Nehemiah 6 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE FRUIT OF SIN

What is the fruit of sin? Step into the briar patch of humanity and feel a few thistles. Shame. Fear. Disgrace. Discouragement. Anxiety. Haven’t our hearts been caught in these brambles? The heart of Jesus, however, had not. He had never been cut by the thorns of sin. Anxiety? He never worried. Guilt? He was never guilty. Fear? He never left the presence God. He never knew the fruits of sin until he became sin for us.

And when He did, He felt anxious, guilty, and alone. Can’t you hear the emotion in His prayer? “My God, my God, why have you rejected me?” These are not the words of a saint; this is the cry of a sinner. And these are words that we should say, but these are words we don’t have to say because Jesus said them for us. He took on the fruit of sin so that we could enjoy the fruit of eternal life.

Nehemiah 6

“I’m Doing a Great Work; I Can’t Come Down”

When Sanballat, Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies heard that I had rebuilt the wall and that there were no more breaks in it—even though I hadn’t yet installed the gates—Sanballat and Geshem sent this message: “Come and meet with us at Kephirim in the valley of Ono.”

2-3 I knew they were scheming to hurt me so I sent messengers back with this: “I’m doing a great work; I can’t come down. Why should the work come to a standstill just so I can come down to see you?”

4 Four times they sent this message and four times I gave them my answer.

5-6 The fifth time—same messenger, same message—Sanballat sent an unsealed letter with this message:

6-7 “The word is out among the nations—and Geshem says it’s true—that you and the Jews are planning to rebel. That’s why you are rebuilding the wall. The word is that you want to be king and that you have appointed prophets to announce in Jerusalem, ‘There’s a king in Judah!’ The king is going to be told all this—don’t you think we should sit down and have a talk?”

8 I sent him back this: “There’s nothing to what you’re saying. You’ve made it all up.”

9 They were trying to intimidate us into quitting. They thought, “They’ll give up; they’ll never finish it.”

I prayed, “Give me strength.”

* * *

10 Then I met secretly with Shemaiah son of Delaiah, the son of Mehetabel, at his house. He said:

Let’s meet at the house of God,
    inside The Temple;
Let’s find safety behind locked doors
    because they’re coming to kill you,
Yes, coming by night to kill you.

11 I said, “Why would a man like me run for cover? And why would a man like me use The Temple as a hideout? I won’t do it.”

12-13 I sensed that God hadn’t sent this man. The so-called prophecy he spoke to me was the work of Tobiah and Sanballat; they had hired him. He had been hired to scare me off—trick me—a layman, into desecrating The Temple and ruining my good reputation so they could accuse me.

14 “O my God, don’t let Tobiah and Sanballat get by with all the mischief they’ve done. And the same goes for the prophetess Noadiah and the other prophets who have been trying to undermine my confidence.”

* * *

15-16 The wall was finished on the twenty-fifth day of Elul. It had taken fifty-two days. When all our enemies heard the news and all the surrounding nations saw it, our enemies totally lost their nerve. They knew that God was behind this work.

17-19 All during this time letters were going back and forth constantly between the nobles of Judah and Tobiah. Many of the nobles had ties to him because he was son-in-law to Shecaniah son of Arah and his son Jehohanan had married the daughter of Meshullam son of Berekiah. They kept telling me all the good things he did and then would report back to him anything I would say. And then Tobiah would send letters to intimidate me.

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Tuesday, April 06, 2021
Read: Philippians 1:3–8

Thanksgiving and Prayer
3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God’s grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

INSIGHT
When Paul recalled his relationship with the Philippians “from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:5), he was giving them reasons for hope going forward (v. 6). He and his companions had tried to go elsewhere before receiving a vision from God to come to their region (Acts 16:6–12). Soon after his arrival, they met Lydia. She and some other women had been meeting on a riverbank outside of town waiting for God to answer their prayers (vv. 13–15). Her spiritual openness followed by the baptism of her household was the beginning of things to come (vv. 16–40). What an introduction! In Philippi, Paul and Silas encountered a demon-possessed fortune teller; were arrested, beaten, imprisoned; survived an earthquake; and witnessed the amazing story of a jailer’s conversion and the baptism of his family. It was God who’d brought them all together.

Companions in Christ - By Glenn Packiam
I thank my God every time I remember you. Philippians 1:3

The Harvard Study of Adult Development is a decades-long project that’s resulted in a greater understanding of the importance of healthy relationships. The research began with a group of 268 sophomores at Harvard University in the 1930s and later expanded to, among others, 456 Boston inner-city residents. Researchers have conducted interviews with the participants and pored over their medical records every few years. They discovered that close relationships are the biggest factor in predicting happiness and health. It turns out that if we surround ourselves with the right people, we’ll likely experience a deeper sense of joy.

This appears to reflect what the apostle Paul is describing in Philippians 1. Writing from prison, Paul can’t help but tell his friends that he thanks God for them every time he remembers them, praying “with joy” (v. 4). But these aren’t just any friends; these are brothers and sisters in Jesus who “share in God’s grace,” partners in the gospel with Paul (v. 7). Their relationship was one of sharing and mutuality—a true fellowship shaped by God’s love and the gospel itself.

Yes, friends are important, but fellow companions in Christ are catalysts of a true and deep joy. The grace of God can bind us together like nothing else. And even through the darkest seasons of life, the joy that comes from that bond will last.

