Keep Pounding…

 

I love these stories of courage and character in sports. To me that is what sports are all about, the tales of courage, character, and victory that mirror the integrity we want built into our lives. There are so many messages delivered in professional sports, the unfortunate part is that many of them are negative messages.

It seems incredible how easy it is for negative messages to creep in things. Most often it happens by a very small compromise that starts a crumbling that just wont stop.

It amazes me how small it can start. I remember having a specific job where one day there was something happened I felt was wrong and I chose to complain. That complaining got a tad worse and eventually crumbled my attitude and hurt my testimony at that job. That has been quite some time ago, but I still have to maintain watch over that issue.

Nehemiah knew how to counter the “slow fade” of our testimony.

 

13:1 On that day they read from the Book of Moses in the hearing of the people. And in it was found written that no Ammonite or Moabite should ever enter the assembly of God, 2 for they did not meet the people of Israel with bread and water, but hired Balaam against them to curse them—yet our God turned the curse into a blessing. 3 As soon as the people heard the law, they separated from Israel all those of foreign descent.

Nehemiah 13:1-3 (ESV).

 

Nehemiah knew that the only way to counter slowly corrupting the work and testimony of God from the rebuilding is to go back to God’s word. From time to time we must be willing to look over our lives and judge the testimony we are showing by God’s standards and then radically reform what has crept in.

As you read the rest of the chapter Nehemiah did not subtly move things back to the correct way, he took dramatic action and made things right.

A Builder must check his work every once in a while and make drastic repairs where needed. Nehemiah recognized that the problems cropping up were the same things that had destroyed Israel in the first place, he had to change them and put measures in place to prevent the failures from creeping back in.

There really is not to much to being a Builder that is very easy and all of it is very important. Perhaps though we would recognize this behavior as one of the hardest to bring ourselves to do. If we remember to be intentional enough to check up on ourselves we often fail to be dramatic in our reforms.

Somethings you just have to work hard to keep up with…