Nehemiah prayed to God, "You said, 'If your people are not faithful, I will scatter you among the nations. But if you return to me, I will bring you back. If you obey my commands, I will gather you together again… I will bring you to the special place where I have chosen to put my Name.' Lord, they are your people. They serve you. You used your great strength and mighty hand to set them free from Egypt" (Nehemiah 1:8-10).

Having heard dire reports concerning the returned exiles in Jerusalem, Nehemiah sat in lament, sorrow and prayer. Then he intercedes for that community, acknowledging that this exile was caused by Israel's sin. God had scattered them because they had abandoned him.

For a variety of reasons, Christians find it tantalizing to follow Nehemiah's lead, believing any misfortune to be God's judgement on some specific sins. But I think this is a misreading of scripture. This judgement in Babylon is not the norm. Isreal had needed saving from Egypt, but it was not God's judgement that brought them there. Joseph says that his coming to Egypt was intended by God to save many lives (Genesis 50:20). Horrible things happened to Israel in Egypt, but none of it was because of God's judgment.

In Acts 11:19 we read, "Some believers had been scattered by the suffering that unbelievers caused them. They were scattered after Stephen was killed." Again, that suffering had nothing to do with judgement. The Holy Spirit pushed the followers of Jesus out of Jerusalem so that they could fulfill their mission to be Jesus' witnesses to the furthest ends of the earth.

Israel returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple where God was worshipped. In the gospel of John, Jesus teaches that he is the new temple (2:19). We can worship God wherever we are when we worship in his name. His promise is that he is with us there. Paul develops this temple imagery even further and declares that followers of Jesus are God's temple.

This has massive implications. The temple in Jerusalem was the place where God was present. So, wherever Jesus followers go, God is present today. That is part of the New Testament story. This brings us back to Nehemiah and his prayer.

In the face of suffering, we tend to ask why. But the more Biblical question is, 'what are we going to do in it'? John 9 illustrates this. Jesus and his disciples encounter a man born blind. The disciples want to know who sinned, him or his parents. That's a question about judgement, but Jesus says it is about God's glory. Then he gives the man his sight. God did not intend for us to suffer, and he never takes delight in it. But he can redeem it.

Nehemiah mentions that God's people serve him. That's a matter of glory. We can spend lots of energy on the 'why' of suffering. But if we ask, "how can we serve God while suffering?" that's a matter in which God's glory can be revealed.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

Lord, who may dwell in your sacred tent? Who may live on your holy mountain? The one whose walk is blameless…Whoever does these things will never be shaken (Psalm 15:1,2,5).

Psalm 15 is a 'worker's' song. There are others in the Bible, all containing experiences of people living their lives much like we do. They help us pray not as detached spiritual beings but real physical people interacting with ordinary humans straining to live in this chaotic world.

This song recognizes that interacting with other humans gets us caught up in things that are not holy. Frequently, we make decisions, that with hindsight, don't measure up to the high standards God's people desire for themselves. We are reminded that we ought to examine our daily work before we go to worship God. Are our hands clean? Have we earned our income honestly? Have we given our best effort? Have we harmed people in the process?

On the surface, Psalm 15 might disqualify all of us from actual worship. But that is not the case. Scripture interprets scripture and God has already laid out what we should do when we realize our actions and words have not measured up. Leviticus 5:5 sums it up, "They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering".

Jesus echoes these instructions in Matthew 5:23-24. He doesn't mention the matter of adding "a fifth." Rather, he tells us to go and be reconciled. We need to be willing to make matters right. These passages teach that repentance is not just a matter between us and God. We cannot be clean before God if we do not make amends with those we have hurt or offended.

To climb God's holy mountain and dwell in the Lord's house of worship is a profound blessing, for "it is good to be near God" (Ps. 73:28). The Psalms push us to reckon with our workplace behavior both before and within worship. To glibly reply, "Well, Jesus paid it all, so I'm good now," is to fail to wrestle with our guilt and release the guilt that should haunt us during communal worship.

The phrase, "work is worship", is right. Yet, it is also true that only when we bring our work into the sanctuary and only when we learn how to work while at worship does our work get shaped into a gift that honours God.

So, wherever God brings you this week, prepare already today, to bring yourself as a gift to him in worship next weekend.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Wherever God takes you this week, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Romans 8:14-17. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

What images come to mind when you think about the Holy Spirit?

What image was used in this sermon?

What does it mean to be led by the Spirit?

What three roles does the law have?

Answer 86 of the Heidelberg Catechism gives us four reasons for doing good. What are they?

How does being adopted into God's family change our relationship with God? How does it change the way that we pray?

If Israel's exodus from Egypt is a parallel to the church's story, where are we now? In what ways do we suffer?

I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind (Proverbs 8:30-31).

