Christ is not ashamed to be our brother. He is not ashamed to share completely in our humanity. Further than this, He was not ashamed to be identified with us in our sin and folly. This is what He did throughout the course of His ministry. He began at the baptism of John by identifying …
Ezra Nehemiah 9
Introduction: Integrity in leaders is not something that makes safeguards unnecessary. Integrity in leaders is manifested in the first place by their insistence on safeguards. This desire for manifest integrity and accountability is seen clearly in how Ezra behaves in this chapter. The people of Israel are under the law of God, all of them. …
Take Off Your Shoes
As we are given the enormous privilege, again, of ascending into the heavenly places to worship God in the name of Jesus Christ, take special care. We are walking into the throne room of God, and so we must take off our shoes — we are entering into a most holy place. If we walk …
Christ the Singer
The Bible teaches us that when Christ brings us to heaven, He does not do so while holding His nose. Many have sought to abase the creature too much, in effect placing sinners beyond the reach of a Savior. This does not honor Him at all. Our need was truly desperate; apart from Him we …
Do Not Forake Your Servant
Minister: Lift up your hearts!Congregation: We lift them up to the Lord! And blessed are those who undefiled    Walk in the ways of God,Who walk according to His laws,Who keep His testimonies sure,    And seek their God with all their heart. Iniquity they will not do,    They walk in holy ways.For You command obedience,That we …
Junipers and Streets
Once there was a boy who had just learned to ride his bicycle. He had never had training wheels, but the previous Saturday his father had spent a good portion of the morning trotting behind the bike and holding the seat, letting go of it for a few seconds from time to time. After much …
The Captain of Our Salvation
We must never forget the central theme of this book, which is the supremacy of Christ. In this next verse, we need to consider the supremacy of Christ in His authority to save. “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to …
Lavished Grace
Gracious God and Lord, we thank You for all the provision that You have lavished upon us. We are very grateful, and we would like to thank You now for the food, for the wine, for the hands that prepared all that we see before us, and for the fellowship that we will enjoy around …
Ezra Nehemiah 8
Introduction: God moves in history through His appointed means. But although some of His means are inscrutable to us (Dt. 29:29), in many other cases, He describes for us what it is like when He is working. In this instance, we see how God determined to give favor to the Jews by placing favor upon …
Avoiding Moral Incongruities
The Lord’s brother warned us about the problem of incongruity in speech. With the same tongue we praise God, in a service of worship, and we also curse those who are made in God’s likeness — whether in traffic, or in family irritations, or in self-righteousness censure. Gossip during the week is inconsistent with what …