Ezra

It's been a good study thus far and one that has caused me to realize how important it is for us as believers to follow after the things of Christ. I am so totally amazed at the similarities between the Israelites in Ezra's day and today's modern day church. BOY, we do some of the very same things.

I have just finished Ezra and just wanted to share some of the things I found to be a challenge to me and some that were just cool to be reminded of the care our Great God goes to reach us His children.

Today I won't make this a long post ;) I'll share some each day. As I reflect on them this weekend.

One of the first things that I love about this story is that God starts out with Stirring the heart of a King. Cyrus King of Persia- 1:1 " Now in the first year of Cyrus King of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, the Lord stirred the spirit of Cyrus king of pPersia, so that he sent a proclamation throght all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying:"

This is cool because History had been written for future reference. This will be so important later on as the Israelites come under attack and they remember that Cyrus King of Persia put it in writing, what the Lord wanted done!

When I read this I was just struck by the fact that Jeremiah spoke the Word of the Lord and now God was going to fulfill that word. Imean, how often do we know the Lord is leading us to do something, we share it with others and we aren't even amazed that it happens. We just take it for granted that God put things together for it to happen.

A reminder to me that God does what GOD Promises.... it doesn't always happen though like I think or plan. On the contrary, most of the time it is due to disobedience and lack of faith that causes things to stall or faulter. Or the work of the enemy to thwart our mission. However again and again, through this story of a mission to rebuild the Temple of God. God uses every situation to draw the people to himself and uses these same situations to test their faithfulness to Him.

One thing we can count on thougho matter what we do - God is going to fulfill His Word!

Today, I hope you will reflect on that and remember that God stirs the heart of kings to fulfill His word!

Now that's an Awesome GOD !!