Friday slowdown

We've been talking this week about renewal -- revival.

What exactly is it?

Most people are referring to a spiritual reawakening. Coming out of a state of dormancy or stagnation in the believers' lives.....it shows up in renewed love of God, passion for His Word, and enthusiasm for witnessing. It also means a conviction of sin and a renewal of humility, and a sincere longing for growth in our Christian lives.

Sometimes we are just too dignified.
Too reserved.
Does it shock us that believers can sincerely express joy?

Are you ready to tap your feet today? To clap your hands?

Enjoy this passionate song of revival and praise God!




Heavenly Father, I come
Don't have much to offer, Holy One
I'm humbled by all that you have done

Even though I walk through the valley,
I don't have to fear, No-
You have called me from my sorrow to gladness, I have you
What more could I want?


(So) Raise my faith
a little higher
Set my spirit on fire
Lord, we're asking You to move

Cause You're the God of Restoration
The One who gives salvation
Lord, Let revival come, Let revival come

You are the God who calms the sea
The same God who healeth me
You are the One who makes me strong

Revive me
Revive me with the
Joy that You bring
Joy that You bring

(So I) Raise my hand up higher
Now my spirit's on fire
Lord, we're asking You to move

'Cause You're the God of Restoration
The One who gives salvation
Lord, Let revival come, Let revival come

Renewal - by His power, for His glory

Back to the book of Ezra, after our break about praying God's promises back to Him and seeking answers, renewal, and revival....
We saw that in the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, God spoke to His people and promised that they were going to return to their home. He told them that they would be "gathered" from the scattered reaches of the kingdom that conquered them; He also told them the name of the ruler who would send them back: Cyrus.

How in the world was this going to happen after the passage of seventy years? Wasn't this an impossible task? The captives had spent almost seventy years in service in Babylon. The temple had lain in ruins for all those years. Stones tossed about, trees and shrubs growing inside the areas that had once been used for worship.... homes nearby with no roofs, masonry walls crumbling from lack of maintenance....how could things be restored? Surely it was a lost cause?

It's true that the Jews didn't have the resources to restore things, even though a royal proclamation allowed them to return. But God took care of all of this . . . He moved Cyrus to write it into the proclamation that the people of Babylon should contribute to those who would return to Jerusalem. Cyrus himself brought out the Temple vessels that Nebuchadnezzar had pilfered. The tallies in the first chapter of Ezra are significant:

Moreover, King Cyrus brought out the articles belonging to the temple of the Lord, which Nebuchadnezzar had carried away from Jerusalem and had placed in the temple of his god. 8 Cyrus king of Persia had them brought by Mithredath the treasurer, who counted them out to Sheshbazzar the prince of Judah.9 This was the inventory:

gold dishes	30
silver dishes	1,000
silver pans	29
10 gold bowls	30
matching silver bowls	410
other articles	1,000

11 In all, there were 5,400 articles of gold and of silver. Sheshbazzar brought all these along with the exiles when they came up from Babylon to Jerusalem. (Ezra 1:7-11)

Scholars have hypothesized that the named articles are the larger ones, adding up to 2,499 artifacts, and that the 5,400 number is the tally of all the items returned.
When God promises, He will supply the means to meet those promises! God even made sure there was a grandson of the Jewish kings available; Sheshbazzar is the Babylonian name for Zerubbabel, the godly grandson of the ungodly king Jeconiah.

Whether we are talking about the renewal and restoration of the Temple, or the renewal and restoration of a human soul, God's power is sufficient to make His promises be fulfilled. He will make things happen.
And they will happen to fulfill His purposes.
The purpose of the temple had always been to display God's glory. That place had been destroyed because of the sins of His people. Now, in Ezra and in other books, God is referred to as "the God of heaven." Of course, that points to the fact that God is sovereign over all; but scholars tell us it also may hint at the fact that His glory was not being revealed on the earth at this time. Perhaps it was His purpose to manifest His glory through a rebuilt Temple where His restored people could worship Him. We know that His glory was definitely revealed in the rebuilt temple when Jesus, our Messiah, appeared there and Simeon said:

For my eyes have seen Your salvation Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles,And the glory of Your people Israel. (Luke 2:30-32)

We may not realize it, but God's purpose today is the same - He wants to reveal His glory through a renewed people. He wants our holy lives and our witness to reveal His Son, Jesus Christ, to all people.
I guess that is really the key: spiritual renewal is not totally for us. It's not simply so we can live happy, fulfilled lives and neglect the rest of the world. Spiritual renewal is for God's purpose, so that His glory can be revealed to all; so that all people have the opportunity to be saved; so that all can have life eternal, happy with Him.

