3 Keys to Changed Lives

Read Nehemiah 7-8.

With the walls rebuilt and the gates closed, the city of Jerusalem was finally secure.  The exterior work had been completed and now it was time to go to work on the inside.

Nehemiah led in a full census of each person within the city, nearly 50,000 in all.  Proof of ancestry was required to serve in the priesthood.  The priests were organized under the leadership of Ezra. The next step would be to address the spiritual needs.

The people were called together for the purpose of hearing God's word.  The reverence and respect, even for preparing to listen to the Scriptures, in this chapter is noteworthy.  It was the inspiration for their worship.

With limited, hand-written copies of the Scriptures, Ezra read aloud.  This was followed by teaching priests helping "the people to understand the law."  How did they help the people to put the word of God into practice?  See the process in verse 8.

1. They read from the Scriptures.

What God said.

2. They explained the Scriptures. 

What God meant.

3. The applied the Scriptures.

What it meant to them.

When the people understood the application of God's word, they began to weep.  Someone said that good preaching should disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed.  Both are true here.  Once the leaders saw the impact on the hearers, they were quick to comfort. 

Then, the heads of households came together for further study so they could lead their families in obeying God.  By the next day, they were putting God's word into practice with the Feast of Booths.

All too often we tend to make the discipleship process complicated, worship services something other than worship, and preaching devoid of the basic yet powerful process outlined here.