Pastor's Corner

In Nehemiah chapter one, we find the Jews still in exile and in captivity in Babylon. Nehemiah finds favor with the Babylonian King and becomes his cup bearer. This puts Nehemiah in a unique position close to the King; he has the ear of the king if you will. The King of Persia at this time was the most powerful man on Earth, so being in a position close to him was a good place for Nehemiah to be. When Nehemiah is lead to ask for his captive people to be let free he does not appeal to the King, he goes to God in prayer. I think today we can look for favor from our Earthly superiors before we go to God with our requests; He is the one who is really in charge anyway. We can remember this as a rule of thumb and learn from the example of Nehemiah. We can seem to put way to much value on what the world or people think about things. Do we think to go to the Bible and see what God has to say about these areas of our lives? God has carefully written this book as a guide for us, and He is always there for us when we need to reach out to Him through prayer. Sometimes the Bible can be deep and tough to understand, this is a great reason to get involved in a small study group, or to reach out to someone who may have a better understanding of the word of God than you do. Each of us has been called into some form of service to the Lord, the better we understand His word, the better we can serve Him. This week I encourage everyone to step up their devotion time. If you read one verse a week, this week read two. If you always seem to be too busy for a Bible study, try and find a way to get to one on a regular basis. Pick up the phone and reach out for some help or call someone who may be struggling to see if you can lighten their burden. There are so many ways we can step up to the call of God and I believe the first step is going to Him and making Him priority in our lives. If we put God first in our lives, the rest of our lives will fall into place how He intended all along. Thanks Jake Thomas.