To Bring Him Joy

“ 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 weep.” For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law. Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” So the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.” Nehemiah 8:9-12 ESV The women's ministry in our church, like many other churches, has women's Bible studies throughout the year. Recently, I had the honor of leading a small group discussion on our study through Nehemiah. Nehemia...

  This blog post is in response to both a blog and a sermon. Recently, Trent Hunter wrote and shared a blog about listening to a sermon. You can find it here http://www.desertspringschurch.org/blog/?p=3220 . It resonated with me, as years ago my pastor at the time, Ronnie Rogers made a comment from the pulpit about our worship on a Sunday not just happening during the music part of the service. In our listening to the sermon we should continue to interact with God. It has changed my worship on any given Sunday, how I sing, how I listen, how I participate in the service. I think that we feel that when we are singing we are worshipping or that we can worship when we pray if we are giving praise or thanks but that we don't feel like we are worshipping when we are listening to a sermon. It is though we have to talk to be worshipping. It is rather arrogant of us, really. Actually, we ought to be listening through out the service, through out the week, daily, moment by moment ...