Agape Devotions

Read: Nehemiah 9 Verses chosen for meditation:  36 Behold, we are slaves this day; in the land that you gave to our fathers to enjoy its fruit and its good gifts, behold, we are slaves. Reflect It is said that the beginning of any transformation is the humbled conviction that we need it in the first place. On this day where the exiled grieved and confessed their sin, they did not merely blamed it on the forefathers.  They owned their iniquities and had the conviction to change. They recognised that even though the Persian kings had allowed them to go back to Israel; they were still slaves. They were slaves reliant on the good graces of a foreign power. They were slaves chained to their current practices; a far cry from the days where they had the freedom to worship Yahweh.  And so the Levites led the people to pray and repent. Later on, in the Chapter 10, we are told they made a written covenant with God to put what they prayed into action. They wanted to be freed from sl...

READ: Nehemiah 8 REFLECT : Nehemiah is an awesome book. It shows us God at work in and through His people. It shows us what a privilege it is to be  who  God has made us,  how  He has gifted us, and  what  He has given us for the sake of His mission. As we come now to Nehemiah chapter 8, the wall is already complete but the story is far from over.  Our passage today gives us a glimpse into who we are as the people of God - we are His beloved children to whom our Father has lovingly spoken through His Word. Nehemiah 8 helps us remember this beautiful and defining characteristic of being God's children i.e. we are a family/people of the Book! RELATE : Today, I wish to extend three challenges to you – praying that the Spirit will use Nehemiah 8 to draw each of us deeper into relationship with Jesus by drawing us again and again into His Word. Challenge 1 – Pray for your heart to desire to hear from God  Nehemiah 8:1 – All the people gathered as one ...

READ : Nehemiah 7 Verses chosen for meditation: Nehemiah 7:1 Now when the wall had been built and I had set up the doors, and the gatekeepers, the singers, and the Levites had been appointed, REFLECT The wall was completed and the city gates in place, but Nehemiah’s work was far from over. He tackled other assignments pertaining to three issues close to his heart. They are the physical, spiritual and intellectual needs of the community. He appointed gatekeepers to address the physical need of protection . Originally, Israel’s gatekeepers were tasked with being temple doorkeepers or stewards, but Nehemiah, recognising lurking dangers, expanded their responsibilities to have them supervise the city’s main entrances regularly. The newly fortified city would hopefully lead to a thriving economy. However, the city was not known for its military presence, so bandits and armies could be targeting it. Later chapters showed that gatekeepers were also entrusted with moral respons...

READ : Nehemiah 5 - 6. Verses chosen for meditation: Nehemiah 6:3. 3  And I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?”   REFLECT In Chapter 6, we read that Nehemiah’s erstwhile enemies suddenly became his friends and invited him to a meeting at Hakkephirim. But Nehemiah sensed danger that they were scheming to harm him (Nehemiah 6:2b). Some commentators suggest that they were trying to lure Nehemiah to an unsafe place outside the city, set him up and perhaps to kill him. Nehemiah evidently sensed this and so he firmly declined, saying,  I am carrying on a great project, and I cannot go down. Note the reasons Nehemiah gave although his answers (v.3) were blunt. On the surface it seems a surly response to their invitation to meet. This is because Nehemiah saw through their scheme and refused to go along, even though they pressured him four different times. ...

Read Nehemiah 3-4 Verse chosen for meditation: Nehemiah 4:14 ESV: And I looked and arose and said to the nobles and to the officials and to the rest of the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.” Reflect What is it about rebuilding that makes it both compelling and challenging? In any God - given task, should oppositions be expected or not? If so, what forms can an opposition take? And what do they all seek to do? Where do you think is the most critical point - at the start, in the middle, or toward the end of an assignment? How do you think oppositions should be handled from studying the passage? Relate The book of Nehemiah is my go - to for a study on rebuilding, unity and handling oppositions. And I don't think I am speaking only for myself. In the two chapters covered today, we get to see the three aspects mentioned above. From the very first chapter, we’...