As we study Ezra, we are going to see what a renewed, holy, worshiping, witnessing community of believers can look like. And then we are going to be challenged to make that happen in our world. It has to start on an individual level....God has to renew each one of us. If our hearts are stirred, it's because that stirring comes from God, just as He stirred Cyrus to allow the people to return and rebuild. At the same time, when we feel that stirring, it's our responsibility to see the Lord:

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:12-13)

God can greatly use us when our hearts are tuned to His "frequency."

We also need to be willing to be inconvenienced, in order for spiritual renewal to happen. It won't be like packing up and returning to a ruined city, like the Jews did. But we may have to get out of our rut and make some changes. We have to be willing to give up the comfortable life of Babylon and get involved. It may be something as simple as turning off the cable tv and spending more time reading our Bibles. It may be determining to have prayer each morning before we actually start our day. It will definitely mean doing things differently than the status quo.
Are you sensing the need personally for renewal? Get alone with God as soon as you can. Spend time looking at His promises. Pray them back to Him. Trust that He has the power to make the changes happen.
And always, always, give Him the praise as we change for His glory!

Praying His promises - back to Him!

We are beginning our studies in the book of Ezra, and we've mentioned the need for revival and renewal in the lives of the captive Jewish people, and in our own lives, too. We noted last time that God has promised renewal in His Word. We discussed the transforming power of His Word, and our need for repentance, as well.

We just touched on an interesting concept that some of us may not be familiar with, and I'd like to dive in today. It's when we pray His promises back to Him. We remind Him of His words and His promises, and "keep after Him" asking for answers and results.

How do we do this?
I'm glad you asked! This is a wonderful practice that can grow our faith and our joy in our Savior, Jesus Christ.
We have head knowledge of this:

For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God. (II Corinthians 1:20)

But we need to have heart knowledge, too, and this is how to get it!!

Let's look at some of the wonderful promises about God's redemption and forgiveness of sinners:

"I have swept away your offenses like a cloud,    your sins like the morning mist. Return to me,   for I have redeemed you.” (Isaiah 44:22)

Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, (Acts 3:19)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  (I John 1:9)

The first thing to do in this step-by-step explanation (I'm indebted to the writings of author/blogger Rachel Wojinarowski for the simple instructions that I have used here) is to read the verse out loud. Read it to God, in other words.  When we read a verse out loud, we are voicing God's Word. We're reminding Him of it, and He is pleased! Hey, He doesn't need the reminder.... that's not what this is all about! He loves to see that we are searching, and reading, and learning His Words! So, in our prayer time, we can pause and read the verse aloud.
Let's choose Acts 3:19 (above) for right now.
Go ahead!
Read it aloud.
In our prayer, we can ask Him to give us a deeper understanding of what the verse means.

Next, we can rephrase the verse in our own words -- either out loud or in writing. Sometimes I will speak it aloud, and other times I will write out a summary or synopsis of the promise I'm studying. It may look almost like the original wording, but sometimes I will substitute a word that makes it a little easier to understand. That's where reading more than one translation will help me.
In Acts 3:19, the words "times of refreshing" caught my eye. I started to pray this back to God, and said, "Help me Lord, to wait for the time of refreshing. I feel like I need it so badly. Help me to wait on your timing, Lord." I had a much better outlook on my day!

The next step as we meditate and pray is to define a term in the verse. Let's look again at "refreshing" in Acts 3:19. What could times of "refreshing" mean? In my own life, I was asking for Him to reinvigorate; I asked for Him to rejuvenate; I wanted Him to stimulate and revitalize me. All of these were more active words that I could really get my head around - they helped me to prayerfully ask Him for exactly what I needed.

Another thing that is helpful is to think about synonyms for a word or words in the verse. Let's move to I John 1:9:

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  (I John 1:9)

Let's try this with the word "faithful" first . . . He is trustworthy, He is dependable, He is staunch, He is steadfast, you get the picture? We are reinforcing the meaning of the word in our own finite minds. Let's try it again with "purify" in the verse. The thesaurus can help here: "absolve" us from all unrighteousness, "cleanse" us, "redeem" us, "exonerate" us..... after thinking prayerfully about these different words, we can pray that phrase to God with our word substitutions, and again ask Him to help us remember and understand fully -- and then thank Him for all those meanings of the word.

