regard the prayer of Your servant and his supplication, O Lord my God, and listen to the cry and the prayer which Your servant is praying before You: that your eyes may be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplication of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when you hear, forgive.” (2 Chronicles 6:14-15, 18-21)
• “When Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices; and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priests could not enter the house of the Lord, because the glory of the Lord had filled the Lord’s house. When all the children of Israel saw how the fire came down, and the glory of the Lord on the temple, they bowed their faces to the ground on the pavement, and worshiped and praised the Lord, saying: ‘For He is good, For His mercy endures forever.’” (2 Chronicles 7:1-3)
• “Lord, remember David and all his afflictions; How He swore to the Lord, and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob: Surely I will not go into the chamber of my house, or go up to the comfort of my bed, I will not give sleep to my eyelids, Until I find a place for the Lord, A dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.’
Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of the woods. Let us
In the Old Testament, the Israelites were seen as people who failed to listen to God’s commandments. Despite knowing beforehand that they would be punished for their disobedience, they still continued to commit sin. God tried to deter their misbehavior by promising them many blessings, but it worked to no avail. Due to the insubordination of the Israelites, He made sure that the promises He made to them would be withheld and that they would face consequences.
As we examine the heroes of the faith outlined for us in the Old Testament, we would be hard pressed to find a more faithful man that King David. After the death of King Saul, David became the King of the Hebrew people. David, who was meek and pious, steadfastly believed in the true God and tried to do His will. He had endured much persecution from Saul and other enemies but did not become bitter, did not lift his hand against Saul, as he was the Lord’s anointed, but placed all his hope in God, and the Lord delivered him from all his enemies.
The Book of Nehemiah is narrative that continues the history of the Israelites after they return from exile. Nehemiah prays to God about Jerusalem and God’s promises. Nehemiah is sent from Babylon to Jerusalem where he inspects Jerusalem’s walls. Different sections were rebuilt by different groups of people. Through prayer, they were able to complete the rebuilding even when there was opposition. Nehemiah helped the poor by summoning the priests to make the nobles and officials take an oath to follow God’s law. A genealogical record is listed of the exiles who returned. Ezra read The Book of the Law to the Israelites. The Israelites prayed to God and confessed their sins and signed the Law of God. The Levites were brought to
David said “O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him (Psalm 34:8 KJV). He goes on to say “But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Psalm 1:2 KJV) and he hides God’s Word in his heart that he might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11 KJV).
tribe of Judah. It states that David’s kingdom would last and stand the test of time forever. The
Turning to 2 Chronicles 7:14, Short read, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
Subsequently, in 1 Chronicles 9, the people of Judah were told they lost Jerusalem and its Temple because of their unfaithfulness to God (1 Chronicles 9:1 & Murphy 113). God had sent king Nebuchadnezzar to take the Jews because God’s people were mocking His “messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets” (2 Chronicles 36:16). The Jews were in exile until Cyrus became the king of Persia, in which many Jews returned from Babylon and a new temple was built.
The narrative of judges takes a momentary break to mention the Lord sending a prophet to the people of Israel. The prophet reminds the Israelites of the deliverance they received from God in Egypt, and calls them not to fear the gods of the Amorites. The prophet ends with “But you have not obeyed my voice (Jud. 6:10).” From this point on in
David was living in a beautiful house which was made of fine cedar wood, while the Ark of God dwelled in only a tent. Because of this, David felt guilty about his seemingly lavish living conditions, so he suggested building a temple to the prophet Nathan, and Nathan tells David to do whatever he thinks is best. But that night, God spoke to Nathan and informed him that he has always lived in a tent or tabernacle, and he doesn’t mind it. God also reminds Nathan that he’s never asked any of the former tribal leaders of Israel to build him a temple and David is no exception. God suggested that Nathan instead give the following message to David, God is in David’s corner, and he will protect him and help him to do everything through his own (God's) power and he will bless and look over him. God tells Nathan that there will come a day when a temple will be built, but this will occur after David passes away. The plan is that one of David’s children will build the temple, this child will be a strong leader and king as a successor of David. This child will not lose God's favor, although when he wrongs God, he will be punished with human violence. Additionally, David’s successors will ultimately endure and go on to rule forever. Nathan communicated God’s message to David.
God came with peace and good news, to Israel, saying “I will cleanse you from your sins, I will bring people into your cities and the ruins will be rebuilt” (Ezekiel, 36:33 NIV). Ezekiel’s oracles of spirituality, thus Israel was spiritual dead with no hope of vitality ( Ezekiel 37:5 NIV). Yet, God will restore life back into those dead bones, if Israel would turn from their sinful ways (Ezekiel 37:14). In chapter 40 of Ezekiel, God showed, the prophet a vision of God’s dwelling place, of those who are faithful thus, they will live with the Lord forever (NIV). Yahweh carried, out judgment on Jerusalem by the Babylonians (Hays, 2010). The “oracles against the nation” in (Ezekiel 28:17) This oracles were against king Tyre, whom were destroyed, the king’s content were evil, whereas it represent the same pattern as Satan. (Hays, 2010). Thus, God delivered, Egypt to Himself ,although Jerusalem were destroyed, God gave hope of restoring His people, the city was renamed,because of Yahweh’s present remain in the city. God will restore life back in the city if His people would repent of their sins, He will judge those who will not repent and save those who would repent (Ezekiel 33:11-21; 24:21; 33:22). God will Shepherd His flock
For my last response paper, I decided that I wanted to attend a Jewish service. Since I had missed the pre arranged field trip to go with the school, I decided that I would grab a friend, and make a day out of driving up to Park City to go to the Temple Har Shalom. We set off on our forty minute drive, and finally came upon the Temple. The temple itself was very intriguing to the eye, it was a mix of brick and what looked like maple wood, the architecture was interesting and had a very modern feel to it. The inside was beautiful, and very spacious. There were chairs set up and tables, and fire places, of course there were Israeli flags hanging from different locations.
Christ is the leader of the Church, Paul in Ephesians 1:22 said “God placed everything under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church” however, God entrusted the authority to lead to his servant whom he set them aside to lead the community. Pastor as a public Leadership is to lead community. A person who is called by God to lead public has a responsibility to be in the community, with the community and for the community. One of best questions raised in the class during public leadership discussion was “How we can be a community pastor rather than just a church pastor?” This really a kind of question we are to consider as pastor especially as rural congregation pastor. In most cases when pastor are called to
“Every time I go to church, I thank God for my loving husband and my
was owed a great sum of money by one of his servants. The king let the
Describe your past and current experiences of leadership, whether in counseling, administration, teaching, ministry, coaching, or learning. How have these experiences contributed to your decisions to apply for this program?