Pastor Bell's Words To Live By

We can get bogged down with work so much so that we make no time for the Lord. The majority of us have bills to pay, business to attend to and we need to find funds to make it happen. Unfortunately trying to make ends meet can become a never ending circle. We can end up living to work rather than working to live. This is what happened to the Israelites when they were in bondage, they worked from sun up to sunset, slept and then they were back on the job. The Lord changed this pattern and instituted the Sabbath. This was a day that people took off to be with their families in worship to the Lord. Suffice it to say that different people groups have added their own slant to the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a precursor for the feasts of the Lord. This was a time when God’s people would gather in worship of him and in remembrance of the great things he had done. They were instituted by the Lord and therefore should be acknowledged and kept. They all point to the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus and to his second coming (see Leviticus 23). So when Nehemiah is re-instituting the order of the Lord, he was getting the mindset of the people away from the treadmill and back towards what God ordered in the first place. The Lord wants his people to have true relationships with each other and to really care for one another. So when we meet to eat this allows us to be real and open. Today, let us take time out to celebrate God and have fellowship with each other. Read Nehemiah 13:15-22.