Where is Nehemiah?

1997

We live in an age where Christianity is most often vainly represented by a sluggish, worldly, satisfied church suffering from a deluge of doctrinal confusion. We are living among the ruins of a once great city and have settled into it, content just to live with the memory of it's former glory.

We are hungry, and not finding food sufficient in our poverty-stricken land, we turn to take from the hand of our enemy, while he steadily gains dominion within. Becoming less and less aware of our impoverished state, we begin to live comfortably with our enemies, even taking counsel with their evil persuasions. The fires of death are burning all around us, the walls of our fortification are broken down, dearth is in the land and we call it home.

It is a day of despair when God's own children rebelliously turn away from Him to lust after the idolatrous pleasures this world affords. Until we see ourselves as responsible for the destruction of Jerusalem (the church) and begin to sorrowfully confess and forsake our sin which brought it down, we will remain weak and defenseless, unable to escape the corruption in which we live.
(Oh that our hearts would break for the judgements we have incurred at the just hand of our God!) "Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up." (Hosea 6:1) "Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens." (Lam. 3:41)

"I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." (Ezekiel 22:30) Will the eyes of the Lord search in vain as He seeks to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is perfect toward Him? (2 Chron. 16:9) Where is Nehemiah? Where are those who will wake up from the slumber of luke-warm-have-need-of-nothing Christianity?

"..Now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light." (Romans 13:1-11) Let us tear down the strongholds of our enemy within and endeavor to fortify ourselves in Christ Jesus our Lord. Let us rise up to fight the good fight, being valiant for His Truth, turning from the corruptions of this world to set our hearts upon the world to come. "Come, let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we no longer be a reproach." (Nehemiah 2:17)

"And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places;
thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou
shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to
dwell in." (Isaiah 58:12)