Now, Satan doesn't like it one bit when we delve deep into the Word and spend more time in prayer! After all, we are building muscles in our faith when we do these things. He will want to attack us at every turn. He will lie and twist things and cause us to lose our focus. We must know God's Word in order to fight against the devil.
Using the example above, I John 1:9, perhaps Satan will come at us and make us start to remember past sins -- try to make us lose sight of the fact that God is faithful to forgive and to purify -- try to cause us pain and start the ferocious vine of doubt sprouting in our minds. He will use thoughts like this to sidetrack us. He doesn't want us to have joy and peace, and he certainly doesn't want us to spread the gospel of cleansing and mercy, either.
It's then that we need to know God's Word and be able to refocus our thoughts and our day. When the devil throws our past sins in our faces, we can counter with other verses (and our faith muscles):

“I, even I, am he who blots out    your transgressions, for my own sake,
    and remembers your sins no more." (Isaiah 43:25)

As far as the east is from the west,So far has He removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:12)

Don't forget to thank the Lord again for His Word, and the reminders of His love that we find there!

Lastly, write things down. Write down the concern, the verse of promise, the date, and any thoughts that occur to us. Keep this handy and add to it as the Spirit prompts us. When a month from now, or a year from now, we look back at our list or our journal, we will see answers and reasons to praise Him for His promises that we prayed back to Him!

Verses that inspire - filter with this verse

Recently, these verses in Galatians spoke to my heart:

The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Galatians 5:6b, 13-14)

Take a moment, as I did, and allow those words to trickle down deep into your mind and your heart. We need to meditate on their meaning - they are truly important.

The significance of verse 6b there is that if we're not expressing our faith in God through loving others, none of the other things that we do all day long really matter!

Where do we find ourselves in life? Wherever that is, God has placed us there for a unique purpose. Only we can totally fill that need. It's like each and every day we are on a mission from God -- that mission is to express our faith through acts of love.
The expressions of love can take many, many forms . . . kindness, respect, appreciation, involvement, a helping hand, patience, friendship. It matters not if we're a business person, a clerk, a teacher, a nurse, a laundry worker, or a stay at home mom or caretaker . . . we are an important part of the body of Christ.
Can we even imagine the difference we could make in untold numbers of lives, if each of us went through our days expressing our faith through love for others?  We can have lots of answers to Bible questions. We can memorize lots of verses that are helpful in all kinds of situations.
BUT if we are not expressing our faith in Jesus by pouring out love for others, none of that stuff matters at all.

Maybe we should tape this verse to our mirror. To our car dashboard. To our computer at our desk. It's so short, we can even memorize it.
Let's use this verse as a filter for our thoughts and our actions.
Today.
Tomorrow.
Every day.

Spiritual renewal - praying the Word

The book of Ezra, which we are just jumping into, is as much about rebuilding relationships with God, as it is about rebuilding the Temple. (You DID read the first two chapters, right? Grin.)

Rebuilding that building, and rebuilding the people's relationship with YAHWEH, all were dependent on God's grace, and His promises in His Word. If God had not promised restoration; if He had not planned renewal, then no amount of human effort could have made it all happen. But God DID promise, and He works through means that He chooses.

Let's dive in!
Many years after being dragged off into captivity; many years after the fiery furnace and dream interpretation incidents, Daniel was meditating on the prophecies of Jeremiah. He had an interesting response:

 I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. 3 So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. (Daniel 9:2b-3)

It appears that he realized the seventy years were almost up.
How did he accept this?
Casually?
"Cool, maybe we can go home soon!"
Nope.
Instead, he humbled himself with fasting, prayers, and petitions, and with sackcloth and ashes of true repentance -- for the sins of the people, as well as his own sins.

If we want spiritual renewal ourselves, or for our church, we need to humble ourselves and plead with our Father. If, on the other hand, we are content in Babylon, and don't really long for the worship of God in the true temple, then we won't cry out to Him to change things. We won't be longing for anything different. But if we realize that God promises more to us than what we are currently experiencing, we will give ourselves to prayer until He grants it; we will "keep after" Him until He grants renewal according to His promises.

“Therefore, you Israelites, I will judge each of you according to your own ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent! Turn away from all your offenses; then sin will not be your downfall. 31 Rid yourselves of all the offenses you have committed, and get a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, people of Israel? 32 For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!"(Ezekiel 18:30-32)

When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the Lord your God disperses yozu among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the Lord your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors. 6 The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live. 7 The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you. 8 You will again obey the Lord and follow all his commands I am giving you today. 9 Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your ancestors, 10 if you obey the Lord your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 30:1-10)

It's prayer and repentance that bring God's promises into reality.

