God's great faithfulness to a stubborn people

Here is a portion of Nehemiah 9. If you have time open your Bible and read it in context. 

Nehemiah 9:16-22

16 “But they, our fathers, acted arrogantly;
They became stubborn and would not listen to Your commandments.
17 “They refused to listen,
And did not remember Your wondrous deeds which You had performed among them;
So they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.
But You are a God of forgiveness,
Gracious and compassionate,
Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness;
And You did not forsake them.
18 “Even when they made for themselves
A calf of molten metal
And said, ‘This is your God
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great blasphemies,
19 You, in Your great compassion,
Did not forsake them in the wilderness;
The pillar of cloud did not leave them by day,
To guide them on their way,
Nor the pillar of fire by night, to light for them the way in which they were to go.
20 “You gave Your good Spirit to instruct them,
Your manna You did not withhold from their mouth,
And You gave them water for their thirst.
21 “Indeed, forty years You provided for them in the wilderness and they were not in want;
Their clothes did not wear out, nor did their feet swell.
22 “You also gave them kingdoms and peoples,
And allotted them to them as a boundary.

Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)
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A key to being Spiritually wise and Spiritually stable

<sup>Do you want to be spiritually wise and spiritually stable? The following passage from the book of Matthew shows us a couple of ways to achieve these good goals. Lets look at the passage first then we will talk about it. 

Matthew 7:24-27

24</sup> “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. ²⁵ And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.²⁶ Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. ²⁷ The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell—and great was its fall.”

Although there are other things that help us to be wise and stable, in this devotion we will focus on just three. The first point is that our salvation must be founded on nothing other than the finished work of Jesus Christ. Points 2 and 3 go hand in hand. To be wise and stable we must both hear and act on God's words (verse 24). In this passage both persons heard God's words. But the second person heard but did not act on His words. So just listening alone did not make him wise and stable. In fact the one who heard but did not act was both foolish and unstable (verse 26). But when we choose to act on what we hear, we will grow more wise and more stable.

Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)
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Speak the truth in love

Ephesians 4:15 tells us that truth must be spoken in love. When the truth is not spoken is love it can be the difference between spreading softened butter on bread or using butter right from the refrigerator. Cold butter tears the bread and does damage. Likewise applying truth in a cold manner does damage to people and it misrepresents God too.

Scripture quotations taken from the "NASB" (www.lockman.org)
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