Christian Fellowship Online Meeting for US and Canada
Report of Sunday August 5
Title: Nehemiah, a Patriotic Model for Believers of all ages.
Main Scriptures: Nehemiah 1: 1-11; Nehemiah 2: 1-9
Last Sunday night was the beginning of a new series, where we had the chance to explore the character of Nehemiah. At the beginning, Dr. d’Almeida mentioned that the reason why we study the attitude and behavior of various biblical characters is that we either copy or imitate some of their good things that will help us to better serve God or avoid some of their bad turns that led them into destruction. So, as you can see it, we have gone through many of them already. For example, Jeroboam, Hanna, Elijah, Elisha, Jehu, Joash, Gehazi, Ahab, Jezebel and may other characters that we have studies so far. Well, last Sunday night Dr. d’Almeida took us to discover the patriotic freedom fighter attitude in Nehemiah. In fact, the preacher explained that, Nehemiah was serving in the royal palace in Susa. Normally he should be happy and content about his life, because of his position, but, he was not. He kept thinking about his people in Jerusalem. (Nehemiah 1: 1-3). Here, the preacher invited us to observe the sadness that enveloped Nehemiah when he inquired about the remnant Jewish that survived the exile and about Jerusalem. Dr. d’Almeida used this part of the scripture to show us how much we neglect the work of God. Nowadays, we just try to focus on our own needs, praying for our own problems. Most of us don’t dedicate any of our time and finances to what God cares about (Philippians 2: 20-21). That is why Dr. d’Almeida urged us to copy Nehemiah’s behavior in verses 4 and 5, where he cried, prayed, and fasted in his deepest anguish, asking God to intervene in favor of his people’s situation. He further explained that the real problem is that we are so self-centered, and self-seeking that we want to solve all our own problems first before helping others but in reality, we can never finish solving them. Dr. d’Almeida showed what Jesus said in Matthew 25: 41-46, we may not enter the kingdom of God we don’t help the needy. We also learned that Nehemiah confessed their sins including himself, pointing them out to God and asking for forgiveness. That was another point the preacher asked us to pay attention to. When we are praying for deliverance, we must confess our sins and completely repent from them. Of course, that was not the only action Nehemiah had taken towards the deliverance of his people, he also asked permission from the King to go in Jerusalem to rebuild the ruined walls. Here we learned that Nehemiah did not wait for anybody else to go back to Jerusalem. This is where we stopped and by the Grace of God, we will continue on Sunday.
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