Good day! I’m Duane Matz and this is Today’s Living Word.

 

Ne 2:1 And it came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was before him, that I took the wine and gave it to the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before.

 2 Therefore the king said to me, "Why is your face sad, since you are not sick? This is nothing but sorrow of heart." So I became dreadfully afraid,

 3 and said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' tombs, lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire?"

Nehemiah was one of the Jews taken away in captivity by the Babylonians and he landed the job of the King’s Cupbearer. His job was simple: Taste the wine before giving it to the king to drink making sure it wasn’t poisoned. If it was poisoned, well goodby Nehemiah.

 

He served King Artaxerxes for 12 years in that capacity.

 

12 years of living one sip at a time, and he never came to the king with a sad face.  The king noted this one time change of mood and wanted to get to the bottom of it. Was Nehemiah sick? No, but the king rightfully ascertained that Nehemiah’s sadness was sorrow of heart, which was expressing itself through his countenance!

 

And the king wanted to know what brought on his sadness.

 

And Nehemiah became dreadfully afraid. Because his reason for sadness was the mistreatment of the remnant Jews in the southern kingdom and the blighted condition of the city of Jerusalem under the Babylonians.

 

I think we all have been in that place of a stomach-churning fear brought on by a call to speak out! We are compelled to say something, but we worry about how our words will be received.

 

Nehemiah was called upon to answer a direct question from a king that could lop off his head if he so desired.

 

Should Nehemiah lie when asked “Why so downcast?”

And give perhaps the most popular answer to such a question? “I’m fine”

 

Or should he spill his guts out with what he really is going through, namely, the desecration of his church. With trembling lips he opts for the latter, and he starts out with a sincere wish for the king, “May he live forever.”

 

I’ m sad because my church and its main city (Jerusalem) is in dire need of reparations. The walls of the city are broken down.

 

This was a physical problem but it is meant to be a picture for churches of all time. Walls with missing bricks are not just a physical problem, but a picture of the spiritual problems that occur when the world and it’s doctrines have free access to the church.

 

Trendy sins of the world can come and go as they please.

 

The latest trend in in churches these days is the promotion of transgenderism, but before that we had things like gay preachers, gay marriages, fornication, and it’s going to get worse as we keep moving toward Judgement Day.

 

2Ti 3:1 But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:

 2 For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good,

 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,

 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

 

Get away from these churches, turn away for them and find a church that holds to the truths and inerrancy of scripture.

 

 

I’m Duane Matz and that’s Today’s Living Word