Celebrate Your New Life
After the Israelites were read the
Law of Moses, they wept due to the conviction and sincere repentance that they
felt upon hearing how they had done what was contrary to God. Nevertheless,
Ezra and Nehemiah did not leave them without hope. Nehemiah told them that it
was time for them to stop morning and hold a celebration unto the Lord. God had
kept His promise from long ago in returning them to their land and now, it was
time to honor Him with a feast. Nehemiah 8:10 Nehemiah said, “Go and
enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing
prepared. This day is sacred to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the Lord
is your strength. (NIV) The Israelites feasted for seven days, but on
the eighth day, there was an assembly.
The Potter always gives us hope when
we are in despair and feel that there is none due to our past mistakes. We may
indeed suffer the consequences of our former misdeeds, but the Potter does not
want us to wallow in dirt because of our errors. He gives us a time to
celebrate once we have fully surrendered our hearts to Him. It is not as the
world does it, which would be full of sin and a return to our former selves,
but it is with the newness that we have become one with Him. 2
Corinthians 5:16-17 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of
view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore,
if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is
here! (NIV) There is nothing that anyone can do in regards to things
they once did, but when we decided to submit our lives to the Potter in order
for Him to transform us, we do not have to look back. Learn from it and then
MOVE FORWARD.
I.) Acknowledge the Sin Traps of
the Past
The Children of Israel
celebrated before the Lord and enjoyed their new-found freedom, but they went
back over the blessings of God in times past and the mistakes that they had
made, so that they would not have a repeat of them. They understood by acknowledging
where they had gone wrong, they could then know how not to be entrapped by the
same sins that brought them judgment. Nehemiah 9:26-27 (26)“But
they were disobedient and rebelled against you; they turned their backs on your
law. They killed your prophets, who had warned them in order to turn them back
to you; they committed awful blasphemies. (27)So you delivered them
into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were
oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great
compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their
enemies. (NIV) The Israelites had caused the wrath of God to come down
on them due to their wickedness. They were to be an example to the other
nations, but they became just like the heathen nations that despised God.
Nevertheless, God was merciful and after their many years of captivity, He
allowed them to return home.
In order to move forward in God, we
must acknowledge the mistakes that caused us to turn away from Him to begin
with. The enemy is always lurking around to entrap us into the sins of the
past, but once we admit our failures, the Potter is there to help us avoid the
pitfalls that easily ensnared us before so the we can walk in full confidence in
Him. 2
Corinthians 4:2 Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do
not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by
setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience
in the sight of God. (NIV) If we are not truthful with ourselves, we do
God a disservice when He is trying to rebuild us into the vessels that He can
use. Therefore, we must admit our wrongs and allow His grace and mercy to cover
and strengthen our walk in Him.
J.) Come into Agreement with God
The Children of Israel had
decided that they were going to come into agreement with God once again to
honor the covenant that He originally had with them. Therefore, they had this
agreement put into writing for them to remember the promise that they vowed to
keep. Nehemiah 9:38 “In view of all this, we are making a binding
agreement, putting it in writing, and our leaders, our Levites and our priests
are affixing their seals to it.” (NIV) God always kept His covenant
with the Children of Israel, but it was they who did not remain faithful to
Him. Therefore, they had to renew their agreement, so that they would not fail
again in honoring Him again.
The Potter looks for us to renew our
covenant with Him as well. It is not the same covenant of laws, sacrifices and
offerings that the Israelites had, but we must renew the new covenant of accepting
Jesus into our hearts, for His blood was shed on our behalf. Romans
7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the
law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of
the written code. (NIV) He remains faithful to us, but we are the ones
who break covenant with Him. The Potter’s heart is broken when we become
unfaithful and make a choice to choose Satan over Him. When we fail to honor
God with our lives, that’s exactly what we are doing – choosing Satan. We can’t
serve both God and Satan. A choice has to be made. 1 Corinthians 10:21 You
cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot have a
part in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons. (NIV) Therefore,
it is up to us to keep our covenant with Him by allowing the Potter to rebuild
and set us apart for His satisfaction and glory.
K.) Embrace Kingdom Citizenship
The leaders of the city lived inside
of Jerusalem, while some of the people remained in the outside towns.
Nevertheless, they sent one of every ten of them to live inside Jerusalem as
well. They were well on their way to becoming the nation that they were meant
to be and all they had to do was to remain faithful to God by honoring the covenant
that had been renewed. Nehemiah 10:30-31 “We promise not to
give our daughters in marriage to the peoples around us or take their daughters
for our sons. When the neighboring peoples bring merchandise or grain to sell
on the Sabbath, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or any holy day. Every
seventh year we will forgo working the land and will cancel all debts.” (NIV)
The Israelites had broken many laws that were to be kept as part of God’s
covenant with them. But now, that was over and they were ready to be in
compliance once again. God blessed them to unite as one in order to rebuild the
walls and now, their success and/or failures was totally up to them.
