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Building a Wall but not Tearing Down their Wicked Hearts in Nehemiah

Dan Sullivan · November 17, 2015 ·

[8] and said to them, “We, as far as we are able, have bought back our Jewish brothers who have been sold to the nations, but you even sell your brothers that they may be sold to us!” They were silent and could not find a word to say. [9] So I said, “The thing that you are doing is not good. Ought you not to walk in the fear of our God to prevent the taunts of the nations our enemies?
(Nehemiah 5:8-9 ESV)

Nehemiah and the others are working so hard to rebuild the nation of God, but on the inside these guys are lying and cheating and oppressing and undoing all of their work. It is no good to build a wall around Jerusalem if their hearts are as wicked as the pagans outside the walls. 

I love it that it says Nehemiah took counsel with himself. He may have been all alone and every other official around him was corrupt in this. It doesn’t mention any others on his side, just that they were all silent when he brought up these questions. 

The other thing that happened here that he doesn’t focus on is that it was like tax return season. It was like the year of Jubilee!   Children taken in slavery were returned to their parents, land was returned to families, and interest that had been taken was given back. There were a ton of folks that became poorer, but there were even more that day that became richer!

Bible Study generosity, Nehemiah, Slavery

Generosity and the life of God

Dan Sullivan · August 10, 2015 ·

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Just like generosity yields more generosity in the recipient, we can give our lives easily because God has put so much life in us.

Handwritten Blog, Short Quotes generosity, John 10

God's Providence in a Ford Aerostar

Dan Sullivan · June 25, 2012 ·

In 2007, my family and I returned from a long trek in Central Asia. With lots of uncertainty, we left & gave away our Dodge Caravan to some friends there. We trusted God to provide for us stateside.

We came to our temporary apartment from the airport in Evansville and there on the dining room table was the title to a Ford Aerostar! Crossroads and Evansville Auto Mission had provided us with a van! We could see God’s obvious hand in moving us to trust Him and give away our van in Asia.

Today, 5 years later, I returned the van to the Auto Mission. It served us well most of the time, brought an element of adventure to every drive (even just driving to church on Sunday!) and kept us from a car payment for the past 5 years.

Thanks to the Lord & His people for this chapter of the Sullivan’s transportation.

I’m not sure we’ll miss it, but I’m thankful for it!

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Family Life faith, generosity, giving, grace, money, poor, prayer

Poverty the Blessing & the Prosperity Curse

Dan Sullivan · January 20, 2012 ·

Psalm 17:13-14

NASB Deliver my soul from the wicked with Your sword, From men with Your hand, O LORD, From men of the world, whose portion is in this life,

And whose belly You fill with Your treasure;

NET Use your sword to rescue me from the wicked man! Lord, use your power to deliver me from these murderers, from the murderers of this world!

They enjoy prosperity; you overwhelm them with the riches they desire.

If you never read it anywhere else, you can read it here. Prosperity and the riches of this world are a curse, not a blessing.

Some of that sounds good: to have your belly full of treasure, to have all of the riches you desire, but the context is worldly men or murderers, not the blessed.

This fits along with 1 Timothy 6:9

Those who long to be rich, however, stumble into temptation and a trap and many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.

It is so crazy how we are ripped off every day to the point that we think it is totally normal to constantly covet and wish for stuff!

Jesus was right on when He said

“No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. (Matthew 6:24 NASB)

Even in christendom we make jokes about being afraid God will send us to Kookamunga. More and more I’m thinking that more of us would be better off if He did! How pure and attractive our devotion to God would be if it were coupled with poverty!

Ooh Ooh! What if the goal of all of this Christian financial money management stuff was to train and equip yourself to live in poverty in spite of your income! Wow. May God help me with this stuff.

<<Written on my dual core i7 MacBook Pro>>

Bible Study Bible Study, generosity, missions, poor, poverty, unlearn

Unrelenting Wisdom Supplier

Dan Sullivan · December 31, 2011 ·

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. (James 1:5 NIV)

Yesterday my 9 year old son and I were talking about this verse. I said, “Isn’t it amazing that God says to ask for wisdom and He’ll give it without judgment or discretion?! It’s like He doesn’t even care if you’re a good guy or a bad guy, if you want wisdom, He will give it to you!”

And my son says, “That’s because He knows that all wisdom will help people get closer to Him.”

How great is that!? It’s true. Anyone that wants wisdom in any situation on any topic can ask God for it and He’ll deliver. He doesn’t want anybody to be a fool and perish. He wants everyone to be wise and know that He Himself is the ultimate and true source of all wisdom.

Bible Study Bible Study, forgiveness, generosity, James, NT, quotes, religion, wisdom

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