If we are to experience Sabbath's potential, we need to consider the practice of delight. The connection between delight and the Sabbath is easily seen. In expressing delight, we show our joy and great pleasure in the gifts of God. It is to relish the goodness and beauty of God's work and see to the remnants of the divine image in each other. We recognize and appreciate that we are all gifts to each other. Therefore, we welcome each person.

Yet, this delight takes effort. It requires personal preparation in which we halt the controlling, self-serving impulses that reduce others to servants. We no longer see people as means to our own goals but learn to pay genuine attention to them for their own sake. We have the same attitude towards the rest of God's creation. Everywhere we see the freshness of God's grace.

To this end, we must imitate God. Throughout his creative work, he took immense pleasure in what he was making. He took pleasure in creation itself, in its freedom and integrity. God beheld the world, all that was within it, but also its great potential, and proclaimed it "very good"! It was divine exuberance that built and flowed into the works of creation. It was a work of love. His declaration of 'very good", is filled with joy and delight.

This delight comes to the fore in Proverbs 8. The Wisdom of God, personified as feminine, speaks of the freshness and beauty of all that was made.

I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was constantly at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind (8:27–31).

Enthusiasm and excitement are being communicated back and forth between God and Wisdom as God brings each aspect of creation into being. They are like beaming parents unable to contain their delight when contemplating the potential of new life. They delight in seeing their children thriving and doing well. In the face of such wonder and splendor, the automatic response is pure joy. Scripture advises us to heed God's Wisdom, so that we too might share in this fundamental experience of delight.

Despite Israel's disloyalty and shame, despite our worst efforts to mar and disfigure what God has created, God is faithful to his promise to love and care for his people and his creation. The suffering God undertook through Jesus' incarnation was endurable because of the joy to come (Hebrews 12:2) in the restoration of all things.

Let's keep our eyes open. Let us see the gifts of God's grace. Let us delight in Sabbath joy.

As you journey on, receive Jesus' invitation into this rest:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).

I was the king's wine taster (Nehemiah 1:11).

Why does this chapter end stating Nehemiah's position in the Persian court? The wine taster was a very important person among the king's officials, most likely responsible for other high priority files. In the Canadian context, he would probably hold several significant cabinet posts.

The bulk of the chapter relates Nehemiah's lament and prayer. After learning of the troubles in Jerusalem among the returned exiles, he fasts and weeps. It's a reminder that the journey with God rarely goes in a straight line. Times for lament come and go in the Christian's life.

Nehemiah prays on behalf of the entire nation of Israel. We can learn from him. Like Jesus, he begins with God. There are times when our prayers begin with our troubles, but overall, we need to learn to begin with God. Who are we praying to? That needs to be firmly fixed in our hearts and minds.

He confesses his own sins, his family's sins and the sins of the whole nation. Nehemiah acknowledges the heart of the matter: God had given Israel commands through Moses, but Israel ignored them and did evil.

We might think that having confessed her sin, Israel can now expect God to do something for her, a sort of tit for tat spiritual arrangement. Israel does something good, so God ought to respond in kind. Isn't that how we often approach God?

But Nehemiah does something very different. He reminds God of God's promise to Israel: that if, having experienced his judgement, Israel returned to God, he would return them to the land of promise.

Nehemiah expects God to respond to him, because God has said he would. He does not bank on Israel's goodness to evoke divine deliverance. Our God keeps his promises. This is what Nehemiah counts on. We can count on this too.

But why end with, "I was the king's wine taster." By this time, we might be expecting Nehemiah to identify as a spiritual leader among the Jewish exiles. Instead, we are reminded that he held an important position in the Persian court.

Two suggestions. First, like Ezra, God has been preparing Nehemiah to help re-establish his people in the promised land. Ezra had spent much of his life studying God's law. So, he was prepared to teach Israel how to obey God.

Nehemiah is an administrator in the Persian court who has skills that will be very important in re-establishing Israelite community. Despite his position of high standing, he has obviously remained faithful to the God of Israel. He is not a Persian.

Second, we often say that God can use anyone for his purposes, but we don't always believe it. Here we see how God used an administrative person who had face to face contact with the king of Persia. Let that encourage us all that God can use us. Let us also keep our eyes open to the opportunities he gives us.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever he may send you. May he guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May your day end with rejoicing at the wonders he has shown you. May you rest in his provision as he brings night, and then new dawn.

I meditate on all your works and consider what your hands have done…Show me the way I should go, for to you I entrust my life (Psalm 143:5,8).

In the Bible, God has multiple occupations. Here are a few from the Psalms: judge (9:16), provider (16:5), midwife (22:9), engineer and builder (Ps 24:2 & 87:1), teacher (25:12), planter (44:2), scheduler (74:17), liberator of those who toil (81:6), irrigator (104:13), public defender and advocate for the poor (113:7), seamstress (139:13), craftsman (139:14), physician (146:8), cook (147:14).

