The Gospel According to Yeeks

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions if the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

Note: My church small group studies are going to be studying the Book of Nehemiah together for the first half of the year. I am writing these series of posts to collect important bits of information that will hopefully help us illumine the text. The phrase, "your servant" is repeated many, many times in the Chapter 1 alone. We can highlight the repetitions to see the various ways "your servant" is used. "The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel, that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire.” As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourne

Note: My church small group studies are going to be studying the Book of Nehemiah together for the first half of the year. I am writing these series of posts to collect important bits of information that will hopefully help us illumine the text. In Chapter 2, a series of events follow following Nehemiah's prayer in Chapter 1. Chapter 2:1 begins like this: "In the month of Nisan , in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, I took up the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had not been sad in his presence." The month of Nisan is especially important to the Jewish Calendar. Here is a a graphical representation of the Jewish Calendar: Source: http://www3.telus.net/public/kstam/en/temple/details/calendar.htm As we can observe, there is a very important festival celebrated in the month of Nisan - The Passover. In the first post of this series we are left with the question as to whether God has abandoned Israel. And now we find in this

Note: My church small group studies are going to be studying the Book of Nehemiah together for the first half of the year. I am writing these series of posts to collect important bits of information that will hopefully help us illumine the text. The early words in the book give us a clue to the context of Nehemiah.  Now it happened in the month of Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Susa the citadel , that Hanani, one of my brothers, came with certain men from Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews who escaped, who had survived the exile, and concerning Jerusalem . And they said to me, “The remnant there in the province who had survived the exile is in great trouble and shame. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates are destroyed by fire. ” Susa is the capital used by the Persian kings since Darius. Historical inscriptions contain this remarks made by Darius: "This palace which I built at Susa, from afar its ornamentation was brought. Downw

"I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians." Grant me a heart that will always be grateful that You, the LORD, will want to be my God.

Today one of the Young Adults came up to me and said - "I think you have come into your own as a teacher and I recognize that as God's work". I hope this a sign that by God's grace, I am doing something right. "Remember me, O my God, for good." (Nehemiah 13:31b)

Words penned down by Daniel Dana in 1832: ‘A special cause of doctrinal error and corruption is found in that excitement which frequently attends revivals of religion; and particularly, lengthened religious meetings. In these cases, the imaginations and  feelings of men, being powerfully roused, the plain truths of the gospel pall upon their ears, and they demand something more novel, more startling, more overwhelming’. It is the gospel-less Christianity that I see evident in people I know, friends, family that makes me feel very sorrowful sometimes. The feeling of being so close yet so far that the I think the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans 9: "I speak the truth in Christ—I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit— I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my people, those of my own race, the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption to sonship; theirs

"And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived." (Gen 25:21) Lord Jesus, please pray for your bride.

Used to be really in love with this song. Heard it afresh yesterday and it still spoke truths beautifully. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xhf-BO_2wGw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I have been very busy at work since December. Its strange that this coincided with my break from ministry related stuff. Despite this, I manage to take some time out today to tidy up my computer to plan for things coming ahead of this year. While I was doing that, I've also tidied up all my the work I have done and stored them in a new 'Sermons' page that I have at the top of this blog.