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How to build?     [Nehemiah 3:1-3]     A phrase often used during President Bush's speeches at the Republican Convention was ‘Building a safer world and a more hopeful America.’   During his speech, President Bush mentioned several names: ‘… I am lucky to have the best Vice President   ...   I am honored to have him by my side ....’   He said that he was grateful to be walking through life with Laura Bush, saying that the American people were seeing the goodness, the kindness and the virtues of Laura Bush that she had seen 26 years ago.   He then mentioned his two daughters and close friends and parents.   During his speeches, especially at the end, as he spoke to the soldiers and their families who died fighting for freedom, I was moved and the TV showed people who shed tears.   As I listened to President Bush's speech, I compared President Bush and Nehemiah.   President Bush who wants to make America a safer and ...

  “Let us start rebuilding.” (3)       [Nehemiah 2:19-20]     A complaining young man came to the king and begged him to teach him how to live a successful life.   The king poured wine into a goblet and gave it to the young man, saying: ‘Go around town with a glass of wine and I will teach you the secret of success.   However, if you spill the wine, your head will be cut off.’   The young man walked around the city sweating profusely.   Then the king asked: ‘What did you see while walking around the city?   Have you seen beggars and merchants in the streets?   Have you ever heard the singing leaking from the bar?’   The young man replied: ‘I didn’t see or hear anything because I was paying attention to my wine glass.’   Then the king said: ‘That is the secret of success.   If you set a firm goal in life and focus on your work, you will not hear the temptations and criticisms around you.’   Peo...

“Let us start rebuilding.” (2)     [Nehemiah 2:17-18]     Pastor Rick Warren, in Chapter 3 of his book “Purpose Driven Life,” “The Driving Force of Life,” says that hundreds of situations, values, and emotions can guide our lives, and he identifies five of the most common. said: (1) Many people are driven by a sense of guilt, (2) Many live by chewing on the bitter root of resentment and anger, (3) Many live by fear, (4) Many people are driven by material things, (5) Many people live for the approval of others (Warren).   If we add one thing besides these five wrong motives of life, we can say that Pastor Aiden Tozer said, 'Live led by wrong habits'.   In other words, the above five wrong driving forces of life have become a habit and are so accustomed to us that we are living in ignorance, not even knowing what we are being led to.   For example, even though we have been in the church life for a long time, are we living with a sense of gui...

  “Let us start rebuilding.” (1)     [Nehemiah 2:11-16]     Gordon Macdonald's book “Rebuilding Your Broken World” tells us what kind of people God is using to expand His kingdom.   He is none other than people like Simon Peter, who failed God.   God uses them as His instruments in His kingdom expansion ministry.   Pastor MacDonald said three important things that happened in the “Sea of Tiberias” (Jn.21:1), centering on the words of John chapter 21:   (1)    Jesus came into Peter's world.   The rebuilder Jesus knew that Peter was too wounded to start on his own.   In other words, after Jesus died on the cross, Jesus appeared to Peter (and the other disciples), who had returned to his old job as a fisherman in disappointment and discouragement, and asked, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?” (v. 5).   And when Jesus said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some” (v. 6), Pe...