Neh. 2:5 -I said to the king, “If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor before you, send me to Judah, to the city of my fathers’ tombs, that I may rebuild it.”
Nehemiah was a man with vision. The vision he had was to travel to Jerusalem and rebuild the walls of the city. A person’s vision is generally very clear at the start of their journey. However, while on your quest there will be many obstacles arise to cloud your vision. Nehemiah’s vision was very clear. It was to rebuild the walls in Jerusalem and re-hang the gates.
Nehemiah was burdened when he heard the horrible condition of the city of Jerusalem. This burden caused him to take action. When you are burdened the vision will come on how to successfully accomplish this feat. In Nehemiah’s case the vision came in phases. 1st - His plan is on how to get to Jerusalem (Neh. 2:5-9). 2nd - He surveys the city and contrives a plan to rebuild the walls (Neh. 2:11-16). 3rd - How will he involve people with his plan (Neh. 2:17-18)?
When you are working to achieve your goal or see your vision come to fruition, you need to know obstacles will appear. Neh. 2:19 - But when Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard it, they mocked us and despised us and said, “What is this thing you are doing? Are you rebelling against the king?” Nehemiah was trying to achieve the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem and once again bring honor and glory to the city chosen by God. Yet, there were people who didn’t like what he was trying to fulfill. When you cast a vision beware. There will be people who will become obstacles on your path. Why do these obstacles come when you are trying to succeed in a worthwhile cause? I tell myself they are coming to test my resolve. They want to see how much it will take to get me to quit. When I say it that way it immediately fires me up and I say, “Well, bring it on, lets see who will give up first.” Here are a few of the obstacles that you will most likely encounter once you have started your journey. 1. How much money could someone offer you to get you to forget about your goal? 2. How much criticism from family, friends or enemies before you give up on your vision? Obstacles will come once you take that first steps to accomplishing your vision. Let the obstacles be fuel for your fire and not put your fire out. Nehemiah overcame the obstacles and rebuilt the wall and hung the gates in 52 days. The walls had been in ruins for years because no one had the vision. Once Nehemiah got the vision nothing stopped him. I challenge you to be a Nehemiah today. Get a vision and overcome all obstacles on your way to achieving it. Think About This: A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word
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Num. 1-4 - Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the LORD;…The people therefore cried out to Moses, The rabble who were among them had greedy desires; and also the sons of Israel wept again and said, "Who will give us meat to eat?..."
Num. 11:10-15 - Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased. 11 So Moses said to the LORD, "Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? 12 "Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, … 13 "Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, 'Give us meat that we may eat!' 14 " I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. 15 " So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once,… Num. 12:1-8 - Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married … 2 and they said, "Has the LORD indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us as well?" And the LORD heard it. 3 (Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.) 4 Suddenly the LORD said to Moses and Aaron and to Miriam, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." So the three of them came out. 5 Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the doorway of the tent, and He called Aaron and Miriam. When they had both come forward, 6 He said, "Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream. 7 "Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household; 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant, against Moses?" NASU
The LORD has used Moses to free the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, all of the extremely hard work the Pharaoh had them doing and now they are complaining about their living conditions. THEY ARE FREE! No one is beating them with whips and what are they doing? They are complaining. You start a business and treat your employees well. The news gets out that you are a great company to work for and people now want to work for you. You give some of these people a job. When compared to their old job the working conditions with you are fabulous. Where they were before was pure hell. In six months to a year these same people have now started to complain about you exactly like the Israelites were complaining about Moses who freed them from being SLAVES. You freed them from what they use to call hell and now they are complaining about you.
OT:6035 `anav (aw-nawv'); or [by intermixture with OT:6041] `anayv (aw-nawv'); from OT:6031; depressed (figuratively), in mind (gentle) or circumstances (needy, especially saintly): (Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance with Expanded Greek-Hebrew Dictionary. Copyright © 1994, 2003 Biblesoft, Inc. and International Bible Translators, Inc.) Listen, it only makes sense. Everyone is complaining to or about Moses'. The Israelites, Miriam and Aaron are all complaining about him. He is totally exhausted. He can't take it any longer. What does he do? He goes to the LORD and lays out his case. 11 So Moses said to the LORD, "Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? 12 "Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, 'Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers'? 13 "Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me, saying, 'Give us meat that we may eat!' 14 " I alone am not able to carry all this people, because it is too burdensome for me. 15 " So if You are going to deal thus with me, please kill me at once,… I ask you one question does that sound like a "humble person" or a "depressed person"? Depressed people want to die not humble people.
Have you ever wanted God to just give you a sign that you are on the right track? If yes, then you are a leader. Do you know what God did for Moses? He gave Him the sign he needed. You know what the sign was? It was affirmation. When you read Chapter 12 you will notice that God calls for a meeting. He wants Miriam, Aaron and Moses front and center. Notice what God says, "You three come out to the tent of meeting." Miriam and Aaron had been complaining about Moses'. They were saying, we are just as important as Moses is. Hasn't God spoken through us as well? Oh boy, they have crossed the line now. The bottom line is this God calls them out and lets them know that Moses is His Servant and He wants to know why they were not afraid to speak against His Servant.