The renewal that we will read about in the book of Ezra was a renewal of God's Word. When they saw the fulfillment of Jeremiah's and Isaiah's prophecies, the people knew again that God's Word is true. It can be trusted - no matter how dismal the situation looks!

It's His Word that reveals His promises.
In Ezra 7, we read that Ezra was a scribe skilled in the law of Moses. It tells us that he had "set his heart" to study the law of the Lord, and to practice it, and to teach it. (Ezra 7:10)  There's a verse in Nehemiah that says Ezra tasked well-trained scribes to read from the Law and to translate it for the people. Obviously, Ezra believed in the power of the Word to transform lives!

The Great Awakening was founded on God's Word. Before that, the Reformation was a renewal of the Word, as passages neglected by the church were taught and applied. The Puritan movement that came to North America was also centered on God's Word. The modern church is indicted in this quote by T. H. L. Parker in his book, Calvin's Preaching:

"What wonder that a church which picks and chooses what it wants out of the Bible should become confused in its theology, flabby in its morals...."

Sound familiar? Like some of the churches of today?
If we want true renewal and revival, we must put a renewed emphasis on the truth of God's Word.

Once we study His Word, we must (as Daniel did) pray in true humility.

And in humility, we can pray His promises back to Him. Want to know more about this? Stay tuned!

Friday slowdown

This week we have seen a dramatic story of the power of our almighty Father; this song seemed just right for closing our week.

Ezra - "why would Cyrus send them?"

Let's compare two passages today. First, in Ezra:

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:2 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. 3 Any of his people among you may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them. 4 And in any locality where survivors may now be living, the people are to provide them with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, and with freewill offerings for the temple of God in Jerusalem.’” (Ezra 1:1-4)

Now, in II Chronicles:

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:23 “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:“‘The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the Lord their God be with them.’” (II Chronicles 36:22-23)

These passages could be used as proof for each other, since they are virtually identical. But I wanted us to see just how astounding they are!
The people had strayed.
Badly.
They'd intermarried and intermingled.
They'd put up idols and images, and there were groves to false gods in the land.
Did they heed the warnings?
Nope.
Did they pay any attention?
Uh, no.
But you can bet it got their attention when the city of Jerusalem was sieged, and when the city fell and the people were carried off to Babylon. That's when that dry spell began that we talked about yesterday . . .
In the time of captivity, God sent His word through Jeremiah to the captives in Babylon:

This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place." (Jeremiah 29:10)

The seventy-year captivity began in 605 BC, the scholars tell us, and Jerusalem fell in 587 BC. The decree that Cyrus made in the first year of his reign (538 BC) was barely fifty years since the city fell.
Here is the remarkable thing: it was GOD who stirred up Cyrus to make this unusual proclamation. After all, the captives were considered the spoils of battle, just as were the beautiful vessels and trappings of the temple and of the city itself. We mentioned when we were briefly studying apologetics that Isaiah prophesied this event, and even named Cyrus as the one who would allow this group to return . . . . one hundred and fifty years earlier!

So, this brings us to our title question: why?
Why would Cyrus, a pagan ruler, issue a decree for the Jews to return to Israel, take lots of booty home with them, and to rebuild their temple?
Here is where that Cyrus Cylinder comes in handy again! It was discovered in the 1800's and it reveals that he had a policy of restoring people to their native lands and religions. He also asked them to pray to their gods on his behalf. Here's a quote from the scholars who translated it: "May all the gods whom I have resettled in their sacred cities ask daily Bel and Nebo for a long life for me."

He was covering all the bases, wasn't he? (Grin)
We have here a polytheistic king who wants to follow a program of religious tolerance. He asks his captive peoples to pray to their gods for his own well being. He provides for them to rebuild their temples in their sacred cities; perhaps he saw this as a peace offering to those gods.
Here, Cyrus is even providing funding to support the restoration and donating the temple objects that Nebuchadnezzar had absconded with years before!

Yes, there was a human reason for Cyrus sending the people home.
But there was another reason: our verses show that it was our sovereign God turning this ruler's heart to fulfill His purposes:

In the Lord’s hand the king’s heart is a stream of water    that he channels toward all who please him. (Proverbs 21:1)

Cyrus was ignorant of the ways of YAHWEH. From the way he looked at it, he was just building his empire and using wise policies that would insure his long reign. After all, these people would be grateful, no? And they would not rise up against him. And a peaceful kingdom is far easier to rule (and much less annoying to the ruler) than a conflicted one!
Behind Cyrus' remarkable decree is our Father God, working to fulfill His word given to His prophet. There's a note that not many people recall from when the Jewish people left Egypt; the verses tell us that the Lord put it in the hearts of the Egyptians to give gold and silver to the Jews when they asked them.

