written by Shane Kyles
The book of Nehemiah ends with an emphasis on reading, hearing and obeying God’s word. Verse 1 says, “The Book of Moses was read aloud in the hearing of the people.” We need to be reading, hearing and obeying God’s word. God’s word gives us clear instructions of how to live.
We see that the people in Jerusalem started to stray away from living by the word of God and as a result division started back becoming the norm. They started back living contrary to how their forefathers lived. Division started to creep back in. We can depend on God’s word to bring His people together.
When Nehemiah, left leadership did not remain intact. People that did not follow the word of God was put in charge. Greed took over. When Nehemiah returned he realized he had to restore order in the city. Verse 8 says, “I was greatly displeased and threw all of Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.”
The wicked had to be driven away and warned against doing wicked in the community. We learn from Nehemiah that stern action may have to take place to restore order in the community.
Verse 21 “I will lay hands on you.”
Verse 25 “I beat some and pulled out their hair.”
Verse 28 “I drove him away from me.”
Following this, Nehemiah got the right leadership in place and gave them responsibility. Verse 30 says, “Leadership was purified and assigned duties each to his own task.” Leaders that rely on The Lord should be given task and responsibility to uphold the community. Leaders must be developed and built to last!
After rebuilding broken buildings, we see that the process of discipleship is absolutely necessary. The work did not stop after the building and repairing in Nehemiah’s day, and it should not for us either. The work of building leaders in a community is worth of our entire lives, and the need for building leaders never ends. It is always needed!
Verse 31 says, “Remember me with favor O my God.”
A community cannot be built to last without God’s favor. As we prepare to continue this “good work” in our community let’s pray and ask God for his favor. Now is the time to go back. While there are still home repair projects to be done, there is still much relational work to be done in the lives of those we have served through home repair projects–and that is the key point. We are not just concerned with the condition of their home, we are concerned with the condition of their heart. Join us “after the project” to be a part of the Lord’s work in building relationships in our community. We desire to see them begin a right relationship with Him.
To get started serving on our relationship building team please contact us at info@theway2serve.org. Let’s continue to serve together to unify and grow the body of Christ!
