New beginnings - we start at the cross

New beginnings are possible with God - He offers a second chance to everyone who needs it.
Where to begin?
A new beginning with Him must start at the cross. Let's look back at the third chapter of Ezra:

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. 2 Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. (Ezra 3:1-2)

The first thing that the leaders of the Jews who were returning did, was to rebuild the altar. They saw the pile of rubble where the Temple once stood and they got right to work. The people themselves had dispersed to their ancestral lands and towns, to settle in. There was much work to be done; rude shelters needed to be erected to shield the people from the elements, and then the real houses could be rebuilt. Fields needed to begin to be reclaimed, and vineyards refurbished so that foods and oils necessary for life could be cultivated.

On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid. (v 6)

Zerubbabel and Jeshua, though, set about building the altar. So when the people gathered on the first day of the seventh month, they came into the devastated city and saw a restored altar rising out of the rubble! The sight of that altar must have filled them with hope, even though the temple had not been started yet. The opportunity was there to sacrifice to God, to implore Him to forgive their sins and to bless their efforts in the Promised Land.

Zerubbabel and Jeshua knew that they must begin with the altar. Our fundamental need if we want to draw near to God is to experience forgiveness of our sins. God designated the altar as the place for sacrifice. He detailed the construction of it, the materials used, the height and the width, and more. He laid out guidelines for the sacrifices to be made there, whether offerings for sin or for praise. He promised that He would be there, and that He would meet the sons of Israel there:

 “For the generations to come this burnt offering is to be made regularly at the entrance to the tent of meeting, before the Lord. There I will meet you and speak to you; 43 there also I will meet with the Israelites, and the place will be consecrated by my glory.
44 “So I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar and will consecrate Aaron and his sons to serve me as priests. 45 Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God."  (Exodus 29:42-45)

The animals sacrificed were to be perfect, without blemish -- they pointed forward in time to God's perfect, once-for-all sacrifice for sins, His Son, Jesus Christ.

If someone reading here has never begun with God, then you must begin at the cross, where Jesus shed His blood to redeem all of us - we are all sinners. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness:

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. (Hebrews 9:22)

Our good works can never earn forgiveness. Either we put our trust in the perfect Lamb that God provided, or we must pay for our sins with eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. It's that simple:

Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20:15)

Faith in the blood of Christ is the only way to begin with our Father God. That new beginning will have a glorious finish:

And everyone who calls    on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Acts 2:21)

If we are believers that have strayed from the Lord, the cross is still the place for a new beginning.

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)

To stay true to Him, we must start daily at the foot of the cross.
Next steps?
Stay tuned!

New beginnings - we are never too far gone

Our God is a God of second chances!
We are studying new beginnings this week . . .

The nation of Israel was about as "far gone" as they could be. About as low as they could go. What a history!
The northern kingdom (almost all the tribes) had fallen into idolatry big time; the Assyrians had conquered them in 722 BC.  The southern kingdom of Judah fell, as we studied before, in 587 BC. Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple, too, and then carried the Jewish people into captivity in Babylon.
Fifty long, hard years passed.
Then God stirred up the heart of Cyrus to issue his decree allowing the Jews to return to the land. And almost 50,000 people responded! We've been following the story to the third chapter now, and the altar has been built and the temple foundation laid.
A new beginning had happened!

Whether it's His people as a group or individual believers, our God is a God of new beginnings. We can see this in other places besides the book of Ezra, no?
King David, a man after God's own heart, fell hard. When he repented, the prophet said:

Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die." (II Samuel 12:13)

Jonah sinned by directly disobeying the command of God to go to Nineveh and preach so that the people could repent and turn to God. When Jonah repented, the great fish deposited him unceremoniously on the beach, and God gave him a second chance:

Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you.” (Jonah 3:1-2)

Moses failed miserably when he saw an Egyptian mistreating a Hebrew - he looked around and made sure no one was looking, then killed the oppressor and buried him in the sand. God gave this murderer a second chance:

And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. 10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” (Exodus 3:9-10)

In the New Testament, Peter was weeping and broken; his humiliation was lifted when the risen Christ appeared to him and restored him.
To us humans, Saul of Tarsus deserved only a lightning bolt from heaven after all that he did to persecute the believers; instead, God spoke to him and gave him a new mission in life:

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:5-6)

God graciously offers all of us, no matter how low we have sunk spiritually, a second chance. (And a third, and a fourth, a forty-seventh, and a three-hundred and twelfth . . . ) He offers us new beginnings, no matter our situation. Whether it's our marriage, our job, our finances, or our relationship with Him, God doesn't give up on us! He wants to heal us, to make it right, and to be close to us again. He wants to make sure we know we have a mission in life.
Our new mission may be completely different from what we think. But God will give us every tool and everything we need to complete it.

