Bible Study (August 30th)

I just decided that instead of keeping a little notebook with all my notes and whatnot from my bible studies that I would just post all of them on my blog.

Nehemiah 1 - Nehemiah's Prayer

1 The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah:

1 In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2 Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem.
3 They said to me, "Those who survived the exile are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire."
4 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven.
5 Then I said:
"Lord, the God heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6 let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servant, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my ancestral family, have committed against you. 7 We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you have you servant Moses.
8 "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9 but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name."
10 "They are your servant and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand. 11 Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man."

I was the cupbearer to the king.

Nehemiah : Author: The words of Nehemiah, but believed to be recorded by Ezra.
Date : 445 BC - Nehemiah goes to Jerusalem to be governor and lead in rebuilding walls.

Meditation :
What I focus on when reading the passage: The simplicity of the prayer, however, the lifting of God's name throughout. Also, the dedication to deal with the problem in a Godly manner(fasting and prayer)

In Nehemiah 1:4 it states, "When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven."

• This implies that he just got away from everyone and for DAYS he was waiting for instruction from God about what to do about the broken down walls of Israel.
• That's really hard for me to grasp. Days of praying and fasting and just going before God. Not minutes, not hours, not just skip a meal or so to study a little extra. But for days.

Then the rest of the chapter (Nehemiah 1:5-11) states the prayer that Nehemiah prayed after the days of meditation.

• The prayer starts out with "Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments"

1. This signifies humbleness, and glorifying Him who saved us.

• Next, is a confession, "I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my ancestral family, have committed against you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses.

1. This is one of the most important parts of any prayer, because without this confession we can't effectively communicate and be face-to-face with our creator because of these unconfessed sins. We must be pure and white as snow before our Heavenly Father.
   

• Last, is a calling out to God to show you He is there and to give guidance, "Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, 'If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name."

1. This part of the prayer isn't as much as asking for anything; however, somewhat of a clarification that God will be faithful to what He says.

This passage leads into more of what the book of Nehemiah is about and is a guide for prayer for those lost and in need of maybe not something as much as a reminder that God is holy.

Sola Scriptura

I just finished a book called How To Study the Bible; it is a very, very simple title compared to the content of the book. In it it talks about the term "Sola Scriptura" first developed during the Protestant Reformation. "Sola Scriptura" is a latin term which interprets to "the Bible alone" in English. Being that I love to read and study, I have a great appreciation for such beliefs.

However, there is a problem to this viewpoint. If taken out of context in any way, shape, or form a verse could be seriously misunderstood. In example take this little phrase. Each time you read this put emphasis on the word that is bold.

"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"
"I can do everything through him who gives me strength"

If you put the correct emphasis on the the words in the sentences above, then each sentence has a completely different meaning. And your just gonna have to ignore the bold text for the rest of the blog because I can't get the font to go unbold.

This is why you can't always just depend upon the Bible to get the correct context through and through. Sometimes you need to look at the historical value of different words and different meanings of Hebrew and Greek words. Unless your a walking history book and culture guru you might need a reference book to go along with your studies.

Therefore, I strongly believe you can't depend upon the writings of popular authors for your full Bible experience, but you also have to sometimes get information that isn't easy to remember.

Looking Deep Into the Mirror

There are many people that I salute to on the subject of being great writers. However, there are more that I find unappealing writers. Rick Warren is a great writer to my concerns. He goes into concepts that maybe have been discussed alot, but he brings deeper definitions and new perspectives to go about improving on different topics.

Right now I'm borrowing his book, Bible Study Methods from The Bunker. So far I have found nothing about this book that I could ask more of. It's simple to understand, but when you looker deeper into what he says it's a whole new whole world of thought.

When you don't stop to think about it, when you are reading the Bible, you are studying it, right? Wrong. If you are simply reading the Bible, you are obviously just reading the Bible. It takes feedback written down and going deeper into scripture than what is on top to classify as studying the Bible. This statement alone blows my mind as I sit here. If everyone would really study the Bible, instead of just reading it I would be willing to guess that the church and the viewpoints of Christianity wouldn't be in the shape it currently is in.

To justify actually studying the Bible, the book calls for 2-4 hours of intense prayer, meditation, one-to-one with our heavenly Father. Don't freak out about this. It also says, to properly study and get full application out of this gesture to only do this once or twice a week. Which you still might be weary about; but look at how much time you spend in front of the computer, me including and compare that to how much time you spend in front of your Bible and time you spend in deep prayer. Now it doesn't really seem like a big deal.

So this is my own little calling for writers and Christians in general to find a study method(refer to Bible Study Methods for further description) that works for us and spend time a few times a week meditating, praying, asking questions about, searching for answers in small or larger portions of the Bible.

Yes, this might cause you to give up a show or two on tv or a small talk conversation on Facebook but look at what could result in this. Our ultimate goal to become closer to God everyday in our relationship with God.

Pray about it. I'm excited to get this puppy rollin'.

The Master of Puppets

There are many analogies that you can use when you are speaking of the way something controls somebody. My personal favorite is to look at as if you are a puppet and the puppet master, or devil, controls you with the little things in your life that are not of God, or the strings leading to each part of your body. This little analogy came to me one while I was in deep thought. To my knowledge it is original. Please note if you know any different.

As it states somewhere in the bible, Satan masks himself as an angel of light. However, for the extent of time in my blog, I will state Satan masks himself as a master of puppets. It's maybe not something that you would typically think of the devil doing. But hey, everyone needs a night job. Right?

So there are tons of little things that can keep you from not being controlled like a puppet, such as: anger, lust, idolatry, coveting, and maybe flat our laziness. The stated categories are pretty vast, I would say. So between these five, all of us have at least one, but probably more strings that the devil has a grip on and is holding us back from being completely in submission to our Creator; which in the end is exactly what he deserves.

By being connected to one the characteristics, we are giving the devil a chance to trip us up and become sinful under any conditions less than perfect. Just one of these strings enhances our chances of sinning tremendously.

So, in order to live a life that is pure through and through, we need to be constantly in prayer that God, our perfect heavenly father, to aid us in disconnecting our lives with the string, or strings holding us back from where He wants us.