(Most of the material in this post is direct quotes from Beth Moore.)
4) He who prepared for us calls us to be prepared for Him
-There is no excellence without discipline.
-We must always be intentional in our relationship with the Lord.
-Ezra 1:5
Then rose up the heads of the fathers' houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites, with all those whose spirits God had stirred up, to go up to re build the house of the Lord in Jerusalem.
-Ezra 7:6-10
-6This Ezra went up from Babylon. He was a skilled scribe in the five books of Moses, which the Lord, the God of Israel, had given. And the king granted him all he asked, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon him.
7And also some of the Israelites, with some of the priests and Levites, the singers and gatekeepers, and the temple servants, went up [from Babylon] to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
8Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.
9On the first of the first month he started out from Babylon, and on the first of the fifth month he arrived in Jerusalem, for upon him was the good hand of his God.
10For Ezra had prepared and set his heart to seek the Law of the Lord [to inquire for it and of it, to require and yearn for it], and to do and teach in Israel its statutes and its ordinances.
-We must prepare: he sought, did, and taught
-to reestablish our hearts
-to make a decision, pour my life blood into
-to become steadfast
-We don't have to have it all together but He does have to have all of us!
-2 Corinthians 8:11So now finish doing it, that your [enthusiastic] readiness in desiring it may be equaled by your completion of it according to your ability and means.
-One of the enemy's biggest agendas is to get us to quit, quit on our God, and then quit the thing He has called us to do.
-Deut 17:18-19And when he sits on his royal throne, he shall write for himself a copy of this law in a book, out of what is before the Levitical priests. And he shall keep it with him, and he shall read in it all the days of his life, that he may learn [reverently] to fear the Lord his God, by keeping all the words of this law and these statutes and doing them.
-There is something to writing out the word of God with your hands.
-Joshua 7:13 Up, sanctify (set apart for a holy purpose) the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow; for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: There are accursed things in the midst of you, O Israel. You can not stand before your enemies until you take away from among you the things devoted [to destruction].
5) Those who are the mightiest in battle have prepared for it!
-It is no accident when we are prepared for battle.
-So often, however, we prepare and dread defeat.
-Judges 6:2And the hand of Midian prevailed against Israel. Because of Midian the Israelites made themselves the dens which are in the mountains and the caves and the strongholds.
-2 Timothy 2:20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also [utensils] of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble [use] and some for menial and ignoble [use].
-You have not done the thing that disqualifies you!
-Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with [a]oil; my [brimming] cup runs over.
-John 19:31 Since it was the day of Preparation, in order to prevent the bodies from hanging on the cross on the Sabbath--for that Sabbath was a very solemn and important one--the Jews requested Pilate to have the legs broken and the bodies taken away.
-The 24 hours from the last supper with the disciples to when Jesus was crucified was Preparation Day! Wow! Jesus is the sacrifice prepared for us so that we can have eternal life with him. Preparation is so important!
-Hebrews 10:5 Hence, when He [Christ] entered into the world, He said, Sacrifices and offerings You have not desired, but instead You have made ready a body for Me [to offer];
6)God prepared a body for His Son as a consumate offering.
-1 Corinthians 9:24-27 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but [only] one receives the prize? So run [your race] that you may lay hold [of the prize] and make it yours. 25Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things. They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we [do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness] that cannot wither.
26Therefore I do not run uncertainly (without definite aim). I do not box like one beating the air and striking without an adversary.
27But [like a boxer] I buffet my body [handle it roughly, discipline it by hardships] and subdue it, for fear that after proclaiming to others the Gospel and things pertaining to it, I myself should become unfit [not stand the test, be unapproved and rejected as a counterfeit].
-Only what we do for Christ will last. Pick your path and run with it with all your might!
7) We could experience regular Sabbath if we prepared for it.
-If we don't rest we are sinning.
-Exodus 16:5
On the sixth day they shall prepare to bring in twice as much as they gather daily.
-Proverbs 31:14 She is like the merchant ships loaded with foodstuffs; she brings her household's food from a far [country].
The point is that all of the family is together without distraction, not that you cooked an extravagant meal. The joke is in that the food came from afar so does fast food..haha!
8) God has prepared for us even when we are in a desert place!!
(My favorite point!)
Revelation 12:6, 12 And the woman [herself](Israel)fled into the desert (wilderness), where she has a retreat prepared [for her] by God, in which she is to be fed and kept safe for 1,260 days (42 months; three and one-half years).
-He sees the desert in your life coming.
-Israel's way out from captivity and into the promise land was through the desert.
-Hosea 2:14-15 Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly and to her heart. 15There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope and expectation. And she shall sing there and respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
-God speaks more tenderly in the desert.
-Our valley of trouble will become our door of hope. A door you could not have found through any other experience!!!
-Revelation 19:5 Then from the throne there came a voice, saying, Praise our God, all you servants of His, you who reverence Him, both small and great!
Praise Him regardless; you will never be sorry you did!
9) Ultimately, all of this preparation is to prepare the bridegroom for His bride.
-Revelation 21:2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, all arrayed like a bride beautified and adorned for her husband;
-The bridegroom can't get ready unless the bride is ready and vice versa.
-I cannot wait for that day!!!!
What an amazing weekend! I am a firm believer that one of the reasons that Beth is such a wonderful, God fearing woman is her love for the word. It is all over her teaching! What a blessing!!!
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