Where do we start? I'm glad you asked! We'll study that next time!

Prayer requests

I've read that this particular prayer help was developed by Pope Francis; I hope I'm not dis-respecting anyone who came up with something similar, by offering it here . . .

As a practice to help us pray Biblically, we can use the thumb and fingers of our own hand.
The thumb is for those closest to us. We can honor our fathers, mothers, and other family members by praying for their salvation, their health, and more.

“‘Each of you must respect your mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God." (Leviticus 19:3)

Listen to your father, who gave you life,    and do not despise your mother when she is old. (Proverbs 23:22) 

The index finger can remind us to pray for those who teach, instruct, and heal us.

I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people... I Timothy 2:1)

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. (James 5:16)

The middle finger is the tallest; it can remind us to pray for our leaders.

for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.  (I Timothy 2:2)

The ring finger is typically our weakest finger, and can remind us to pray for those among us who are weak.

After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. (Job 42:10)

And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.  (Ephesians 6:18)

The "pinkie" or smallest finger reminds us to pray for ourselves.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God,which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6-7)

If there is a request on your heart, I hope you will leave a comment and let us pray with you.
Have you a praise for answered prayer? Tell us so that we can rejoice with you.

Let's pray!

New beginnings - second chances

When our kiddos were small, we enjoyed the series of children's videos called "Veggie Tales." Basically, they were Bible stories presented in an engaging way that appealed to kids because of the catchy songs and fun graphics -- we loved them because they imparted Biblical concepts in ways that were easy to understand and fun to watch. Many a phrase or joke became a part of our family culture because of these; they were fun and they taught well at the same time.

One of those videos was a movie called (aptly enough) Jonah. It chronicled the story of Jonah from his selection by God, to his running away, to a great musical number inside the whale, to Jonah's eventual preaching to the Ninevites, and beyond.
The number inside the "great fish" featured the words "our God is a God of second chances!" I was reminded of this song when reading the third chapter of Ezra. I've pasted the chapter here for us, and I'll rejoin you after you read . . .

When the seventh month came and the Israelites had settled in their towns, the people assembled together as one in Jerusalem. 2 Then Joshua son of Jozadak and his fellow priests and Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and his associates began to build the altar of the God of Israel to sacrifice burnt offerings on it, in accordance with what is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. 3 Despite their fear of the peoples around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord, both the morning and evening sacrifices.4 Then in accordance with what is written, they celebrated the Festival of Tabernacles with the required number of burnt offerings prescribed for each day. 5 After that, they presented the regular burnt offerings, the New Moon sacrifices and the sacrifices for all the appointed sacred festivals of the Lord, as well as those brought as freewill offerings to the Lord. 6 On the first day of the seventh month they began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord, though the foundation of the Lord’s temple had not yet been laid.
7 Then they gave money to the masons and carpenters, and gave food and drink and olive oil to the people of Sidon and Tyre, so that they would bring cedar logs by sea from Lebanon to Joppa, as authorized by Cyrus king of Persia.8 In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord. 9 Joshua and his sons and brothers and Kadmiel and his sons (descendants of Hodaviah) and the sons of Henadad and their sons and brothers—all Levites—joined together in supervising those working on the house of God.10 When the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, the priests in their vestments and with trumpets, and the Levites (the sons of Asaph) with cymbals, took their places to praise the Lord, as prescribed by David king of Israel. 11 With praise and thanksgiving they sang to the Lord:“He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.”
And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. 12 But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy. 13 No one could distinguish the sound of the shouts of joy from the sound of weeping, because the people made so much noise, and the sound was heard far away. (Ezra 3)

There's a lot there, right? (Grin)
This chapter is about a lot of things . . . one of the things is a new beginning with God.
To some of the "oldsters" who came on the trek, the new altar and the start of the foundation may not have seemed like much. After all, they remembered how gorgeous the former Temple was -- this was the famous building that Solomon lavished time and finances on. It was sumptuous in it's furnishings and glorious in that it held the glory of God. So to the older folks, who compared this new altar with Solomon's Temple, it may have seemed a bit anticlimactic.
So that's why they wept.
While the younger men rejoiced.
But God was going to use this new beginning to re-establish His people and their worship of Him, even in the middle of the rubble that used to be Jerusalem. In Haggai, the Lord spoke about this new temple that was begun here:

 ‘The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the Lord Almighty.” (Haggai 2:9)

The glory will be greater?
Yes -- it was to this temple that the Lord Jesus Himself, our Savior, would come and bring greater glory.