TEXT FOR REFLECTION   3 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.” 4 As soon as I heard these words I sat down and wept and mourned for days, and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Nehemiah 1: 3-4 REFLETION Nehemiah wept for days when he heard that the walls of Jerusalem and its gates had been destroyed. Nehemiah was not personally hurt by the devastation of Jerusalem. Afterall he had a trusted and prestigious position as the king's cupbearer, an honour made much greater, considering he was a prisoner of war. He lived in the safe city of Susa. Everything was going well for him.  Yet he wept for days and could not be consoled, not for himself but for "God's servants and people, whom God had redeemed by His great power and by His strong hand"  v10. These were not even good people, yet Nehemiah saw that...

Catch up on your readings day No devotionals today (Sunday) Sermon is on Ezra 9-10

Catch up on your readings day Introduction to the book of Nehemiah https://www.esv.org/resources/esv-global-study-bible/introduction-to-nehemiah/

READ : Ezra 9-10 REFLECT : In Ezra 7-8 we see Ezra leading a group of people from Persia back to Jerusalem to participate in working on the temple. The good hand of God was with him as he devoted himself to studying God’s law, doing God’s law, and teaching God’s law (Ezra 7:10). But as he came back to Jerusalem to do the work of restoring the temple and restoring the hearts of the people to God, he learned that there was a big mess that must be dealt with.  The people of Israel, the priests, and the Levites had not separated themselves from the people of the land and were practicing all the detestable, idolatrous practices that the locals practice. In a matter of 60 years the people were back to sinning in the same way for which they were deported from the land by God in the first place. Rather than being separate from the people and their practices, they were just like the people of the land and practicing the same things. Not only this, in verse 2 we read that the people were mar...

READ : Ezra 7-8 Verses chosen for meditation: Ezra 7:9-10 9 For on the first day of the first month he began to go up from Babylonia, and on the first day of the fifth month he came to Jerusalem, for the good hand of his God was on him. 10 For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. REFLECT After 6 chapters, we finally meet Ezra, the man the book is named after. There’s a 60-year gap between the events in Chapter 6 and this chapter. At this point, there’s not much recorded about what happened in Judah in those 60 years. It was during this period that the events in the book of Esther happened. The historical background in those years sets the stage in studying the rest of the book of Ezra. In those 60 years, the excitement over the rebuilding of the temple dissipated. The Jewish people began yoking with unbelieving Gentiles. Teachings of the Mosaic law were neglected, and temple worship suffered. ...

  Read Ezra 5 - 6 Verses chosen for meditation -  Ezra 6:11-12, 14-16 11 Also I make a decree that if anyone alters this edict, a beam shall be pulled out of his house, and he shall be impaled on it, and his house shall be made a dunghill. 12 May the God who has caused his name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who shall put out a hand to alter this, or to destroy this house of God that is in Jerusalem. I Darius make a decree; let it be done with all diligence.” 14 And the elders of the Jews built and prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. They finished their building by decree of the God of Israel and by decree of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes king of Persia;  15 and this house was finished on the third day of the month of Adar, in the sixth year of the reign of Darius the king.  16 And the people of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the returned exiles, celebrated the dedication of this ...

Read Ezra 3-4 Verse for meditation: Ezra 3: 11 ESV: And they sang responsively, praising and giving thanks to the Lord, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever toward Israel.” And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. Reflect We've heard this word mentioned every once in a while in Christian circles and communities. But what does 'revival' really mean? How was 'revival' viewed and approached in the passage? What conditions are conducive to a 'revival'? Conversely, what could make a 'revival' unfavourable? Relate A few months ago, I saw the word 'revival' in a group chat. It was brought up as feedback from a first-time visitor to our church. Honestly, I had no idea what it was supposed to mean. But the second word that was shared gave a slight hint: 'fire'. Or at least an idea of the expectation that the person had who made those c...

PASSAGE FOR REFLECTION  In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: 2 “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. 3 Whoever is among you of all his people, may his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and rebuild the house of the Lord, the God of Israel—he is the God who is in Jerusalem. 4 And let each survivor, in whatever place he sojourns, be assisted by the men of his place with silver and gold, with goods and with beasts, besides freewill offerings for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.” 5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, everyone ...