain of our own souls.” (From Invictis)

The Bible says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God and He will life you up.” There is something consistent about this characteristic of leadership that transcends even time and cultural expressions. Moses was “the most humble man who ever lived” says the Bible’s testimony. Jesus refused to wear any title gladly but “servant.” A wise leader and an obedient follower of Christ was always self-select humility.

A leader is, above all else, humble. And it is the prayer that is offered in a spirit of humility that God will be pleased to hear.

FOR MEDITATION:   Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up.   James 4:10

FOR REFLECTION: Can you ruthlessly abandon self-reliance in your life? Is there a spirit of independence that characterizes you that pushes you further from God?