Nehemiah 11:1-24
My husband and I have been part of two church plants. So when I read the first couple of verses of Nehemiah 11 which talked about how one out of ten people relocated to Jerusalem, it immediately reminded me of that process of people moving from the "home church" to the new plant location. It's a big commitment that includes a lot of "new" and "change" plus a bit of sacrifice. I smiled when I read verse 2 "And the people blessed all the men who willingly offered to live in Jerusalem."
Has there been a time in your life when God has asked you to move (any sort of move or change, not just a physical move)? How will you use this passage the next time God asks you to step out and make a change for Him? Tami W.
I have recently changed Churches, but not without difficulty. Due to difficult circumstances and my previous Church, I believe God moved me to change. I think I like my new Church, there is certainly more support and structure...I respect anyone who has the courge to make changes, much like the people in Nehemiah.
Our family has made a physical move lately. I lost my job and we decided to downsize and move into an apartment. I have 2 teenage daughters and it first I thought it would be hard for them, even though we were only moving a mile down the road, we were loosing a house that they had called home during their grade school and jr high school years. We were blessed because it came easily to all of us. Then a few months after the move, we considered moving back because of a problem with the sale of the house. After a night of family prayer and sleeping on it, we all woke up and felt at ease with whatever we needed to do we would do and God would keep us a peace and protect us. We didn't end of moving a second time, but I am reminded by this scripture that God is blessing us through our times of change and I am so thankful that He is in my life as well as the lives of my children.
In 2005 we moved our two children half way around the world to be a part of what HE was doing in PNG and were so blessed by how they settled in so fast and now consider America a strange place. God is so good to us, we just need to be obedient no matter what. After all HE owns it all anyway.
Having grown up in a parsonage family, and now being a pastor, myself, moving has been a regular part of my life. In fact, there's a significant part of me that can't even imagine what it would have been like to live in one city my entire life, like so many have done here in where I live now.
No move (or any other significant change) I've ever made came without some difficulty, but God always blessed, and this passage is a wonderful reminder of that.
17 years ago, I moved from my "home church" (the one I grew up with all my life) to my husband's church in a nearby city. It was a big change & challenge, I had to depend on the Lord. My "home church" was where alll my, maternal & paternal, family was. My husband has a very small family. Fortunately, I can go back to visit on occasion.
A few years ago, we needed to change churches as a matter of support to a pastor who was under unfair attack. It was very hard to leave good friends who were not part of the small cabal. Our new church is not one I would have chosen on my own, but God placed us there, again as a matter of support. There are times in which I wish the church had more resources and opportunities for me and my family. But, it is just then when the Spirit speaks to me and reminds me that it is not about me. We have been placed where we are, not to be blessed (although that comes in its own small ways), but to be a blessing to others. That sometimes does require sacrifce, but I am trusting that God will use that sacrifce for good.