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Spring Cleaning | Making A Difference Daily

Today’s Reading – Nehemiah 11 – 13 (Click on the references to listen to the audio – Click here to view the passage from Blue Letter Bible)

(Second Milers Read – 2 Corinthians 1 – 4;Psalms 6 – 10Proverbs 2)

Scripture Memorization for June – Verses Supporting an Unlimited Atonement

Listen to this morning’s Scripture song –  Psalm 18:3 & 46

Read a great article by Pastor Cary Schmidt – “The Power of Biblical Affirmation

Read the “0602 Evening and Morning” devotion for today, by the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“Then I commanded, and they cleansed the chambers: and thither brought I again the vessels of the house of God, with the meat offering and the frankincense.” – (Nehemiah 13:9)

In Nehemiah 13, I noticed that there were four things that had crept back into the life of the people of Israel that had to be cleaned out:

1  In vv 4 – 9 we see that Eliashib the priest had actually emptied a chamber in the temple of God, and had prepared it for Tobiah to stay in. Tobiah had been the one who had opposed Nehemiah and the people of God as they rebuilded the city of Jerusalem. He had to go. Nehemiah gave him the boot.

2  In vv 10 – 13 we learn that the Levites had to go back to the fields to work because the people of God were not supporting them through their tithes and offerings. Nehemiah corrected this problem as well.

3  In vv 15 – 22 we see that God’s people were violating the Sabbath by working, and by trading with outsiders. God wanted the Sabbath Day to be kept holy, and set apart from the normal routines of the week. Nehemiah commanded that the gates of the city be closed on the Sabath so that the merchants could not enter in to do their business.

4   Finally we see that the Jews began to inter-marry with the heathen people around them. It got to be so bad that some of the children did not even speak the Hebrew language, but instead conversed in the language of the land where the mother came from. Nehemiah had a fit about this, and made the people promise to separate from people who were not Jews. He reminded them of how even King Solomon was caused to sin because of his marriages to non-Jewish women. God wants his people to marry within the household of faith.

It is amazing how quickly all of these abuses crept back into the lives of the people of God. Every once in a while we need to have an old-fashioned house cleaning to remove all of the junk that creeps into our lives as well. Why not take a spiritual inventory of your own life. Is there anything in your home, or in your life that God would want cleaned out? Just a thought.

Phil Erickson

Pastor Phil Erickson has been the pastor of Jersey Shore Baptist Church since 2002. Having grown up in Ocean County, Pastor Phil has always had a burden for the south Jersey area. After graduating from Bible College in Longview, Texas, he and his family moved to Galloway Township with the vision of digging in and serving the Lord and the people of Atlantic County. Pastor Phil and Cindy Erickson have been married for 34 years, and have four children and eight grandchildren. His oldest son, Phil Jr., and wife, Katelyn, are serving the Lord at a church in Paradise, TX. His oldest daughter, Melissa, is married to Wesley Clayton who is in the Air Force and is currently stationed in South Carolina. Samantha, his third child is married to Justin Mears and they are both serving the Lord here at the church in Galloway. Hannah is the youngest and is a sophomore at Vision Baptist College while also serving the Lord at Jersey Shore Baptist Church.

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  • One of the nice things about you doing this blog is that often you point out things that I miss completely. It is kinda like having a tour guide as opposed to going on a trip alone. It never occurred to me that the Tobiah that is mentioned in today's reading was the same Tobiah that was mention in the preceding chapters. Thanks Pastor for increasing my understanding.

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Phil Erickson

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