Seize the Moment – Day 1007

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19
Dec '22

Seize the Moment – Day 1007

Posted on Dec 19, 2022 by Jerry Ingalls in Devotions, General |

19
Dec '22

Prioritize your Priorities in Real Ways!

Nehemiah 10

 

Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, December 19.

 

How do you maintain a healthy rhythm of life? You say that Jesus is your priority, but how do you prioritize Jesus in real ways in real time as your way of life?

 

The returning exiles made a covenant with God, and they did so in a binding written agreement (Nehemiah 9:38). Nehemiah 10:1-27 lists eighty-four people who signed it, starting with Nehemiah (1), followed by a group of priests (2-8), then the Levites (9-13), and concluding with the leaders (14-27). This was a decisive moment in their ability to move forward as God’s people.

 

The Jewish leaders wrote down real ways they would apply God’s Law to their current circumstances in post-exilic, second-temple Judaism. In other words, they were not only committing themselves to follow the Torah in principle, but they were doing it in a way that was accurate and relevant to their real life in practice. An example is found in Nehemiah 10:31,
 
“As for the peoples of the land who bring wares or any grain on the sabbath day to sell, we will not buy from them on the sabbath or a holy day; and we will forego the crops the seventh year and the exaction of every debt.”

 

Specifically, they had to deal with the foreign traders who wanted to do business on the Sabbath. Whereas the Sabbath was established as a holy day for the Jewish people in Exodus 16:22-30, then codified in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20:8-11, it was just another ordinary day to the local inhabitants. The leaders had to forbid commerce otherwise the Jewish people would start treating it like it was an ordinary day, just like everyone around them. 

 

Both the honoring of the weekly Sabbath day and the Sabbatical year were so important to the reformed people of God that they specified how they would live out those priorities in real ways in real time.[1] We need to do the same today!

 

Seize the moment and prioritize real ways in real time to live out your priority of seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

 

God bless you!

 

If you would like to receive a personal phone call today, all you have to do is dial the phone number below right now and one of us will call you soon.

 

YOUTUBE:

If you prefer a video, Pastor Jerry reads his devotion on YouTube as well. Click HERE to visit the page.

Videos are posted about a week after the devotion appears in the blog.

 

 

FOOTNOTES:

 
[1] In addition to the Sabbath itself, they also recommitted to observing the Sabbatical year, as taught in Exodus 23:10-11 and Deuteronomy 15:1-2. This was especially significant since their length of exile – seventy years – was directly connected to their failure to let the land have its Sabbath rest (2 Chronicles 36:20-21).
 
 
 

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