Prove, test, examine, discern

I've been looking at this word translated 'prove' in the King James Bible, and it has revealed some practical and challenging thoughts. I will share them here so that hopefully they may prove to be also beneficial to others. I have quoted below from the New King James Version for a little easier reading, and here the word is translated as prove, test and examine.

DISCERNING HIS WILL

"do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Romans 12:2

In other words what the Apostle is saying is that we shouldn't copy or imitate the ways of this world. There is nothing more sad than a worldly Christian! The Apostle John could say "Do not love the world or the things in the world." (1 John 2:15) and the end result of such an attitude was known only too well to the Apostle Paul - "Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world" (2 Tim 4:10) how solemn! We should continually guard against becoming more and more like the world, how do we expect to have a testimony for Christ if we look, sound, act and behave exactly like the world around us? The answer to the danger of worldliness is given in our headline verse - we should let God continually renew our mind and change the way we think so we are more like His Son. Only then may we learn, know and discern God's will for our lives and the Apostle says this is good, pleasing and perfect. If we want to know God's will and his design and purpose for our lives then surely we need to be 'renewing our mind' by continually reading his Word, learning more about Him and letting this impact and affect our lives.

EXAMINING WITHIN

"Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified." " Cor 13:5

Here is a solemn passage. Sadly there were obstinate, continual sinners at Corinth who claimed to be Christians. Paul challenged them directly and severely, to examine themselves to see whether they were in the faith. God does not envisage that a believer should lead a sinful life, Romans 6 teaches us that: "How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?" If there is continual and unrepentant sin in our lives this is most unusual and we should examine ourselves and see if we understand this truth of Christ dwelling in us and the Holy Spirit possessing our bodies. Of course we cannot be sinless, and so IF we sin the scriptures declares that Christ lives to make intercession for us and if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive us. Let us be challenged and exhorted to live holy lives for Him!

TESTING ALL WORDS

"Test all things; hold fast what is good." 1 Thess 5:21

So if we truly are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ and wish to know him and live according to his desire and will, then we must be vigilant and test everything that is said and make sure that we hold on to the good things. As a Christian you will encounter many different teachings and doctrines, and we must test them according to what the scriptures say, if we are to hold fast to what is good and be profited and built up in our most holy faith. John in his epistle told the believers "do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God" We should therefore be very wary when new teaching comes our way! Our spirit should be that of the Bereans in Acts 17 who "received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so."

SCRUTINIZING OUR WORK

"But let each one examine his own work..." Galatians 6:4

As we live for Christ in this world we are also exhorted to carefully scrutinize our own work, service and motives. This is very challenging as the passage assumes that we should all HAVE our own work! What about us today? Do we have a work we are doing for Christ? Is there a ministry that we are particularly exercised and burdened about? What are we doing personally for our Lord? On the other hand, the verse challenges us that we should not get carried away in our zeal and enthusiasm and lose focus or confuse our reason for the work in the first place! Our motives and our service will be reviewed in a coming day, we know this as believers and the scriptures say "each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is." 1 Cor 3:13 Let us be encouraged to examine carefully our own work for the Lord so that there may be more glory and honour brought to Him both down here, and up there in a coming day!

PROVING OUR LOVE

"I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others." 2 Cor 8:8

Here is another practical challenge from the Apostle Paul. The Corinthian believers seemed to excel in so many things - their faith, their gifted speakers, their knowledge and enthusiasm (v7) but there was an area in which they were previously well exercised in but had now forgotten about and that was the practical matter of giving of their substance to meet the need so evident in the churches round about.The Apostle reminds them of their previous exercise and brings to mind the generous grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (the perfect example of one who gave all for others), and that by giving in this way it would be a practical way of showing the sincere and genuine love that should characterize every child of God. Other churches were proving to be eager and diligent in this matter (v8) but the Corinthians needed a timely reminder to give as God had enriched them. We challenge ourselves, how is our giving? Not just donating money randomly to the Lord's work, but do we identify need (in whatever form that may be) and do we feel an exercise and seek to meet that need? There are many ways in which this can be done, but let us be challenged about helping and encouraging our fellow believers in whichever way we can!

We trust these simple thoughts will be for our mutual blessing and encouragement.

Yours in Christ, Mark.

Nehemiah - Essential Lessons in Prayer

So here we are, back in Nehemiah following a brief diversion into Mark's Gospel! Today we are going to look at the subject of prayer in the book of Nehemiah. It is possible for us to get used to praying in a certain way, as if there is almost a template for prayer but I believe there are 5 different types of prayer in Nehemiah, and we can learn some lessons by looking at this. For Nehemiah, prayer was a natural and essential part of his life seemingly, and I have found it immensely challenging looking at this and encouraging myself in this matter. Nobody is perfect and I have found it inspiration looking at this man and wanting to catch hold of something of his spirit and zeal!

