{"id":6209,"date":"2019-11-10T20:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T03:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=6209"},"modified":"2019-11-10T19:55:50","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T02:55:50","slug":"ezra3_1-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/ezra3_1-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Move Forward Despite Fear"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ezra 3:1-13 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezra 3:1-13.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0After settling into their towns in Jerusalem, the priests led by Joshua and the politicians led by Zerubabbel begin building the altar of the Lord, just as the law of Moses had prescribed.\u00a0\u00a0They celebrate the biggest festival in their calendar, the Feast of Tabernacles (v4), and make regular and ongoing sacrifices to the Lord (v5).\u00a0\u00a0There are two verses that especially stick out to me:
\n\u201cDespite their fear of the people around them<\/u><\/em>, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord\u201d (v3)
\n\u201cthey began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord,\u00a0though the foundation of the Lord\u2019s temple had not yet been laid<\/u>.<\/em>\u201d (v6)<\/span><\/p>\n

Notice that the leaders of the Israelites built the altar\u00a0despite their fear of the people around them\u00a0<\/em>(v3) and offered burnt offerings\u00a0even though the foundation of the temple was not yet laid\u00a0<\/em>(v6).\u00a0\u00a0In other words, the leaders of God\u2019s people did not let fear or inconvenience stop them from building God\u2019s house or giving their required offerings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They did it anyways.<\/p>\n

Likewise,\u00a0don\u2019t allow fear or inconvenience stop you from worshiping God and giving God a pleasing offering<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0Push through, find a way and do it anyways.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what separates the leader whom God uses to do great things from the one who just goes with the crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

On verses 7-13:\u00a0\u00a0Here Joshua the high priest and Zerubabbel the governor lead the people in building the foundation for a new temple.\u00a0\u00a0Upon completing the foundation, they hold a massive worship service to celebrate and give thanks to God (v10-11).\u00a0\u00a0While the people shouted their praise to the Lord, many of the older priests, Levites and family heads who had seen the previous temple wept aloud (v12-13).\u00a0\u00a0As a result, there was a loud but confusing sound that came out of that temple site that day.<\/span><\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Don\u2019t worship the past.\u00a0\u00a0God wants us to learn from our past, but not to live in our past.\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0The older generation of Israelites who had seen the previous temple were weeping in part because they were still living in the past.\u00a0\u00a0They kept comparing how good things used to be (in their mind) to how bad things are (in their mind).\u00a0\u00a0In so doing they failed to appreciate the good things God was doing in their midst.\u00a0\u00a0As Ecclesiastes\u00a07:10\u00a0says, \u201c<\/span>Do not say, \u2018Why were the old days better than these?\u2019\u00a0For it is not wise to ask such questions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Why is it not wise to worship the past?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s because\u00a0when you worship the past you keep yourself from appreciating the blessings of today and the new things God is doing.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Are you tempted to live in the past?\u00a0\u00a0Instead of living in the past, recognize that in every new season God is doing new things.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s one last lesson I learned from today\u2019s passage:\u00a0 In verse 12\u00a0the older people weep because they thought the old temple was more glorious than the new.\u00a0 Around this same time, Haggai the prophet would write, \u201c<\/span>The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,’ says the LORD Almighty. ‘And in this place I will grant peace,’ declares the LORD Almighty.”\u00a0(Haggai 2:9)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How could the new temple be greater than the old, especially if the new temple was smaller and less outwardly impressive?\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s because this new temple would have something that the old temple never had:\u00a0\u00a0Jesus the Son of God would step foot inside this new temple.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0You can have all the adornments that make the world go \u201cooh\u201d and \u201cahh\u201d, but true glory is where Jesus is.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0When you allow Jesus to step into the temple that is your life, the glory He brings is far greater than the glory that material wealth, power, fame and worldly status could ever bring.<\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, thank You for every lesson I can learn from Your Word today.\u00a0\u00a0May I not let fear or inconvenience get in the way of giving You the worship You deserve from me.\u00a0\u00a0May I not worship the past, but recognize that You are doing great things today and that the best is yet to come.\u00a0\u00a0And thank You that because Jesus has stepped foot into this temple called my life, You fill my life with greater glory than anything worldly wealth and accolades could ever give.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s passage is Ezra 3:1-13.\u00a0\u00a0Let\u2019s go!<\/p>\n

On verses 1-6:\u00a0\u00a0After settling into their towns in Jerusalem, the priests led by Joshua and the politicians led by Zerubabbel begin building the altar of the Lord, just as the law of Moses had prescribed.\u00a0\u00a0They celebrate the biggest festival in their calendar, the Feast of Tabernacles (v4), and make regular and ongoing sacrifices to the Lord (v5).\u00a0\u00a0There are two verses that especially stick out to me:
\n\u201cDespite their fear of the people around them, they built the altar on its foundation and sacrificed burnt offerings on it to the Lord\u201d (v3)
\n\u201cthey began to offer burnt offerings to the Lord,\u00a0though the foundation of the Lord\u2019s temple had not yet been laid.\u201d (v6)<\/p>\n

Notice that the leaders of the Israelites built the altar\u00a0despite their fear of the people around them\u00a0(v3) and offered burnt offerings\u00a0even though the foundation of the temple was not yet laid\u00a0(v6).\u00a0\u00a0In other words, the leaders of God\u2019s people did not let fear or inconvenience stop them from building God\u2019s house or giving their required offerings.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They did it anyways.<\/p>\n

Likewise,\u00a0don\u2019t allow fear or inconvenience stop you from worshiping God and giving God a pleasing offering.\u00a0\u00a0Push through, find a way and do it anyways.\u00a0\u00a0That\u2019s what separates the leader whom God uses to do great things from the one who just goes with the crowd.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6209","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\/6209","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=6209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6212,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions\/6212"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}