"And Ezra blessed The Lord, the great God, and all the people answered,
Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped
The Lord with their faces to the ground.....While the people remained in their
places. They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave
the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the
governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people
said to all the people, "This day is holy to the Lord your God; do
not mourn or week.” For the all the people wept as they heard the words of the
Law." Nehemiah 8:6-9
Good
morning, I pray that everyone who reads this will hopefully experience the same "aha" moment that I did when I read this. This scripture is taking place after
the walls of Jerusalem were already built. The chief priest then came out
and all the people were gathered and he read the book of Moses or the law of
God. The people worshiped God with their faces to the ground and their hands
raised. Sound familiar? Sounds like a good old worship service; the
people of God just praising Him. As the law was read and they understood
they began to weep. They had seen that they were too dirty and too unclean to
serve a mighty and awesome God. They saw their sins in front of them. They repented. Then
they rejoiced and celebrated.
Does this
not sound like salvation to anyone? When I read this I immediately saw
what salvation should look like. It starts with weeping and crying
because we finally see what we have done wrong. We see our sins and we know what
our punishment should be. They are not tears of joy, but mourning for we know
our crimes and we know what our sentence should be. Then we see a great
celebration one that comes after we ask Jesus into our hearts, where we know
that we have been set free. As I read this I realize what has gone wrong
for so long in the church when it comes to salvation, many people only do one
step. There are many of us who never mourn our sins we go straight for
the celebration. Mourning is an important step to salvation; it is the
realization of what your sins have done.
How do you respond when you find
out that you have broken a law and you could be gone for a long time? You
cry in mourning in sorrowfulness. When we first come to Christ we see our
sins and our punishment for them, eternity in Hell. We should mourn because the
Law finds us guilty. Then comes the second part, the celebration, and the
celebration when we realize that our sins have been forgiven that our names are
written in the book of life. But there are many of us who get stuck in
the mourning state we never leave our sins behind and move ahead in freedom. We
continue to mourn for sins that we have already asked for forgiveness for and
never enjoy the celebration.
Today don't forget that your sins were left
on the cross and you have been forgiven, don't live in your past mistakes, but
rather celebrate the life you have been given because the mourning is over. If
you have never mourned for your sins think about the price that was paid
because of them, think of the punishment that was dealt because of them, and
mourn and then thank Jesus that he went to the cross for you.
Let us
pray, Father thanks you so much for sending your Son to die for me. Lord
He died in my place, he was blameless and still died for a sinner like me. Lord
I thank you and help me God live for you, help me Glorify your name father, in
Jesus' name. Amen
David Wiggins
Youth Pastor
www.nbcornerstone.com
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