Overcoming Opposition to the will of God

I love studying the Old Testament because we see real life situation and we discover quickly that human nature has not changed one bit over the millennia. In our walk through the entire Bible at Southern Calvert Baptist Church, we have are in the Old Testament book written by the prophet Ezra. In a previous lesson we looked at Ezra 1, where the pagan king Cyrus surrendered to the will of God. King Cyrus was greatly influenced by the prophet Daniel. Upon reading the prophet Jeremiah, a scroll that Daniel had brought to Babylon when taken captive, king Cyrus surrendered to the will of God and decided to send the Jews back to Jerusalem. King Cyrus also promised to support the rebuilding of the Temple and sent the articles from the Temple back to Israel. This is a miracle. The children of Israel who were taken in Babylonian captivity finally get to go home. The Jews who were left in Jerusalem should have been excited that the city was going to be restored and the Temple rebuilt. On top of all of that, the local Jews were going to be reunited with their exiled brethren. Anyone who has ever tried to live out the will of God in their daily lives knows that there is always going to be opposition to that decision, often times, from family. It’s still shocking to experience. These exiled Jews are about to experience that opposition as they enter Jerusalem to rebuild. 

The Holy Spirit has come, now what?

As I sit here and prepare for tomorrow’s sermon at Good News, I decided to write out what I want to share tomorrow. I have not had much time to prepare this week since I was in charge of the English Day camp. I spent the week teaching 17 children ages 8-12 the Word of God and English. Each day as I came home I would think of the joke about the old grandfather who decided he would do everything that his 5 year old grandson did for a day. They went to the park and played. They walked to the store to buy ice cream. They played hide and seek etc. By the end of the day little Johnny was tired and grandpa was dead. Praise the Lord for a good team of young, strong workers who helped me. I could not have done it without them.