Read To Me Daily Semester 4Sample

NEHEMIAH 12-13
In yesterday’s chapters in Nehemiah, we heard the names of the various religious and civil leaders who signed the statement of commitment to follow Moses’ Law, which was almost certainly penned by Ezra. Then there was a listing of the various leaders and clans that volunteered or were chosen by lot to live in Jerusalem.

ISAIAH 40a:
Then as we turn to Isaiah: I have to admit that I am always very disappointed with Hezekiah when he does not pray and ask the Lord to not allow Jerusalem to be conquered by Babylon and not to allow his sons to become eunuchs in Babylon’s palace. God had already responded amazingly to him in answering his prayers. The New Testament teaches us to be alert in prayer, and I think that includes being alert to what to pray for.

Today we start the glorious final section of Isaiah, with favorite words set to music in Handel’s Messiah.

COLOSSIANS 4:
As Paul has been teaching us in Colossians, our resurrection to a new life because of being one with Christ, is not just being raised from death to live again on this earth. We get raised right to heaven. Our true spiritual life is found in our unity with Christ who is in heaven at God’s side. Literally Paul expressed this as ‘your life is hidden with Christ in (unity with) God’. The picture continues with our bodies and evil desires being pictured like clothes. We put off the old life like taking off old clothes, and put on the new life like wearing new clothes. 

Yesterday’s chapter ended with instructions for wives, husbands, children, fathers, and slaves. Today’s chapter continues with the instruction to masters.

Let’s pray.
Lord Jesus, help us to actually DO what Paul says! We’ve been given keys to victory, but they don’t work unless we pick them up and actually start to use them. We’ve been raised with Christ, yet in a true spiritual sense we are to consider ourselves as dead. Now Lord help us to set our hearts on things in heaven right where You are. Help us to fix our minds on You and on our being in union with You there. So help us to peel away layers of our old life, and replace those things with our new self. This is NOT plastering a fake identity upon ourselves. It is our new true identity that we have because of our union with You. We believe, Lord Jesus, that God— who raised You from death, is operating in us with the same power. Because we are now one with You, You are completing the areas where we personally were always lacking. Lord I cannot list in this prayer all the ways Paul exhorts us, so I pray that You will bring to my mind, and my listener’s mind, the things You want us to focus on today. We pray that all our relationships with others will be transformed as we obey You.