Hello All,

Happy Friday! Yay!

Help, humility, the hand of God and honor.

Recurring themes throughout Ezra it seems. God is there. But he is not just there. He is also very active in our lives and in the affairs of the world. Not just then, in the Bible stories, but now in our lives, in our world. We will see this very clearly in retrospect from heaven, but we need to see this now by faith. We need to allow God to build our perspective of life on the planet. God needs to be our major news source.

The Bible story of Ezra, Zerubbabel and the others is actual and historical. Not fable and myth that help us along our merry religious way, but real life and real truth which we can bite into and trust. Anchor. Rock solid. God was there. Is here. Has always been and always will be. He is Sovereign LORD, God Most High, and he determines the course of humanity.

Let the mountains fall into the sea! Our God still reigns! (See Psalm 46.)

If God is our major news source, this is what we hear: The darkness has had its day and is passing away.

• (1 John 2:8 ESV) At the same time, it is a new commandment that I am writing to you, which is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.

So who are we listening to?

What are we telling each other?

If we are trembling in our boots before anything other than our holy God who is a consuming fire, then we’ve got it wrong. Way wrong.

This week Ezra sets out for his place of service and confronts his fear of the journey, asks for help, bows in humility, looks to the hand of God for deliverance and worships God when he comes through again.

Dave

• PDF Moving against the darkness : Ezra 8:FFC:dave scott:033014 HANDOUT ONE
• PDF Moving against the darkness : Ezra 8:FFC:dave scott:033014 HANDOUT TWO