Moses is given the affirmation from God that will be the fuel that he needs to carry on to the next project God has for him. What do I know about leadership it is a very lonely job and most times it leads one to a state of depression and just when you think you can't go another day God comes to the rescue. When you think you're lonely you really aren't because God is closer than you know. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Luke 9:13-14 - But He said to them, "You give them something to eat!" And they said, "We have no more than five loaves and two fish, unless perhaps we go and buy food for all these people." 14(For there were about five thousand men.) And He said to His disciples, "Have them sit down to eat in groups of about fifty each." NASU
Jesus wants His disciples to feed this enormously large crowd. They give Him an excuse as to why they can't accomplish His command. Their excuse was we don't have enough food to feed all of these people. Jesus was a miracle worker and a teacher. The people were going to be the recipients of a miracle and the disciples the recipients of a very valuable lesson. Jesus was and is the Son of God and because of this He has exceptional powers. He used them this day to perform a miracle that we all know as the miracle of the loaves and fishes. He commands them to have everyone sit down in groups of 50 so that it will be easier to feed them. He multiplies the two fishes and five loaves and next thing we have is people fed and disciples amazed. Jesus knew all along what He was going to do whether the disciples bought into His plan or not. Sometimes in life not everyone will buy into our plans but as long as we know what we want to accomplish all we need to do is stick to our plan. There will always be people who will try and talk us out of what we can see being accomplished. We can't expect people to believe what we believe because they haven't done the research we have done and they have not had the life experiences we have had. It would be like asking a first grader to help us write a paper for our Master's degree thesis.
In the Gospel of John we are told there was a lad who had the five barley loaves and two fishes that Jesus used to feed the 5,000. What do we have in our possession that when given to God could be a blessing for many? Please don't think I am referring to money. That is the last thing I am thinking about at this time. I am thinking about something you have been gifted with by God and if you asked God to lead you that you would go and use this gift He has blessed you with to help others. If you will use this gift you might be able to help someone become a child of God. I don't know of a greater blessing then helping someone become a child of God. Use your giftedness to help others and you will be "Living Like Jesus". Think About This: What would you attempt to do if you knew you couldn't fail? Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Luke 9:12- Now the day was ending, and the twelve came and said to Him, "Send the crowd away, that they may go into the surrounding villages and countryside and find lodging and get something to eat; for here we are in a desolate place." NASU
The first lesson we can learn from this text is Jesus didn't let "People's Suggestions" influence His decision making. Jesus was a praying man. He was constantly in prayer to the Heavenly Father. He had the Holy Spirit without measure. John says it this way: "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure." He was in contact with His Heavenly Father through prayer and this is what helped Him make decisions. The disciple's "suggestion" is for Jesus to send the people (crowd) away. Jesus knows immediately this is not what His Father would want Him to do. He doesn't send them away. If you know the story of the feeding of the 5,000 you know instead of Him sending them away He will feed them. In the movie The Boys in the Boat the coach decided to go with the JV team of rowers because their time was faster than the Varsity rowers. Just about everyone disagreed with Coach Ulbrickson's decision, but he had a rule and that is the team with the fastest time was the team that would be putting their boat in the water. Coach Ulbrickson would not allow other "people's suggestions" to determine for him a decision that rested squarely upon his shoulders.
Our plan should be like Jesus' plan. We should be praying to our Heavenly Father and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide us. The Spirit will be able to guide us when we have the Word of God dwelling in us. Here is how the apostle Paul said it: Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom… (Col 3:16). The more the Word of God gets in us (through reading) the easier it will be to identify immediately "people's suggestions" as being correct or incorrect. One thing to remember in life and that is if the decision is yours to make then make it and be willing to live with the results. The disciples were giving Jesus their suggestion and it was a unanimous "send them away". However, Jesus had a much better idea and that was feed all 5,000. You might ask why did Jesus feed the 5,000 and the correct would be because He could. Why are you going to do what lies before you? The correct answer would be because God is leading you in this direction and He has equipped you for this task. Think About These: No one can give you wiser advice than God. The more you trust God the easier it becomes to do the hard things. You'll never find peace of mind until you've learned to listen to God. “Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.” – Steve Jobs Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word Luke 22:15 - And He said to them, "I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer;… NASB
Philippians 1:23 - But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;… NASB 1 Thes. 2:17 - But we, brethren, having been bereft of you for a short while — in person, not in spirit — were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. NASB
This is the definition from Biblesoft's New Exhaustive Strong's Numbers and Concordance. We have taken the word "lust" and always connect it to something that is bad, but you can see from the scripture references above that both Jesus and the apostle Paul lusted, but not in an evil way.
He thought about it and He thought about it "earnestly," the text says. He thought about it, He was going to announce being betrayed by Judas (vs.22), and denied by Peter (vs.34). Wouldn't it be great if we thought earnestly about partaking of the Lord's Supper with our brothers and sisters on the Lord's Day? Have we ever thought about taking the Lord's Supper the week before? At times, I am guilty of not thinking much about it until Sunday. Shame on me!
I have had strong desires (lusts) to go to Heaven and I have had the same strong desires (lusts) to stay here on earth. The second way he "lusted" was about seeing his Christian brothers and sisters in Thessaloniki. I have experienced this type of great desire (lusts) also. It was when I departed Mbale, Uganda, Africa after teaching God's Word to some of the greatest brothers and sisters in Christ that I have ever met. It was that great desire (lust) that took me back four more times. One of my best friends, Dennis Okoth, lived and worked there. What an honor it was for me to serve the Lord with this gracious brother in the Lord. He has now moved to another ministry in Kenya and may the Lord continue to bless him, his wife Mary, and that special ministry. When I lust about Africa, I could say it like the apostle Paul, it is "with great desire to see your face."
Don't lust in a bad way. Lust in a good way. Hopefully, you will be lusting about taking the Lord's Supper, going to Heaven to be with Jesus, or going to see some family, friends or brothers and sisters in Christ. Think About These: Christianity is a way of walking as well as a way of talking. What can't be done by advice can often be done by example. Stay Pumped, Gary A. Serago Minister of God's Word |
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