November 19, 2010 - Ezra 4-Wait–Free PowerPoint Backgrounds
I have no idea what word of motivation comes from this chapter. It is heartbreaking. I guess it would be wait. God stirred the hearts of the people to rebuild after He stirred Cyrus' heart to decree it. He has a plan therefore and I guess the people will just have to wait to see what is next. I am sure it was confusing and frustrating to them. It would be to me and I would gripe to God about it and everyone else would not hear the end of it for a while. This chapter makes me think of stories of the church having to go underground and being sought for by people who want it destroyed. It also sounds like "Christians are intolerant and hurtful to other religions", language that I hear from time to time. Just recently, I was in a group of people and one man who was a founder of a certain "nationality" action type group said that the Baptist really messed up their culture spiritually. I do know that well meaning groups have gone about preaching the gospel wrong many, many times. This man was not talking about domination and making people wear shoes and clothes, he was talking about the fact that many of his people follow Christ and that the worship of spirits and the earth were threatened. His religion was not being carried on in their families. I can understand if you are not a follower of the God of the bible how threatening that looks.
As for the diet wisdom...I guess my sin nature is an adversary to the rebuilding of my temple. It goes to great lengths to sabotage my efforts to eat less fat and smaller portions or to exercise. The sad part is that it does not have to use force to make me stop building. I just cave in. I will pray and wait I guess for God to stir my heart and make the way.
Here are some PowerPoint Backgrounds for you to use. I am not sure if I have posted these or not.
