Disclaimer: In posting these thoughts, questions, and ramblings I feel it wise to give a disclaimer. There are many people that are far more knowledgeable and gifted in expositing the Word of God than I. These thoughts are not intended to be in-depth analysis of the text. They are thoughts. They are questions. They are ramblings. It will be a display of what God is teaching me through His Word. In depth study will be done at a different time. It is also good to know the author's goal. 1) To be accountable in reading through Scripture. 2) To share these thoughts with others. Possibly for someone else's edification; possibly for my own. 3) To glorify God through His Word. 4) To spur one another on in taking up Scripture and reading! So without further ado, here are today's readings:

Today I hope to get caught up on Nehemiah.

Nehemiah 1:

v5...Wow! What a big view of God Nehemiah had. He acknowledges the sovereignty of God. His greatness. His power. His faithfulness. His love. His conditions. His authority. His justice. All of these in one very profound sentence.

Also, I am struck by the specificity and depth of Nehemiah's confession. He does not candy coat his words. Yet even while he is confessing deeply and brokenly he has faith in God's promises of restoration.

"delight to fear your name". You normally do not see "delight and fear" so closely mingled.

Nehemiah 2:

This "prayer to the God of heaven" must have been quite short. It seems as if he is praying as he is thinking of what to say.

Again we see "the good hand of my God was upon me".

What is the significance of saying that the only animal with him is the one he rode?

How does one "strengthen their hands for the good work"?

Nehemiah 3:

"but their nobles would not stoop to serve their Lord". How pathetic. It's ironic that Nehemiah even says "stoop". What a noble thing it is to serve the Lord. It is far more noble than any other form of service. Yet these men see getting their hands dirty to serve the Lord as something well "below" them. Lord, help me to not have this spirit. Sometimes I know that ministers can be high and lofty and not "stoop" to serve.

"and his daughters". What a sharp contrast between these women and the "nobles" that would not stoop.

Nehemiah 4:

They take the insults of the opposition quite serious. What a strong prayer they offer.

"And all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work". Oh, Lord grant us a "mind to work" for your glorious kingdom.

The solution to opposition? Remember the Lord, fight for your family!

I love their determination. Half are working on the walls, half are protecting the city. I wonder how quickly we would have given up such an endeavor.

"none of us took off our clothes"...I bet at this point the people of Israel really stunk.

Nehemiah 5:

It seems like anytime there is a mighty movement of God like this (seeing all the people working toward one great cause), if there is not turmoil outside the camp there will be inside. Here it seems that as soon as all of their forces where united to stop the outside risings came from within.

I am not certain that the pain and heartache of verse 5 is able to come through. That must have been horrible to be fighting to rebuild the walls of your city and see your daughters enslaved. Certainly they would have felt that they were doing God's will, and had to wonder why this was happening. This teaches us that sometimes following the Lord does not solve problems but rather adds to them.

Again we find that the cause of this is that the nobles are being jerks. There is no better way to put that. It kind of reminds me of the struggles of Scotland in the movie Braveheart.

Nehemiah gets to the root of the issue with the nobles. "Ought you not fear the Lord". If they feared the Lord they would not be oppressing their own people.

It is great to see such a quick and thorough repentance. Praise God for this. May the Lord raise up men as bold as Nehemiah and stir the hearts of sinful men to repent and make things right.

What kept Nehemiah obedient? Fear of the Lord.

Verse 19 seems to be a strange prayer. "Remember for my good". Shouldn't our prayers be more for the glory of God and his good and not ours?

Nehemiah 6:

Something about Nehemiah's response to Shemaiah strikes me. He is more concerned with the holiness of God than he is with his own life. I find it ironic that he says he will not go into the temple because he would not live, yet the reason for his going to the temple would be to preserve his life.

What wonderful discernment Nehemiah was given. It sounded like this guy was wanting to help him out, but because Nehemiah knew it contradicted the Law of God he discerned that it was not from the Lord.

"fell greatly in their own esteem". Oh, Lord, that I would do the same.

Nehemiah 7:

I'm not certain why I am asking this question only now. Why does Nehemiah have the authority to do all of this? I know that his authority comes from the Lord, but why did all of the people seem to unquestionably follow him? Was he in a position of authority?

God puts even things like putting together genealogies into people's hearts.

Again, the genealogies would be interesting to study, but not in this place.

After last night's sermon William approached me and asked a question. "So, let me get this right, Mike. Legalism is bad". I could not help but laugh because that was the entire point of the sermon. Legalism is serious. Legalism is "bad", if you will. As I composed myself, I said, "Yes, William, legalism is bad. But Jesus also died for people that struggle with legalism just like me".

I must give credit for much of the material to C.J. Mahaney. Two of his sermons helped in shaping this one. You can find them here and here.

