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Nehemiah 1:8-9
We invite you to join us for worship each Sunday morning at 9:30. You can also download our service at Baptist-Christian on iTunes. The original Law God gave Israel is still the only right and proper standard for true Christian living in this 21st Century. Our wide-spread lack of obedience and respect for God and His moral Law is the reason Christians and The Church are so weak and ineffective in the mission effort to the lost living next door to us. If we truly turned our heart to God we would live in verse 4 and the result of that would be verse 8. What would happen if true Christians would turn their heart to God and refocus our entire lives on His Law? Nehemiah tells us in these verses.
- GOD’S PEOPLE HAVE BEEN UNFAITHFUL. Mr. Webster and Scripture define “unfaithful(ness)” differently, but both have the same end result! From a truly Christian perspective the Scripture presents unfaithfulness as much more heinous. To Christians Scripture is also the most important. If we go back to Ex. 20 we discover after reading the first four commandments our attitude toward God is twisted. Then we read the second six and discover that our attitude toward others is also twisted! How surprised are you that both are true? Numbers 5:5-7 and 6:1-7 also tell us that acting wickedly toward another person is acting wickedly toward God. Someone might say, “Well Pastor, you are focusing on Law, we live in the age of grace!” Read the Sermon on the Mount and the rest of the NT, and you will discover throughout The Law is still the foundation for living. The difference is “grace” teaches us obedience to the Law comes from the heart, not the head! That’s just the first half of unfaithfulness. In Josh. 7 in the account of Achan we learn that one man’s sin caused the entire nation to be declared unfaithful. Someone will say “that’s not fair.” The word “fair” isn’t in God’s vocabulary, but, righteous, holy, just, merciful and others are! Ever count how many times Adam and Eve sinned before they were expelled from Eden? Jesus said “just a little yeast spreads through the whole loaf.” While all that’s true, there is still hope because
- GOD’S PEOPLE CAN RETURN AND OBEY! God always gives us hope no matter how bad things may be. Putting a life, or nation, back together is at least a two-fold process. The first step is always repentance, because that is exactly what return means. In order to return one must stop and turn in the opposite direction. When we discover we have missed our turn when driving, we immediately begin to look for a place to turn around and go back, don’t we. Don’t you find it shameful that when God tells us we are going in the wrong direction, many times we ignore Him and continue down the wrong path! Rom. 1:4 tells us that God’s patience with us is so we will repent. All this means that even you aren’t beyond God’s help. You can still turn around and head toward Him. One pastor said, “The problem is never what God could have done, but what God’s people have NOT done!” Let’s stop being unfaithful as individuals (and therefore as The Church), and return to God before He sends us into captivity!
If we can help you with answers to your spiritual questions call us at (574) 643-9419.
