I recently finished my Nehemiah Bible Study. This book has really been very influential in my Bible life. I had never spent a lot of time focusing on this book of the Bible, but I do really think it is a book of the Bible that should be read and focused on more. It really highlights a lot of good characteristics every Christian should focus on.
Chapter 13 highlights a sad moment though. Chapter 13 takes place after a great celebration and rededication to the Lord. However, the people had decided to turn away from God and start living their own life again. They decided to move away from following the Sabbath rules and who they were getting married to, etc. This was really disheartening because the people had really started to dedicate themselves to learning the Lord’s teaching and worshiping Him in music and prayer.
One thing that really caught my attention in the devotional reading was the pointing out of people bringing their sin into the temple. They did this through having those who were not close to God, in fact those who were widely against the faith in the temple. The Bible Study devotional pointed out the people of Israel brought their sin closer to the place where they needed to be holy as opposed to bringing their best to God.
I think there are many times when we are too close to our sins. We can grow so comfortable we almost forget they are sins. I know I can be this way with my impatient thoughts or attitudes. I can start to become so comfortable with them that I have those thoughts anywhere and everywhere, even at church when I am in the most holy of holy places.
One little caveat I do want to make. Chapter 13 discusses the people of God bringing in outsiders to the temple, completely disrespecting and dishonoring God as their main sin problem. Those were different times. The people didn’t have Jesus who died for their sins yet, so they were still making sacrifices in the temple in order to be justified with God. This is why it was very important to make sure to keep the temple as holy as possible. I believe it is important that we as Christians, and people of God, do bring outsiders to church. We should have a heart to serve the whole population and bringing others to the love and acceptance of Christ is one guaranteed way to do this.
There are a lot of verses from the Bible that speak of the importance of avoiding sin and temptations. One set of verses is James 1:14-15 says, “But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” This seems a bit morbid, yes, but it is also very true. If we have certain temptations we don’t keep in check, then we fall into sin, and with this particular sin growing more and more prominent or present in our lives, then it would suddenly lead to spiritual death. This is why we need to constantly be checking on the sins and the temptations we currently have.
The challenge for you this week is to really identify what the main sins in your life are. What are the main things that make you seem to keep falling back into sin? What is the big temptation you seem to focus on, even when you are in a place where you are supposed to be filled with praise and worship. I definitely could list off a few things that I would put on this list besides my impatient thoughts I mentioned earlier. I want to make sure you don’t let those pieces of sin or temptation lead you down a life filled with spiritual death. I want your life to feel fulfilling and be spirit filled.
The one encouragement I can give you is we do have the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the entity we have to guide us through these times of fighting temptations and through fighting of sin and keeping sin farther away from the Holy Places. It is so much more important to have the Holy Spirit’s help and love when we go to seek fighting away from these sins.
Colossians 3:23 Blog 