Do You hear this? Are You paying attention, our True God? We are worse than nothing to these men. Turn their curses back on them. Plunder them. Pillage them until they are captives in a foreign land. Do not cover over their wickedness or erase the reality of their sin before you—they have mocked You right in front of the men rebuilding the city for You. We returned to building, focused and determined to work as one people. We stacked rock upon rock until one end of the wall met the other and it grew to half of its original height. (Nehemiah 4:4-6 VOICE) If there is one thing we can count on, it is condemnation from our enemy - there will be more opposition to the steps we take forward than anytime we just settle in and coast. The enemy is a mocker of mankind - always has been and he's not about to change now. One of his greatest tools is to use words and threats to turn us away from an active pursuit of truth and the things God would have us do in our lives. Nehemiah and the people...
The parents of the right-living will celebrate; yes, parents of children who make wise choices are happy. (Proverbs 23:24 VOICE) If you have ever looked at one of your children, grandchildren, or friends, noticing some of the 'not so wise' choices they have been making, you may have wondered how they got things 'so wrong' in their decisions. They were 'raised better than that', after all. weren't they? Why did they choose to ignore all their upbringing with that decision? When our kiddos and acquaintances make right choices, we celebrate don't we? When they make unwise ones, what is our response? Is it to condemn them, bail them out, or do we continue to pray for them, be a positive example, and be there when they need us? It is quite possible that we feel the one who has made unwise choices may feel a little 'let down' or 'exasperated' by those choices themselves, but they don't know what to do about it. That doesn't mean we can...