Now the children of Israel had done according to the word of Moses, and they had asked from the Egyptians articles of silver, articles of gold, and clothing. 36 And the Lord had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that they granted them what they requested. (Exodus 12:35-36a)

Now he is working through Cyrus so that the Babylonians gave the people who decided to return to Israel silver, gold, cattle, and other goods. God was the reason why all of this happened.

The Jews are returning to Israel.
And we'll see that in time, they experience spiritual renewal.
There are human methods for renewal and revival. But for it to be genuine, God must work in His mighty power.
That doesn't mean that we just sit around and wait for Him to work . . . .
We'll study more on this next time!

Ezra - "why would we go back?"

I'd like to request that each of us read the first two chapters of Ezra this week. We will be "camping" here for a while as we study what the Spirit is ready to teach us . . .

We know from the history that we read in our Bibles, that for many hundreds of years the Lord warned His people; He called them back to Himself by the words of the prophets. Time after time, the people repented and turned back to YAHWEH. Time after time, their determination would ebb, and they would slip into the idolatry and cultural practices of the people surrounding them.

Finally, they kept going down the wrong path too long, and God fulfilled His warning to them.

Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart, for the abundance of all things; 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, ....Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known.  (Deuteronomy 28:47-48a, 64, NASB)

Moses' prophecy continues in verses 65-66:

Among those nations you shall find no rest, and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. 66 So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. 

Why, we may ask. Why would He do all of these dread things to them?

For those whom the Lord loves He disciplines,And He scourges every son whom He receives.”7 It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?  10 For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. (Hebrews 12:6-7, 10)

It's the dry times that teach us. We are so immersed in this world and the things of this world that sometimes God must bring us to a place where we find no rest. This is what forces us to recognize that all the world offers is shallowness and pretense. It will leave us with "despair of soul." These spiritual dry times will make us thirst for our living God -- it is He Who can satisfy us.

Let's think about it. There were many Jewish people in Babylon who had become comfortable there. They'd been there for years; the older folks had gotten accustomed to it and many of the younger ones had been born there. Babylon was all that they knew, since they had been born in captivity, in exile. They heard the stories that the older folks would tell . . . all about the glories of Zion and the awe-inspiring beauty of the temple. But they probably thought, "Why go back there, when we have a good life here?"

It would be risky to go back to Jerusalem - inconvenient, too. It would mean packing up all the stuff they would want to take with them, and leaving some of it behind. Leaving for Jerusalem would mean saying farewell to the houses and surroundings that they found comfortable. It would mean trekking across about a thousand miles of hostile desert territory. And their destination was a land that had been ravaged by war. There were no cities with beautiful, empty homes that were "move-in ready." No lovely mural-covered walls or murmuring water features or cool roofs for the evenings. They'd see piles of rubble everywhere. And the neighbors? Not your typical "here's some matza balls and some cool water to refresh you after your journey" type of neighbors . . . these were hostile people who had moved into the empty lands after the Babylonians had dragged off the surviving Jews fifty years earlier.
Why go back?
Fortunately, there were other Jews in Babylon who were not comfortable there. They remembered Zion. They remembered the temple and more. They said as the psalmist did:

How can we sing the songs of the Lord    while in a foreign land? May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth    if I do not remember you,if I do not consider Jerusalem    my highest joy.(Psalm 137:4, 6)

These Jews remembered Jerusalem and the joy of worshiping God in His temple. When they heard the unbelievable news that Cyrus, a pagan king, had issued a call to the Jews to return to the city of Jerusalem and rebuild that temple, they may have thought they were dreaming! Such happiness!

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,    we were like those who dreamed.
 Our mouths were filled with laughter,    our tongues with songs of joy.
Then it was said among the nations,    “The Lord has done great things for them.” The Lord has done great things for us,    and we are filled with joy. (Psalm 126:1-3)

When we are sitting in an air-conditioned house, with our feet up and relaxing, a glass of cold water tastes pretty good. But it tastes even better to a person who is parched and dry, after traveling with none available . . . God's living water tastes so good to us when we've gone through a dry time. When we have realized anew that the pleasures of this world only leave us with despair.
When we are in Babylon, we must not become satisfied there -- remember the living water and cry out for God's Spirit to revive us. This will happen because of God's love and because of His power.

After all, how in the world was a pagan king moved to send them back and pay for the repairs? (Grin)
We'll look at this more tomorrow.