{"id":6123,"date":"2019-11-07T20:00:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T03:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=6123"},"modified":"2019-11-03T18:16:44","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T01:16:44","slug":"ezra1_1-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezra1_1-11\/","title":{"rendered":"The Heart Mover"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezra 1:1-11 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is Ezra 1:1-11.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Ezra 1:2-3 (NIV)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:\u00a0“‘The\u00a0LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Anyone of his people among you–may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0\u00a0For decades the Jews had been living in exile in the land of Babylon, away from their homeland of Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0However, in 539 B.C. Cyrus king of Persia defeats the Babylonians.\u00a0\u00a0In his first year as king, Cyrus is moved in his heart by the Lord and proclaims that all the Jews may return to their homeland and build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The remainder of the chapter shows the Jews making their way back to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Here are some lessons I believe the Holy Spirit showed me in Ezra 1:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. God is a mover of hearts.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    First God \u201cmoved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia\u201d (v1) to allow the Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the destroyed temple of the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Then verse 5 talks about how \u201ceveryone whose heart God had moved\u201d prepared to go back to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

    What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God is a mover of hearts.\u00a0\u00a0Whenever God wants to do anything great in this world, He begins by moving in the heart of a person He has chosen to help accomplish that great thing.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0You could make the argument that the greatest churches, the greatest marriages, the greatest families, the greatest organizations and the greatest businesses — all of them began with someone\u2019s heart being moved to action.<\/p>\n

    When was the last time God moved your heart to do something for His glory?\u00a0\u00a0Like Cyrus may you respond with faith and without delay to God moving in your life.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. God is the Keeper of His Word.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      When Cyrus defeated the Babylonians and proclaimed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, this fulfilled a prophecy by Jeremiah decades earlier concerning the fall of Babylon and the end of the Jews\u2019 exile (for example, see Jeremiah 25:12 and Jeremiah 29:10).\u00a0\u00a0It also fulfilled a prophecy that the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet Isaiah to write 150 years earlier concerning a foreign leader called Cyrus who would cause the restoration of the Jews to Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple (see Isaiah 44:26-28).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Whenever God makes a promise, He keeps it.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0As His followers, let\u2019s be sure to keep our word too.<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. God is the Provider of Resources.\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        In addition to letting the Jews return to Jerusalem, Cyrus encourages the people under his rule to provide the Jews with silver and gold, goods and livestock, and freewill offerings to help the Jews rebuild the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem (v4).\u00a0\u00a0Later verse 6 says that \u201call their neighbors assisted\u201d the Jews and gave them those very things which Cyrus told them to give.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In addition Cyrus also takes the articles that King Nebuchadnezzar had previously carried from the temple in Jerusalem, and gives them to Sheshbazzar (who may have been an official within Cyrus\u2019 kingdom who was made a governor or \u201cprince\u201d of Judah) to take back to Jerusalem (v7-11).<\/p>\n

        What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When God moves you in your heart to accomplish something significant for His glory, He will make sure that you have the resources you need to accomplish it.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I can say that from personal experience.\u00a0\u00a0Since the first day we planted Thrive Church, we have never lacked a thing.\u00a0\u00a0God\u2019s grace has always been sufficient for us.\u00a0Wherever God guides, God provides<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. God can use anyone He wants to accomplish His purposes.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Cyrus did not necessarily worship the Lord.\u00a0\u00a0In fact, there is archeological evidence to show that Cyrus was a devout worshiper of the Babylonian god Marduk, and that as a way to curry favour with different people groups as well as to gain the favour of as many gods as possible, Cyrus allowed various people groups within his kingdom to resettle into their old towns to worship their respective gods.<\/p>\n

          What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0God does not limit Himself to using Christians only to accomplish His Christ-honoring purposes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Just as God used an idol-worshiping Pharaoh in the book of Exodus and an idol-worshiping Cyrus in the book of Ezra to accomplish His purposes, God can use people who are not devout followers of His to accomplish His purposes too, whether they know they are being used or not.<\/p>\n

          Heavenly Father, I praise You for being the mover of men\u2019s hearts, the keeper of Your Word, and the provider of everything we need.\u00a0\u00a0Thank You that wherever You guide, You provide.\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019re also the sovereign one who uses whatever and whomever He pleases to accomplish His will.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

          <\/div>\n
          <\/div>\n
          <\/div>\n
          <\/div>\n
          <\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

          Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

          Today’s passage is Ezra 1:1-11.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

          Ezra 1:2-3 (NIV)\u00a0
          \n2\u00a0\u00a0“This is what Cyrus king of Persia says:\u00a0“‘The\u00a0LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah.\u00a0
          \n3\u00a0\u00a0Anyone of his people among you–may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the\u00a0LORD, the God of Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

          On verses 1-11:\u00a0\u00a0For decades the Jews had been living in exile in the land of Babylon, away from their homeland of Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0However, in 539 B.C. Cyrus king of Persia defeats the Babylonians.\u00a0\u00a0In his first year as king, Cyrus is moved in his heart by the Lord and proclaims that all the Jews may return to their homeland and build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The remainder of the chapter shows the Jews making their way back to Jerusalem.d covenant did not have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6124,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6123"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6126,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6123\/revisions\/6126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}