1. "I beseech thee O Lord God of heaven" (ch 1:4-11)

This is a formal prayer where Nehemiah addresses God humbly and reverently. It is a heartfelt plea, genuine and sincere it even has a repentant ring to it. The lesson is that there is a time for formal prayer, when we address God in this way and present ourselves to God. Note that Nehemiah prays with tears, it meant so much to him! It came from deep within his soul and he poured out his heart with tears. This should be a challenge to us, our prayers should mean something and should have feeling behind them.

2. "So I prayed to the God of heaven" (ch 2:4)

Here we see Nehemiah praying briefly to God, presumably for strength and help before he addresses king Artaxerxes, probably the most powerful man on the planet at that time. We are not told what he says, but it's not important. What is important is that in this most delicate of moments he turns to God for help! We should not be afraid to quickly turn to God and commit ourselves to him for help and guidance in times of crisis. Prayer doesn't have to be long and detailed, here Nehemiah shows us another side to prayer.

3. "Nevertheless we made our prayer unto our God, and set a watch" (ch 4:9)

The New Testament lesson here is Watch and Pray, the lesson the Lord taught the disciples (Matt 26, Mark 13). Sometimes prayer and action must go hand in hand! Here we see the sovereignty of God and human responsibility twinned together. Sometimes we are too willing to pray to God but then do nothing about it, when sometimes we need to show willing as well.

4. "Think upon me my God for good, according to all that I have done for this people" (ch 5:19)

In this instance we have a prayer for personal blessing as he commends his work to God. We must always remember to commit our service whatever it may be to God, he will judge the work of his people and the motives behind it and he will bless it accordingly.

5. "My God think thou upon Tobiah and Sanballat according to these their works" (ch 6:14)

In contrast to the previous example we also need to learn to leave our grievances and enemies with the Lord! Nehemiah commits his enemies to God and leaves the matter with him. It put me in mind of the apostle Paul (2 Tim 4:14) when he could commit the matter of Alexander the coppersmith and leave it with the Lord. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay" (Rom 12:19)

This little study shows us that there are many different types of prayer, and Nehemiah was a man that prayed regularly and in all different ways. Challenge - Let us cultivate our prayer life in this way, addressing God at different times, in different ways and with all our needs and requests!

Yours in Christ, Mark

Nehemiah - A brief introduction

Dear fellow believer, I have been meaning to post a few articles now regarding the book of Nehemiah but as you can probably tell from the infrequency of posts, I have been very busy recently and just haven't had the time to write them up! I am committed however to bringing before you a number of short articles in relation to this wonderful book as it is so positive, practical and pertinent for today! It has been most beneficial to me personally and I would like to think that fellow believers would also find profit from studying this book. So let's have a brief overview by way of introduction (you may wish to do a scan-read of Nehemiah!)

The book is divided into 2 sections:

1. ch 1-6 - Rebuilding the Wall (physical repair)


2. ch 7-13 - Rebuilding the People (spiritual repair)

• The book covers the period 445-415BC. This places the book right at the end of the OT, so don't be fooled by it's placement before Job and Psalms! In reality it is one of the final writings of the OT history along with the prophecy of Malachi.


• It records the events of the 3rd return of the people of God from exile in Persia, this time under Nehemiah. The 1st return was under Zerubbabel, the 2nd was under Ezra, then 12 years later come the events of Nehemiah.

We may ask - Why were the people in captivity? This was because they had disobeyed God in respect to the 7th year. Every 7th year should have been God's, with the land lying fallow and having rest, but they had disregarded this command for 490 years! They therefore owed God 70 years hence they were in captivity for 70 years.

A bit of info/background about the man Nehemiah:

• His name means "the comfort of Jehovah" ('Nehem-Yah')


• He was born of Jewish parents in exile (he had never even seen Jerusalem yet it was so close to his heart)


• He clearly had a godly home and upbringing (how privileged to have parents who love the Lord!)


• God prospered him - he was given responsibility from a young age (he was cup-bearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes, probably the most powerful man on the planet at that time!)


• He was a formidable man of God: clearly filled with the Spirit, he had an ear for God's voice, and prayer was a natural and essential part of his life


• He knew what work was, and he knew how to inspire others to work with him


• He is strong in the face of opposition and when the odds are stacked against him - he shows wisdom and determination

His example of leadership is inspiring:

• He has a spiritual burden/exercise, which he commits to prayer


• He examines the problem and performs a 'needs assessment'


• He decides on a course of action


• He motivates/inspires others to share the vision and involves them


• He delegates authority and tasks


• He supervises and oversees the work until it is complete

The book of Nehemiah is really a positive account of revival and restoration among the people of God. It charts a work for God from a burden on one man's heart, through to activity and realisation of the work, through to the overcoming of difficulties and the eventual completion and success of that work and the blessing it brings to the people and to God! But the important thing to remember is that it all started with a man with an exercise.

We challenge ourselves today - are we believers with a burden or an exercise to do things for God? We trust that as we look as this wonderful little book together that we will learn much about doing a work for God.

Yours in Christ, Mark