Hello to You,
This week we will be studying Ezra 7, and Ezra the priest, the scribe, will make his first appearance. There has been a 57 year gap between Ezra 6 and 7. Ezra comes in as part of the next wave in God’s rebuilding project.
KEY VERSE: “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,” 7:10.
■ Have I set my heart firmly …
- To study the Word of God?
- To live by (do, obey) the Word of God?
- To teach the Word of God?
■ Why do I need to set my heart firmly?
- “It does not do to leave a live dragon out of your calculations, if you live near him” (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit).
- Our default settings: By default we will use our reasoning abilities to edit incoming information to agree with what we already believe.
- This is how our the minds work. Our rationalizations know no limit as we look for evidence to support foregone conclusions. Apart from the direction of God we will contrive elaborate schemes to keep believing what we already believe and want to believe (universal sheep-like tendency). So how do we defeat this faulty editing system? Enter center stage, God’s word, as it is profitable in transforming our thinking. Through the words of God we can approach and receive truth outside the boundaries of our current knowledge in a way that is profitable to our spiritual growth. (David Scott, LIving by the Words of God.)
Dave