“Amelia learned to spell her name,” Valentina confided, proudly, as I hoisted Ezra onto my hip and took Amelia by the hand and headed to the Lolly bus. “We’ve been practicing in the car,” she continued. “I only spelled it two times for her before she could say it by herself. Tell Lolly.” We’ve learned that Amelia loves to be made over, and though she feigns shyness, she beams when she’s proud of herself. Once we were buckled in and on the way to my house, she began, “A-M-E-L-I-A-(giggle).” We were barely out of the car when Aunt Caroline called and she had a fresh audience.
Between six months and six years, reasons for celebrating come hard and fast. Rolling over, sitting up, crawling, pulling up and cruising, first steps, first words, climbing, running, all the way to reading, milestones fly by like mile markers on the freeway. An awful lot of nos accompany this stage so it’s good to be their biggest fan as often as possible. We all need encouragement and a little help along the way if we’re honest. Asking for or accepting help can be a sticking point for too many of us, myself included, but accountability is a good thing, even when it’s unpleasant. Coming alongside someone, especially when it’s hard, means you care. I once heard it said that the opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference.
John and Paul agree that we who believe in Jesus, God’s one and only Son as the Way, the Truth and the Life are God’s children. (John 1:12, I John 3:1, Romans 8:14, Galatians 3:26, 4:7) Jesus is the first to be raised again from death and the firstborn among many brothers and sisters from every nation, tribe, and tongue. (Colossians 1:18, Romans 8:29, Revelation 7:9) If you have heard and understood the gospel, the good news that Jesus defeated sin and death once for all time on the cross and sits enthroned with the Father, interceding and preparing for the new heaven and new earth, if you have embraced this truth by abiding in Christ, obedient to His commands, then you have reason to celebrate. Your name is written in heaven. (Luke 10:20) “In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God’s angels when even one sinner repents.” (Luke 15:10)
Long before Jesus came in the flesh, on October 8, 445 b.c., a solemn ceremony occurred in Jerusalem. Exiles returned from Persia to Judah were floundering. Cyrus, King of Persia, had decreed their release and even made provision for their journey. His successors, Darius, Xerxes and Artaxerxes continued to support the rebuilding of Jerusalem. The Jews found shelter and completed the temple foundation but they stalled in the face of opposition. The house of the Lord nor the wall around Jerusalem had been rebuilt by the time Nehemiah is introduced. The people had gradually begun enmeshing their families with the surrounding peoples, forgetting that God had uprooted His people from the land He had given them because they abandoned Him. They had returned to ruin and rubble, having served their sentence, but like their ancestors newly come from slavery in Egypt, they despaired.
“These are the memoirs of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah.
In late autumn, in the month of Kislev, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes’ reign, I was at the fortress of Susa. Hanani, one of my brothers, came to visit me with some other men who had just arrived from Judah.
I asked them about the Jews who had returned there from captivity and about how things were going in Jerusalem.
They said to me, “Things are not going well for those who returned to the province of Judah.
They are in great trouble and disgrace.
The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire.”
When I heard this, I sat down and wept.
In fact, for days I mourned, fasted, and prayed to the God of heaven.
Then I said, “O Lord, God of heaven, the great and awesome God who keeps his covenant of unfailing love with those who love him and obey his commands, listen to my prayer!
Look down and see me praying night and day for your people Israel.
I confess that we have sinned against you.
Yes, even my own family and I have sinned!
We have sinned terribly by not obeying the commands, decrees, and regulations that you gave us through your servant Moses.
Please remember what you told your servant Moses: ‘If you are unfaithful to me, I will scatter you among the nations.
But if you return to me and obey my commands and live by them, then even if you are exiled to the ends of the earth, I will bring you back to the place I have chosen for my name to be honored.’
The people you rescued by your great power and strong hand are your servants.
O Lord, please hear my prayer!
Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you.
Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me.
Put it into his heart to be kind to me.”
In those days I was the king’s cup-bearer.”
Nehemiah 1:1-11 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/neh.1.11.NLT
Nehemiah’s grief brought an appropriate response of repentance as he petitioned God for mercy, not because he deserved it and certainly not because of Israel’s faithfulness. He appealed to God’s own promise and to God’s faithfulness, saying, listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. What is our response to the floundering of God’s people in our own day? We are identified as exiles in a foreign land, citizens of Heaven eagerly awaiting our Savior’s return. (Philippians 3:20) Now that we know Jesus, we can no longer comfortably reside in Babylon. Our eyes are opened to the Truth. We are pilgrims journeying homeward but we are tasked with carrying something far more precious than treasures to rebuild a temple made by human hands. We are God’s dwelling place and we are commissioned to win souls from an enemy bent on destruction, murder, and thievery, who through trickery and deceit seeks to claim what rightly belongs to God.
“For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”
Ephesians 6:12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/eph.6.12.NLT
When the wall surrounding Jerusalem was completed and it’s gates secured, “all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just inside the Water Gate.
They asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given for Israel to obey.
So on October 8 Ezra the priest brought the Book of the Law before the assembly, which included the men and women and all the children old enough to understand.
He faced the square just inside the Water Gate from early morning until noon and read aloud to everyone who could understand.
All the people listened closely to the Book of the Law.
Ezra stood on the platform in full view of all the people.
When they saw him open the book, they all rose to their feet.
Then Ezra praised the Lord, the great God, and all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands.
Then they bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground.
The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah—then instructed the people in the Law while everyone remained in their places.
They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage.
Then Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were interpreting for the people said to them, “Don’t mourn or weep on such a day as this!
For today is a sacred day before the Lord your God.”
For the people had all been weeping as they listened to the words of the Law.
And Nehemiah continued, “Go and celebrate with a feast of rich foods and sweet drinks, and share gifts of food with people who have nothing prepared.
This is a sacred day before our Lord.
Don’t be dejected and sad, for the joy of the Lord is your strength!”
So the people went away to eat and drink at a festive meal, to share gifts of food, and to celebrate with great joy because they had heard God’s words and understood them.”
Nehemiah 8:1-3, 5-10, 12 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/neh.8.1-12.NLT
When Ezra praised the Lord, all the people chanted, “Amen! Amen!” as they lifted their hands then bowed down and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. (Nehemiah 8:6) When the people heard the word of the Lord, read aloud and explained, they understood it, and their response was amen, which means, it is as You say, Lord. We want what You want, Lord. We come into agreement with Your Word, not only academically but wholeheartedly. It is the essence of what Jesus taught us to pray. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Obedience is not only implied but promised.
A fasting day, followed by corporate repentance and rededication to the Lord and His Way followed. When God’s Word was read and the people truly understood, they responded with holy sorrow. Godly sorrow precedes repentance. Seeing their tears, their leaders proclaimed the day sacred before the Lord God, saying the joy of the Lord would be their strength, and declaring a celebration.
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2ch.7.14.NLT
“For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.
They are headed for destruction.
Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead.
I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection.
But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing:
Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things.
If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.
But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
We are citizens of heaven.
And we can hardly wait for a Savior from there.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
He has the power to bring everything under his control.
By his power he will change our earthly bodies.
They will become like his glorious body.”
Philippians 3:10-21 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/php.3.18.NLT
And we will be with the Lord forever. (I Thessalonians 4:17)
What a reason to celebrate!
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