Good Morning/Afternoon!
This is Dave adding to the blog today.
Hopefully you all have been encouraged during this study.
I often think about a quote I heard somewhere that we are not to learn the "how's" of worship, yet we need to learn the "why's". This study shows us why we worship!
This week we're looking at God's Love. This is something that in itself is hard to wrap my mind around. I think about His Love and think about Paul's letter to the church at Ephasus. In it he
says:
"And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous LOVE. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his LOVE really is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God."
Ephesians 3:17-18
His love is infinite, given freely to all men. A free, unmerited love which we do not deserve. Not only is God's nature Love, but He Is Love according to 1 John 4:16. According to our study today, God's love elicits a response of love from us---worship!
Reading through today's lesson, we looked at the story of Nehemiah and the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, which happened in 445 BC. God gave Nehemiah the vision to rebuild the walls which were desolate after years of captivity of the nation of Israel. The decree was given that the Jews could return from captivity about 90 years before, and even the Temple was being rebuilt. Nehemiah's reason for rebuilding the wall was obviously for protection against outside attacks, but also for those Jews in the city who had been influenced by Pagan religions, as they had been freely associating with those outside the walls. God in his love allowed the walls to be first completed and or repaired in 52 days, which is a miracle in it's own! This was completed in the face of ridicule, discouragement, fear, and internal strife. Once the walls were done, a list of geneology was compiled and Ezra read the Book of The Law and helped the people understand.
The people began to weep, showing as it is in Hebrews 4:12.."For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Nehemiah's Wall of Jerusalem was recently uncovered in Jerusalem in 2007
The people then reestablished the Feast of Tabernacles, and confessed their sin. Then the dedication of the wall was a great time of worship as the joy of Jerusalem was heard afar off! What a great picture of the Christian Life, as sin unconfessed can hinder first our relationship with God, but also our worship to Him! It all starts with the hearing and understanding of the Word of God, bringing us to the knowledge of our sin, repenting of that sin, and drawing close to Him.
The Song of Mary
As we're coming up our celebration of the birth of Christ, we looked today at Mary and the months leading up to the birth of Christ. As Mary was affirmed and blessed by Elizabeth, she responded in worship. The Song of Mary is a picture of exactly what Jesus came to do, it was in a sense a prophecy of what was to soon come! By the way, I found out the Zacharias means "God Remembers" and Elizabeth means "His Oath"...
46 Mary responded,
“Oh, how I praise the Lord.
47 How I rejoice in God my Savior!
48 For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and now generation after generation
will call me blessed.
49 For he, the Mighty One, is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
50 His mercy goes on from generation to generation,
to all who fear him.
51 His mighty arm does tremendous things!
How he scatters the proud and haughty ones!
52 He has taken princes from their thrones
and exalted the lowly.
53 He has satisfied the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54 And how he has helped his servant Israel!
He has not forgotten his promise to be merciful.
55 For he promised our ancestors–Abraham and his children–
to be merciful to them forever.”
God still remembered His oath to His people, Israel and has given His gift to the world (both Jew and Gentile) of salvation through them. For He so Loved The World that He sent His Son! He has saved us from the curse of sin! We are deserving of an eternity seperated from Him, but he has shown his Love to us by bearing His holy arm.
As Mary states in her praise, and as Isaiah 52:10 says, " The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God." Have you noticed that in order to bring about creation, God simply spoke, and it was, but in order to bring about salvation, he had to bear His holy arm! God's gift of salvation is greater and mightier than all of His creation, and it was finished on the cross! After that revelation, our response and reaction should be none other than worship!
Thanks for reading this!
Have a good rest of your day, and God Bless!
dave