All of us experience times in our lives when we need a new beginning with God.
Yup, been there.
Perhaps you are there, now.
Maybe we have failed the Lord through rebellion.
Maybe we have failed Him by direct sin against His Word.
Or maybe we've just drifted carelessly into the view the world holds; we've neglected the things of God. Now we are far from Him.
Or it could be that a difficult trial or a tragic disappointment has caused us to drift from our relationship with Him.
We all need a new beginning sometimes.

But the devil can make us wonder if it's possible. And he can distract us so we don't know where to start. He'll preoccupy us with the thought of a new beginning being scary. Who are we to think we can make it this time? Do we really want to deal with that embarrassment? What will people think? What will they say? What if we fail again?
But we're not content where we are. The idols in Babylon just don't cut it. We're so "over" all that, that we are willing to uproot ourselves and make the perilous trek back to God.
But then . . . we realize we are looking at a pile of rubble. How do we begin again?

“Forget the former things;    do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness    and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19)

when you heard about Christ and were taught in him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. 22 You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires;23 to be made new in the attitude of your minds; 24 and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:21-24)

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7:7-8)

God can do a new thing in our lives -- in fact, He is waiting to help us. To open the door to a new beginning.
With God, all things are possible.
I hope that this study will bless all who pause here.

Friday slowdown

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept    when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars    we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs,    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord    while in a foreign land? (Psalm 137:1-4)

Living faithfully for Him - with commitment

Can we even imagine what it would be like?
Are we so far removed in today's modern world, that we can't fathom what it was like?
The Jewish people in the book of Ezra gave up their familiar surroundings, packed up, and walked across a thousand miles of desert to a land that had been devastated by war. This took commitment! As they walked along and prodded their pack animals to keep moving, all the while tasting the sand in their mouths, they stayed committed.
As they searched the horizon for an oasis to wet their parched lips, they stayed committed.
As they pulled up their blankets in the cold desert night and thought longingly of a comfortable pallet at home, they stayed committed. As the night air was pierced with the sounds of nocturnal animals scurrying around (a little too closely, thank you!) they held on tightly to that commitment.

No, it wasn't comfortable. It wasn't convenient. But they could not sing the songs of the Lord in Babylon.

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept    when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars    we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs,    our tormentors demanded songs of joy;    they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord    while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem,    may my right hand forget its skill. 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 137:1-6)

They kept longing for the city of Jerusalem, their home. They longed for the Temple where God's glory had been known. It made them willing to do whatever they had to, to see God enthroned among His people, in His holy place.

Not only can their commitment be seen in their trek to Jerusalem, but also in their plans for worship. The chapters we've read focus on the return of the priests, Levites, singers, and even doorkeepers of the Temple. Israel was organized for the purpose of worship. There is a proper place for spontaneity in worship, it's true, but there is also a need for order and for planning. Also, the priests who could not confirm their ancestry were prevented from serving at first. Holiness was an essential factor in their worship, as it should be in ours, too. To be living as the world lives all week long, and then pop into church for a few minutes of "worship" is not being true to God. All week long our lives should bring glory to Him through our thoughts, words, and deeds. Then on a day of worship, our gratitude and obedience overflow in true worship of our Father.

These lists of people in Ezra also show us the great variety of services performed by people; each had their duty to perform for the smooth functioning of the whole. Of course, some were more visible, and some were more behind the scenes, but each one was important. In our churches today, every believer has been given a spiritual gift to exercise in serving the Lord and showing glory to Him:

Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 11 If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. (I Peter 4:10-11)

We've touched on this earlier, but the people also showed their commitment by giving. The first thing these people did was to go to the place where the house of the Lord had been and offer their gifts willingly to restore it. In the later verses of chapter two, we see that there were wealthy people and poor people who returned -- the record of the animals gives us clues. Some of the people returning had horses (like having a Cadillac at that time!) and some had donkeys, but many of them didn't own any animals. It says the people gave "according to their ability," and that implies that perhaps the wealthier people gave more, but that the poor gave as they could.
In our new covenant world, Paul instructs us to lay aside some of our assets and give as the Lord has prospered us:

Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. (I Corinthians 16:1-2)

We asked the question when we began this section of Ezra . . . why would this long list of names be in the Bible?  I believe the answer is to spur us on to growth in Christ-likeness.

First, let's make sure that we are God's children, His chosen people. Have we truly put our trust in the Lord, and is there evidence of that in our lives?
Secondly, are we experiencing (and accepting) God's discipline in our lives? All of this is to train us to share His holiness as we submit to Him.
Lastly, are we living faithfully to His covenant? Are we seeking to continue the heritage of godliness, to be a part of the community of believers, and committing to worship, service, and using our financial and spiritual gifts?
These responses to His faithfulness will mean that we are living in a right relationship with Him, and that we give Him the glory each day!