Who are the friends that surround you? What’s the substance of your relationships? How has the grace of God shaped your choice of companions?

Dear God, thank You for the gift of friendship. Help me to express my gratitude to those who have been faithful companions to me. Give me the grace to strengthen and encourage them.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Tuesday, April 06, 2021
The Collision of God and Sin

…who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree… —1 Peter 2:24

The Cross of Christ is the revealed truth of God’s judgment on sin. Never associate the idea of martyrdom with the Cross of Christ. It was the supreme triumph, and it shook the very foundations of hell. There is nothing in time or eternity more absolutely certain and irrefutable than what Jesus Christ accomplished on the Cross— He made it possible for the entire human race to be brought back into a right-standing relationship with God. He made redemption the foundation of human life; that is, He made a way for every person to have fellowship with God.

The Cross was not something that happened to Jesus— He came to die; the Cross was His purpose in coming. He is “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). The incarnation of Christ would have no meaning without the Cross. Beware of separating “God was manifested in the flesh…” from “…He made Him…to be sin for us…” (1 Timothy 3:16 ; 2 Corinthians 5:21). The purpose of the incarnation was redemption. God came in the flesh to take sin away, not to accomplish something for Himself. The Cross is the central event in time and eternity, and the answer to all the problems of both.

The Cross is not the cross of a man, but the Cross of God, and it can never be fully comprehended through human experience. The Cross is God exhibiting His nature. It is the gate through which any and every individual can enter into oneness with God. But it is not a gate we pass right through; it is one where we abide in the life that is found there.

The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

Am I getting nobler, better, more helpful, more humble, as I get older? Am I exhibiting the life that men take knowledge of as having been with Jesus, or am I getting more self-assertive, more deliberately determined to have my own way? It is a great thing to tell yourself the truth. The Place of Help, 1005 R

Bible in a Year: 1 Samuel 4-6; Luke 9:1-17

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Tuesday, April 06, 2021


The Unquenchable Thirst for Freedom - #8932

There it was again, displayed for all the world to see; hundreds of thousands of people, willing to risk everything for one thing - freedom. Oh, it was a few years ago, but over the weeks in that square, we watched a powerful, real-life struggle for freedom played out in a place called Liberation ("Tahrir") Square in Egypt. Once again, as we've seen in other countries, there was this unquenchable passion to be free. And it changed the nation at that time.

Oh, it's not the first time. It's what happened in 1989 in that Old World Square in Romania where I walked a couple of years ago. On those cobblestones, 200,000 people dared to stand up to brutal oppression, and they toppled a dictator in a matter of days. The freedom flame is what drove thousands of oppressed people to "tear down that wall" in Berlin. And that yearning for freedom? It's what inspired a ragtag gaggle of farmers to grab their muskets 200 years ago to fight the British Army, the mightiest army in the world. And America was born.

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Unquenchable Thirst For Freedom."

Few passions run deeper in the human heart than this desire to be free. There's something in the human soul that just knows that being in bondage is not how we were created to be. But it turns out that this yearning goes much deeper than we imagined; much deeper than any political or social freedom could ever satisfy.

So Jesus came, as the ultimate Liberator. No, not from a political system or a human despot. He came as the Liberator from the ultimate bondage. A personal bondage that no demonstration and no war can ever shatter.

He said of His mission, "If the Son" - that's Him, the Son of God - "shall make you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). From the dark despot that keeps every human soul in bondage. Just before He talked about "free indeed," He said, "Anyone who commits sin is a slave of sin" (John 8:34).

Now, at first thought, "sin" may not seem like that big a deal; certainly not our "slave master." Especially if we think sin is just breaking some religion's rules. But it is so much more. And it is at the heart of our broken families, our broken relationships, our broken hearts, our broken world.

Sin is every selfish, dirty, dishonest thing we have ever done. Every word, every reaction that's hurt someone, most often someone we love. It's that disease of "me" that, multiplied by almost eight billion "me's" on this planet, exacts a horrific price. And for all our attempts at self-improvement, we just keep doing the things that we hate...that those who love us hate...that God hates. It is, in fact, the hijacking of our life from the very One who gave us our life.

In the words of one of the writers of the Bible, "I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out...no, the evil I do not want to do, this I keep on doing" (Romans 7:19). Who doesn't know that struggle? No matter how good we manage to look on the outside, we all have this dark side that just keeps winning; a dark side known all too well by the people closest to us. We are, as Jesus said, slaves to the sin that we can't stop doing.

Well, the same Bible writer ended up with this impassioned cry to be free: "Who will rescue me?" A cry for rescue? Well, that's an admission that I can't liberate myself. Then this man, who's desperate for change, comes to the answer: "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 7:24).

You know, as we've seen in all the upheaval in all the countries recently, freedom often comes with a price of blood, and mine did. But not my blood; the blood of God's only Son. There was no way to break the enslaving power of sin than to pay its unspeakable death penalty. That's what Jesus was doing when He died on the cross. As the Bible says, "He loves us and has freed us from our sins by His blood" (Revelation 1:5).

This is the day you could go free inside; set free by the Liberator who died for your freedom. You've just got to tell Him you want to be His. I think we could help you do that; help you cross that line. Just go to our website today will you? ANewStory.com.

The day I told Jesus, "I'm Yours," was the day that this sin-slave went free. Because there's no feeling like the day you know you're finally free. For me, for millions, that was the day we welcomed the Liberator, who paid the price so we would never have to.