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Welcome back to our 2nd “teaching devotional” of Finishing Well! I hope some of you were able to be at our gathering at Huber’s this past Wednesday & connect with folks at your table. Many of you encouraged each other & enjoyed some cobbler, ice cream & music with our Finishing Well Band. Thanks again to our Table Hosts who led discussions in renewing our view of God, connecting better to His Church, reflecting more with His Son, and staying on mission together. Picking up where we left off, we’re learning to “follow well” before we “finish well”. Last week we looked at Nehemiah 8:1-6. The phrase was “ELEVATION of God’s Word. Ezra made sure the Law of God was lifted high! What happens next is incredibly important for every church to do… • Verse 7….the 13 Levites “instruct” the people while everyone remains in their places. Why would “stay put” need to be mentioned? If you let people wander around, they will, & you lose your “teachable moment”. Ezra & Nehemiah knew we’ve GOTTA keep these folks here! And they did. Now they’re organized, prepared, equipped & ready for a revival! Now this strategy proves to be incredible! Everyone “stayed put”. It was amazing! Respected “priests” (Levites) led the way & reverence for the Word of God was at an all time high! They were on “holy ground”. Not a small space like Moses at the burning bush, but this was the whole city of Jerusalem! And their teacher, Ezra, was visible to all. But now, the focal point shifts, being no longer one guy and a microphone, but “small group pastors”, if you will. Is it a class, is it a group, is it generationally divided? Seems to simply be families put together and whoever happened to be nearby at the time. But they were there on purpose! Let’s always remember that “GOD BLESSES OUR INTENTIONALITY”. If we’re going to “follow well before we finish well”, we’ve got to be intentional. We grow best in a group with a shepherd. We all need help in our spiritual life to grow and stay on the right path. Whatever church home is your place of fellowship, do your best to “connect” with some folks and not walk alone on this journey! It might be a men’s or women’s group, or couples or singles, but being in some form of mutually accountable group is more important than we can imagine. That’s what these folks were in….and God was about to move among them! In Verse 8…..the Bible says the priests read from the Law & “clearly explained the meaning of what was being read helping the people understand each passage.” Whoa! Now that was one cool Bible Study! City-wide! And there is our word for the day….EXPLANATION of the Word of God. Elevation precedes explanation. Ezra lifts up God’s Word, while the priests unpacked the details with illustrations & applications. Can you imagine the questions the people had for the priests? What’s that commandment mean? No work on the Sabbath? No pork BBQ? “Further explanation” is all throughout Scripture….. In Acts 6, the early church had Grecian widows being left out in the “meals on wheels” program and it was brought to the attention of the apostles. They appointed a group of servants to ensure that oversight was never repeated. They gave the reason why they couldn’t do house-to-house meal ministry, saying as apostles, they had to be committed to “the ministry of the Word and prayer”. They weren’t above that, but their calling was like the priests in Nehemiah’s day…. “to unpack the Word of God for people to understand & live it out together!” One of the best tools Sue Linn & I have found is the Quest Bible. It has 6,000 questions in the margins & short answers for attention deficit people like me! We love it! If you want to teach your grandkids Bible Stories, try Saddleback’s Video Bible Stories for Kids. Get ready for a California-type Jesus, though, saying “Heey-Oh” and “shush, shush, shush” when He calms the sea…to which I say, “Cool!” Ever notice how Jesus “explained” the Bible to His disciples on occasion? In Matthew 13, He tells the “Parable of the Sower” & explains it as soon as He’s done. Jesus patiently points out…the seed is “His Word” / the footpath represents “those who lack understanding” / the rocky soil is the “joyful, but shallow folks” / the thorns represent the “worries of life & the lure of wealth” that choke us / & the good soil represents “good hearts” that yield 30, 60 & 100 fold. Jesus “explains further” in the Sermon on the Mount that they all knew, “don’t commit adultery” and “don’t kill”, but He reveals the heart of God even more when He said, “But I say to you….don’t lust after a woman and don’t be angry with someone”. He taught the DEEPER meaning of the Law of God. Philippians 4:13 is a very much quoted verse about Paul’s resolve to be content in any situation, saying he “can do all things thru Christ who gives him strength.” You hear it after championships are won, but wouldn’t it also be appropriate in the losers’ locker room to say with Paul they’d learned to be content and ‘DO WITHOUT’ all things thru Christ who gives us strength”? It seems Paul’s point is “I don’t HAVE to win to be joyful in the Lord”. Jesus ALONE is enough for me! You see, we sometimes need to take time to unpack the Word of God more carefully to clearly see the DEEPER meaning. That’s what the priests did. That’s what the apostles did in Acts 6. That’s what preachers, teachers, group leaders and parents do for churches, classes, friends and families. May we help each other understand the things of God this week as we encourage one another. Take time this week to “unpack” and grow in our “EXPLANATION” of His Word with whoever God puts “on our heart or in our path”! Thanks for joining us at “Finishing Well”. Praying His blessings on you. May we help each other stay connected to Him, to our fellowship, & to our calling! Love you guys,
george
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