Chapter 1 (praying)

What commentaries or sermons are you using as you go through this study? What else are you studying in the between times of these posts? What do you remember from camp? What have you forgotten since then?


Feel free to comment on older posts as new ones are added. We will never exhaust all that can be said for scripture. But it's best to stay on top of things and comment when things are still being discussed.


In the second half of the chapter Nehemiah is praying. There are several prayers in the Old Testament that captivate me every time I read them (Solomon's prayer in 1 Kings 8, Daniel's in Daniel 9, David in Psalm 51). While this one isn't particularly as striking as those might be at first glance, the structure and the context of it are definitely worth studying.

"I often say my prayers but how often to I really pray my prayers?"

How important is prayer in leadership? If God is all powerful and sovereign why do we pray to ask God for things?

Nehemiah prays longer than it takes him to rebuild the wall. He starts praying in Chislev (the month that lines up with late November for us) and he doesn't leave until Nisan (April). That's more than five months of prayer. We find out later that it only takes fifty-two days to rebuild the wall. Was he wasting his time praying so much when there was work that needed to be done?

How often do we ignore the importance of being in God's word and His will by rushing into decisions without humbling ourselves before the Author and Perfecter first? Find some verses in the Bible that illustrate how important prayer is and share them in the comment box.

What is the purpose of prayer? Is there more than one?

Alright, last point. Has anyone ever heard of the acronym ACTS? It's for prayer. It's a memory guide to help people remember how to pray. It stands for Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication. Supplication is to ask for something humbly. Look at Nehemiah's prayer from verse 5 through verse 11. We find adoration in verse five, confession in verses 6-7, thanksgiving (thanking God for His promises) in verses 8 and 9, and finally his supplication in verse 11.

I challenge you to pray in earnest for seven days straight. It will require a sacrifice of fifteen minutes (give or take) of each day. Pray on your knees. Pray in adoration and confession and thanksgiving and supplication. We all have things on our hearts. How often do we leave them there and let them drag us down? Pray. For real. This is your challenge. If you forget for a day don't be tempted to forsake the challenge. Be faithful even when it's tough. That's what being faithful is. It will be tough. "Give unto the LORD the glory due His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness..." Psalms 29:2


"Our heavenly Father: Let us see Thy glory, if it must be from the shelter of the rock and from the protection of Thy covering hand. Whatever the cost to us of friends or goods or length of days let us know Thee as Thou are that we may adore Thee as we should." -A. W. Tozer

Chapter 1 (introduction)

The questions are there to draw you in. The paragraphs before and after are not really answers but hopefully they frame the questions in ways that make you think. Read this and the passage in the Word and study your supplementary materials and then add to the discussion. Feel free to post as many comments as you need. Don't worry about length; it can be as long or as short as you want. Read and respond to what others write as well and pray for each other (and those who have quit) as this study goes on.




The study of the history leading up to the events here in the first Chapter is not only useful but also very interesting. The Old Testament is ignored too often. The Bible is a history of God's love. His provision. His justice. There is no other way to learn about who He is. There is no other way to learn about how He loves. No other way to learn about grace, truth, provision, justice. No other way to know Holy.

What is holiness?

Nehemiah takes place during the later part of the captivity after captives had already started to go back to their homeland. In fact, the first Chapter shows Nehemiah talking with his brother about how things are going in Judah (Jerusalem was in the Southern Kingdom of Judah). Nehemiah himself had responsibilities and a livelihood in Susa (some translations say Shushan). The city was a capital of the Babylonian empire and where Artaxerxes was staying (Artaxerxes is the son of Xerxes-- from '300'-- and the step-son of Esther) but Nehemiah had good standing with the king in the court. To be a cup-bearer in those days would be like being the head of security these days. His number one body-guard. He was in the know. He was in the money. He was in captivity but he was treated well.

Is God always sovereign?

It doesn't say how Nehemiah got the job of being the cup-bearer but if the answer to the above question is 'yes' (hint: it is) then we know that God had a plan for Nehemiah to be there. God is always working His purpose out. One thing that Begg mentioned in his sermons has to do with the first verse. Nehemiah was the son of Hacaliah (some guy who no one has any information on because this is the only time his name is mentioned in the Bible).

Who does God use?

What does our passion say about us? As Christians? As individuals? What are we devoted to? What breaks our heart? What does it mean to be faithful?

Role Call

We're going to get started but I want to know how many people have figured out how to find this blog. I want to be considerate of everyone having difficulty with the online stuff but I also want to get started on things.

Leave a comment after reading this and once we have enough people on board we can get started and those who are unable to start when we do will be able to catch up as we go.

Thanks.

Start Your Engines

Here is a copy of part of the email I sent to those of you who are signed up for the study. I include it here for those of you who haven't signed up but know about this URL. Know that emails will be used for the logistics and the blog will be used mostly for discussion and instruction. Feel free to post questions in your comments if they are designed to spark discussions. If they are more logistical questions feel free to email me. Here's the email:



Alright,

We're just about ready to get started with the study. Thank you for your patience.

I already mentioned the eSword and iTunes ways to get deeper into this study (both of which will require free software downloads) and I've been skimming the internet for easier ways to get commentaries and sermons for those of you who are hesitant to get either of those. Here is a link to a decent commentary that you don't have to download anything for. Just look it up online and read it straight from your browser if you want:

http://www.easyenglish.info/bible-commentary/nehemiah-lbw.htm

And the sermon audio by Allistair Begg can be downloaded without iTunes by going to this next link and clicking 'download audio' next to each sermon title. There are two volumes so for those of you who choose this method there might be more stuff to get later on. All these downloads are safe, free, and will take hardly any space at all.

http://www.truthforlife.org/resources/series/gods-work-gods-way-volume-1/

Again, the only things you really need is a Bible and diligence. The only reason I'm hawking these other resources is to allow those of you who have never used them to get used to them and to show you really how deep and interesting these studies can be. A lot of the resources we have today as students of the Word are much easier to acquire than they were ten years ago. And they're free instead of hundreds of dollars that they used to cost.

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Also, I created a profile that will be open to anyone who wants to use it to participate in the study but doesn't want to create a profile for themselves. It should be in the email I send you all and if you didn't receive the email let me know.

Start reading Nehemiah chapter 1 in order to be ready for us to start this week.

Peace.