The Potter has given all who believe
in Him Kingdom citizenship. We have not entered into Heaven’s gates just yet,
but one day we will if we remain faithful unto Him. Daniel 7:27 Then the
sovereignty, power and greatness of all the kingdoms under heaven will be
handed over to the holy people of the Most High. His kingdom will be
everlasting kingdom, and all rulers will worship and obey him. (NIV)
That citizenship can only be revoked if we do it to ourselves. In order to have
our citizenship revoked, we would be guilty of going against the will of God
for our lives and allowing the enemy to once again breach our walls with unconfessed
sin. The Word of God stands as the written agreement between us and Him by
which we are to remain true. To do what is contrary to His word not only
revokes our citizenship in Heaven, but gives us an eternal citizenship in hell
with the devil and his fallen angels. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 Or do you not
know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived:
Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex
with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers
will inherit the kingdom of God. (NIV)
L.) Dedicate Your Walls to God
The Israelites held a dedication
celebration for the newly rebuilt walls and gates. They knew that God had
helped them to do the impossible and therefore, the lifted their hands, sang,
danced and played instruments of praise in His honor. Nehemiah 12:27 At the
dedication of the wall of Jerusalem, the Levites were sought out from where
they lived and were brought to Jerusalem to celebrate joyfully the dedication with
songs of thanksgiving and with the music of cymbals, harps and lyres. (NIV)
The Israelites were happy that God had rescued them from bondage and they were humbled
in giving Him honor for what He had done. They dedicated the walls and gates as
a sign to show Him that Jerusalem was the city where the Lord of Host would be
worshiped.
After the Potter repairs what is
broken in our lives, we can follow the Israelites’ example of dedicating our
lives to Him. With dedication, we are declaring that we no longer wish to be in
the enemy’s camp, but have made a purposeful decision to live for Him
whole-heartedly. This dedication means that we will live uncompromised lives in
the presence of everyone around as an ambassador of the King. Romans
12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God – this is
your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will. (NIV)
We dedicate our minds and hearts for His glory as we stand in awe of the
transformation that He had done in us.
M.) Stand Up For Your
Reformation
Nehemiah had gone away for a
time to serve the king of Babylon, but once he returned, he saw that the some
of the Children of Israel, priests and Levites had returned back to their
former ways. They had dishonored the temple, intermarried with foreign women,
made purchases on the Sabbath, had not tithed and given offerings as was in
accordance to the Mosaic Laws. When Nehemiah returned and saw all that had
taken place, he rebuked them for what they had done. Nehemiah 13:11 So I
rebuked the officials and asked them, “Why is the house of God neglected?” Then
I called them together and stationed them at their posts. (NIV)
Nehemiah had to make a stand against those who had done wrong in the sight of
the Lord. The Israelites had returned to doing the same sins that they had once
done, which landed them into captivity to begin with. Nehemiah knew that
corrective measures had to be taken. Therefore, he cleaned house by designating
duties and making reforms to bring them back in compliance to the covenant that
they had made upon their return to Jerusalem.
The Potter desires for His children
to remain faithful to Him. If we be disobedient and return back to the things
that we once did, we are not able to receive the blessings upon our lives that
are promised to those who endure to the end. Matthew 24:13 But the one
who stands firm to the end will be saved. (NIV) Many people have made
the mistake in believing the “once saved, always saved” deception that comes
from the enemy. The Word of God lets us know that this is not an accurate depiction
of who God is. He cannot tolerate sin in His presence and therefore, just as
Israel was not able to sin and receive the blessings of God, we too cannot
expect to receive a Heavenly reward by returning to our former selves. Proverbs
26:11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so fools repeat their folly. (NIV)
The Potter considers us to be
foolish when we do not remain faithful to Him. It would have done us no good to
had once served God with all our hearts and then return to our former sins from
which He set us free. 2 Peter 2:20-21 If they have escaped
the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are
again entangled in it and are overcome, they are worse off at the end than they
were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the
way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the
sacred command that was passed on to them. (NIV) The Bible is clear in
that when we know to do better, we are held responsible for doing it. We have
to make a stand for the reformation that the Potter has done in and through us
by holding on to the covenant that we made with Him. This is no time to turn
our backs to what we know is right. Once the Potter reforms us, it is then up
to us to maintain our transformation and that can only be done by keeping our
relationship status current in Him.
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