Throughout the Psalms, there is repeated reflection on the works of the Lord. The things God does always stand in the foreground, whereas the things we humans do, fade into the background. We are invited to ponder the things God does and how he does them and then model our work on his.

Because we are God's image bearers, God is always first. We cannot understand our place and purpose, including that of our work, until, through song, prayer and meditation, the work of God has seeped into our muscles. When God's work is central to our worship and devotions, we wash the lens through which we can understand our own labours in this world.

Psalm 23 depicts our almighty God as a humble shepherd. We derive much comfort from this song. Yet, its primary purpose is to reveal something about God. Shepherding was smelly, dirty and difficult. A shepherd had fearful encounters with wild beasts and bandits and snide remarks from almost all other workers. They were among the lowest class, spending long lonely, cold, sleepless nights with smelly animals. Yet, God is willing to be compared to this worker.

Now imagine that you are such a shepherd, and, with your band of motley brothers, you sing this song night after night. You worship a God whose work is comparable to yours. You imagine God doing for you what you do for your sheep. I think it would both warm your heart to this God and increase your desire to do your work well. If you God does this, how can it be just a lowly job?

At the end of the psalm, God becomes a waiter, filling their cups to overflowing. The work of God will follow the shepherd all the days of his life. The psalmists work—however mundane—will be protected, guided, and nourished by the overflowing work of God. Many Christians prefer a distant god, one who commanded us to work (Genesis 1&2) and then politely leaves us along. But that is not the God we worship. He works right along side us.

Singing songs that compare the extraordinary works of almighty God to our routine labors may fill us with a sense of discomfort that is both appropriate and revealing. Why does it make us uncomfortable?

These psalms push us to seek intimacy with God in and through the more mundane aspects of working life. Our daily sweat, our stress, our late nights in the office, and our early mornings in the libraries are all spiritually "thin spaces". Yet, there we can be renewed through the intimate presence of God. The psalms depict God faithfully at work in the world alongside us. Singing together in the sanctuary, we are reminded of this simple but life-changing truth: God's work gives meaning to ours.

As you journey on, go with the blessing of God:

Wherever God takes you this week, may He fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and that you may live carefully—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.

A Sunday Sermon edition of Wilderness Wanderings! The text is Ezekiel 36:24-32. Dive In discussion questions are below for further reflection!

To see this sermon in the context of the worship service it comes from, find it here on YouTube. Or, head to our website to connect with the worshiping community of Immanuel CRC: immanuelministries.ca

Dive In Questions

1. What does soap do? Is it adequate for what God is talking about in this passage? Why or why not?
2. What is God's diagnosis? How do we often treat sin?
3. Who is the main worker?
4. What does God say he will do?
   1. "I will _______________"
   2. "I will _______________"
   3. "I will give you a new _____________"
   4. "I will put my _____________ in you"
5. What's the point of all of this?

The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made (Psalm 145:9).

Our text, along with others, has given rise to the teaching known as "common grace." This doctrine reflects on different ways in which God is involved in the affairs of the universe, including among human beings and human civilization.

Here are some of examples of God involving himself. First, He restrains sin. Humans led, and continue to lead, the creation in rebellion against the creator. However, God prevents sin from expressing itself as fully as it otherwise would. It is not as bad as it could be. He uses governments, laws, conscience, family structures, and social institutions in confining evil.

Second, God preserves his creation. He sustains the world despite our rebellion. The regularity of nature, seasons, and the continued existence of society are gifts of common grace (Genesis 8:22). As Jesus reminds us, "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matthew 5:45).

Third, he bestows gifts and abilities to all people. Christians who adhere to this doctrine of common grace appreciate wisdom coming from non-believers. They can recognize beauty in the art of an atheist. We eagerly use the scientific discoveries and medical advances of folks from other religions. People who do not know Christ can still do things that are beneficial and admirable.

Fourth, the Bible speaks frequently about coming judgment. But it is long in coming. Paul writes that God patiently endures sinners, giving opportunity for repentance (Romans 2:4). And as Peter says, The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead, he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

Why consider 'common grace' in a mediation about Sabbath? Well, because Sabbath is not primarily about one day a week. It is a way of life, a way of looking at the world. A Sabbath life looks for signs of God in the normal events of daily life. If God involves himself in life on this earth, his activity needs to be visible. We need to look for it. That is what Sabbath people do.

However, common grace is not saving grace. It points to God but does not restore us to him. Seeing signs of this kind of grace can help us see and receive his saving grace. If we see the world as only material for us to use, devoid of God's involvement, then we are likely to miss his saving grace as well. If our eyes are open, if we are looking for indications of God's care and compassion on his whole creation, we are more likely to desire his salvation as well.

As you journey on, receive Jesus' invitation into this rest:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29).