You can find the full text to last night's sermon here.

Half way through this short chapter I was planning on writing that this chapter has been the least beneficial so far. While that may still be true the latter half of this chapter was wonderful. Sibbes spreads diamonds and pearls all over the last couple of pages.

Quick Outline:

• Grace is Little at First
• Grace is Mingled with Corruption

Summary:

Sibbes' major concern here is to display for us what is meant by a smoking flax. He sees the smoking flax as that which has a little bit of light and it is mixed with smoke. Hence, the outline he follows. He begins by showing us that grace is little at first. The better a thing is the harder it is for it to become perfect. A mushroom becomes perfect (completed) much quicker than a mighty oak tree, so it is with the believer. It is important then for us to see in this growth process that, "Christ values us by what we shall be, and by what we are elected unto." Even the least bit of grace is the most glorious thing.

"Grace is not only little, but [also] mingled with corruption", says Sibbes. Grace is not perfect as soon as we are saved. Some corruption is left for believers to fight with. He then labors to prove his point that grace is mingled with corruption; or in other words light is mixed with smoke. He gives several examples from Scripture that this is so.

Sibbes closes by discussing the reason and results of this mixture. The reason, Sibbes says, is to "preserve us from those dangerous rocks which our natures are prone to dash upon, security and pride, and to force us to pitch our rest on justification, not sanctification, which, besides imperfection, has some stains". The result then is that sometimes people feel "well persuaded of themselves" and sometimes "at a loss".

Discussion:

As stated earlier, the beginning of the chapter did not speak to me nearly as much the latter half. I can, however, see that it would be very soothing to a new believer that is struggling with feelings of having little grace. It is not as if I feel that I have a ton of grace and that I have arrived, I guess as a child feels a little more confident at age 9 than he does at age 3; so am I spiritually. I feel more confident in grace. But, I often feel the weight of "mingled corruption".

I especially liked what Sibbes said regarding this mingled nature causing us to rest on justification and not sanctification. I have been learning a ton about that lately. It is vitally important to ground our faith in the objective work of Christ in justification instead of the subjective work of sanctification in our lives. Sanctification indeed shows the evidence of justification, but it is never the grounds for it. Sibbes does an excellent job of showing this. He also helps us to better understand why sometimes we feel as if we've got this "walk with Christ" thing down, and other times we wonder if we are even saved. When we look at the work of grace we are encouraged. When our eyes are fixed on the remaining corruption we are discouraged.

A couple of questions for us to discuss: Why do you think Sibbes considers security a "dangerous rock"? And also, probably more importantly, do you believe it is biblical that we "carry about us a double principle, grace and nature"?

Pearls and Diamonds:

"Christ values us by what we shall be, and by what we are elected unto."

"Grace, though little in quantity, yet is much in vigour and worth."

"Broken hearts can yield but broken prayers."

"The people of God have so different judgments of themselves, looking sometimes at the work of grace, sometimes at the remainder of corruption, and when they look upon that, then they think they have no grace...so sometimes they are well persuaded of themselves, sometimes at a loss."

Steve Camp is concerned that many Christian men are more concerned about niceness than truth. His main contention is that these men are, "...toy-soldiers [that] carry what I call 'a velvet covered sword.' It's lightweight, easy to wield, isn't designed for battle, takes little strength to lift it, looks inviting, and won't cut too deep for fear of offending too greatly. " Also central to Camp's argument is this statement: "But in our day, postmodern evangelicalism would have us place tone above truth, demeanor above doctrine, feelings before faith, and embrace the comfort of the retreat rather than the campaign of the battlefield."

Challies blog tour reaches Day 9 and finds itself at the home of the IMonk. As Challies sums it up IMonk asks, "questions about what happens to churches and Christians who refuse to practice discernment, about freelance discernment ministries, about a Protestant magisterial and about Tim Horton’s (along with a few other topics)."

Ray Ortlund points us to an excellent quote by James Denney. "No man can give at once the impressions that he himself is clever and that Jesus Christ is mighty to save."

Yesterday at Team Pyro Dan asked a question about a card left at his doorstep. Today he gives the answer, it was indeed Mormons. Dan also shares his experiencing of witnessing to them. It was inspiring and convicting. We've had a couple Mormons walking around our neighborhood and I've never stepped out the door and screamed "Mormons!" so as to engage them.

Jared Wilson shares 5 Important Things the Seeker Sensitive Movement Got Right. Great thoughts. It takes much wisdom to mine even things you do not agree with for truth! Thanks for these thoughts Jared.

Tony Kummer is giving away 3 Children's books at his website. I own The Jesus Storybook Bible but would love to have the other 2 for Isaiah. If God does not grace me with winning this give away I will probably buy them later.