Opened Scriptures Bible Studies

Good Morning and we can all be thankful that Jehovah has given us another day to serve Him no matter what activities we have planned.  We are going to see that Ezra and the men who assisted him were very busy on this day.  They had much work to do reading the law to all the people while making sure that everyone understood the scripture.  Isn't this what a good pastor does for each sheep in his flock?  Ezra's Godly helpers in ministering the Word to the people Nehemiah 8:7-8  Also Jeshua, and Bani, and Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodijah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, and the Levites caused the people to understand the law as the people stood in their place.  So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading. Nothing is included in the text of scripture by accident.  The Spirit of God governed the entire process of verbal inspiration and He added...

Good Morning to everyone and I hope this finds each of you ready to hear from our wonderful God. We had a blessed Thanksgiving day as we ministered to one of our widows from church and our family. Today we are hosting our daughter and granddaughters families so it will be a noisy, fun filled day with good food prepared by my sweet wife. We continue digging into the text of Nehemiah to see what God has for us. We call all be encouraged by the work that Jehovah is doing in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah because we serve the same God. He still revives, restores and imparts fresh zeal to all those who seek Him.  Preaching the Word to a spiritually hungry people Nehemiah 8:2-3 And Ezra the priest brought the law before the congregation both of men and women, and all that could hear with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh month. 3 And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate from the morning until midday, before the men and the women...

Good morning to each of you on this Thanksgiving day. I pray that all of us have reflected about what God has done in our lives. He is always faithful even when we are wavering in our faith. He is always good even when things around us are difficult.  He is the faithful loving Father who is always watching for a wayward child to return home (Luke 15). May we rejoice in the Lord and may we be bold to tell others the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. The city was rebuilt but there were no houses inside its walls Nehemiah 7:4 Now the city was large and great: but the people were few therein, and the houses were not builded. The Spirit of God brings out a note of importance. The city had finally been cleared of the rubble and debris left over from it's destruction almost 100 years earlier. The Temple had been reconstructed, the walls of the city were repaired and restored and new gates and doors were added. The picture here is of an empty walled city with broad...

Good evening everyone and I hope you have joined me in reflecting upon the goodness of God in our lives. Please feel free to share the Thanksgiving posts with your families. Today, we return to our study of Nehemiah and we will find much truth that will benefit us as we learn about this man.  Nehemiah just averted an internal crisis by righting the wrongdoing done to the people by the rulers and nobles. The relentless enemy comes back again in another attempt to stop the work of God on the Holy City.  The enemies of Nehemiah try a new tactic Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem along with the rest of the enemies heard that Nehemiah was getting the wall completed and that no breaches were left in the walls.  Nehemiah tells us that the doors had not yet been set upon the gates.  They tried to use a new tactic.  They wanted to lure Nehemiah outside the protective walls of Jerusalem and sent him messages saying that they should meet in a nearby village.  ...

Good afternoon Dear Readers. We are busily preparing for Thanksgiving on Thursday with my sister and one of the widows from our church family. On Friday, we will host our daughter and granddaughters families to observe Thanksgiving.  In light of this, I am posting this thanksgiving lesson early. I hope that you can use it in your homes for a devotion with your families! I thought we ought to take a look at thanksgiving from a New Testament perspective. It is helpful to compare and contrast what we read in the Old Testament with what we read in the New Testament regarding the topic of thanksgiving. May aim is to help us understand that we can honor God by having thanksgiving toward Him for all that He is and all that He does. Thanksgiving for the grace of God 2 Corinthians 4:13-15  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; Knowing that he which raised up the Lord J...

Today is one day closer to Thanksgiving and we have a wonderful Psalm to look at for instruction about being a thankful people.  This is another beautiful Psalm of Thanksgiving. There are a total of 9 action words (imperatives) that are calling us to respond in a certain way to Jehovah. The divine name Jehovah is found 3 times and the name Elohim twice in these verses.  The name Jehovah reminds us that the covenant keeping, unchanging, God who inhabits eternity and dwells with those of humble hearts is our audience. The name Elohim reminds us that God is Creator, Sustainer, Sovereign Ruler and King to whom we owe our lives and allegiance. Psalm 95:1-7 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: Let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, And make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the LORD is a great God, And a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: The strength of the hil...

Good Morning to each one of you and I hope that this post finds us thinking about the topic of "thanksgiving." This week is when America observes the Thanksgiving holiday and I would like to pause from our study of Nehemiah to share with you thoughts about thanksgiving from God's perspective. Thanksgiving in America was a celebration of how God carried the Pilgrims and later the Puritans through harsh conditions and supplied for their physical needs. It was a time to step back and reflect upon the goodness of God that was poured out on His people. Thanksgiving is similar to harvest celebrations observed around the world. We do not have time to bring all the historical details to light but we can look at thanksgiving from God's point of view.  Psalm 26 is a Psalm of David and although the word "thanksgiving" is only used one time, the content of the Psalm is filled with gratitude to Jehovah for His life giving provision.  Psalm 26:1-12 Judge me, O...

Good morning everyone. We were blessed with another wonderful Lord's day at church. Pastor preached on Psalm 117 Sunday morning as Pastor turned our focus toward being people of thanksgiving and gratitude.  In the afternoon service, Pastor led us through a study in the Psalms looking at places where God blesses us, we bless God or where we bless others around us. It was a good reminder that God has plainly stated what He will bless and if we live in a way that honors Him, that can be a blessing to Him. I pray that you all had a wonderful Lord's day, too.  Nehemiah faced a severe internal crisis Nehemiah is faced with a very serious internal problem.  This situation impacted most of the people on multiple levels.  First, there was an intense cry of anguish and distress that stemmed from an ongoing situation of injustice.  The people and their wives or the common people, workers and laborers were the ones raising this cry. It seems that they had s...

Nehemiah continued to pray to Jehovah for help and he devised a practical solution by setting guards in place for protection.  However, a new plot by the enemy unfolded. Planning an ambush to stop the work Some of the workers came to Nehemiah and reported that the people carrying out the rubbish and bringing up the new building materials were wearing out. Their strength was "decayed" which means the workers were stumbling or tottering as they carried their loads. They were physically exhausted.  The enemy took note of this and plotted to come against them to attack because the workers were worn out and would not notice the enemies approach. They had a clear goal of killing the Jewish workers and stopping the reconstruction of Jerusalem.  The Jews which lived near the foreign people living in the land heard of their intentions and sent warning to Nehemiah.  Nehemiah 4:9-12 Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch against them day and n...