journal time

NEHEMIAH'S JOURNAL
 
In the summer of 2016, I took a Bible course based on the book of Nehemiah. It was a verse-by-verse study, covering the period of time when the Israelites, a nation freed from 70-years of captivity at the hands of the Babylonians, returned home to Judea and the great city of Jerusalem. Instead of seeing a great city, the Israelites were greeted by piles of rubble, broken and burned walls and gates.

Four decades earlier, a group of exiles had been granted permission by King Artaxerxes to rebuild the Temple. Enemies of the Israelites tried to convince the Babylonian king that the Israelites plotted against him. They urged the king to stop the Jews from completing work on the temple because the temple was a symbol of power to the Israelites. The Book of Ezra records the challenges and obstacles facing the Israelites as they laid the foundation of the temple. Ezra 3:12 says old men wept, and people shouted aloud for joy. The people of God brought back worship with a shout could be heard far away. Their enemies feared God would make Jerusalem a thriving city again. When King Artaxerxes heard about it, he halted work on the temple, demanding the Israelite builders and laborers return to Babylon immediately. Later, the temple was completed, but the surrounding walls and gates remained unfinished, making Jerusalem and those who lived within the gates, an easy target for their enemies.

• Enter Nehemiah, a Jew born in Babylon, and familiar with scripture and prophecies. He also served in a prominent position as a trusted  cupbearer to King Artaxerxes. After hearing of the problems facing the returned captives in Jerusalem, Nehemiah was determined to help. For 122 days, he prayed to God, and fasted in preparation to ask the king’s permission to repair Jerusalem’s wall. This is where Nehemiah’s journey and journal begins.

KEEPING A JOURNAL

Throughout the years, I’ve always kept a journal or diary, until I moved to Rosarito, Baja California. All of that changed because I became actively involved in a church. To keep track of the Bible college courses’ class notes, prayer groups, women’s Bible studies, Sunday’s sermons, Wednesday’s sermons, I wrote daily. The pages in my journal soon filled up. And then, I moved back to Lincoln, Nebraska, because of severe hip problems.

Unfortunately, I would have to leave Rosarito before I could finish a Bible class I was taking on the Old Testament Book of Nehemiah. My plan was to follow Nehemiah’s Principles of Preparation for rebuilding my physical and spiritual walls. Pastor Michael Hanson, my teacher, inadvertently taught me how to teach myself by questioning the content of everything I read, and how it related to me and the community I lived in. It wasn’t until I arrived back in Nebraska, that started I journaling on a regular basis. Besides comments about Scriptures, I wrote about hip pain, and what it was like to be back in Lincoln. I trusted the LORD would provide me a place to live and good medical care, and He did. He found me a perfect place to write and carry on my study. I divided each chapter into four days, saving the third day for journal entries to be studied, read, or written. I added a few blank lines in the printed material for journaling and notes, but offer a free journal if someone, like me, is a fanatic about writing every day. Otherwise, try writing just a few lines on the third day of each chapter under the section, Your Turn.

The more I read, the more I noticed connections between Nehemiah, David, and Christ. Oh, how I loved to study! Soon I was giving myself assignments to complete during the day and verses to memorize. It wasn’t until a few months ago as I was typing entry after entry, that I found the exact date when the LORD called me to share my journal. Although I began putting the book together, I was far from convinced the book was necessary. Besides, I’m not a Bible scholar and often doubt my writing ability; plus there are many projects and books related to understanding Nehemiah, so I questioned whether another book about Nehemiah was needed. I prayed for confirmation from God that I was on the right path, and this is what He wanted me to do.

October 2, 2017, the day I had an intense prayer time and was healed prior to surgery, was the same day God confirmed I should share my journal with others. I pray now that this journal about Nehemiah’s journal and my personal journey will compel the reader to seek You, LORD.
 
Not All Entries are Created Equal
When I started writing the study guide, I wanted to included a section for my journal entries. Not all entries were equal. One chapter of the book might contain several short entries, while another chapter had only one lengthy entry. As I grew in understanding, I literally spent hours writing entries. When I began work on Chapter 4, I realized I had written volumes because that particular chapter spoke to me at a time in my life when I needed to hear it. I had studied Chapter 4 in Rosarito, but didn’t really apply it until I was back in Nebraska. God used Nehemiah 4:19 as my “miracle verse,” and to keep me from being discouraged while He overhauled my broken spirit. God fought for me; His enemies fought back, trying to crush my spirit, just like in the days of old when I ran from God to gurus to failed relationships to drugs to bad life choices. While working on this study, I read God’s word vociferously every day, hungry for His truth, and longing to understand what He wanted me to do with my life, my projects, and my personal journal. Often, it was like putting a big jigsaw puzzle together, and I was never good with puzzles.

A Measuring Stick for Spiritual Growth 
If some entries sound repetitive or I quote verses more than once, it’s because they impacted me in such a way that I wrote about them again and again. To delete them would be like painting over 10 years’ worth of marks that are on the wall, like when we measure a child or grandchild; we can see how many inches they grew since the last time they were measured. I could say, “Here’s how tall my grandson was at age 11. Look how he’s grown!” and point at the mark on the wall. “He’s 60 inches tall.” Suppose I accidentally erased all the marks except the last one when he had turned 11. Someone comes over, and you point to the one and only mark. They’d say, “What? Where’s the marks? Was he always 60 inches tall?” Of course not. He arrived at that height inch-by-inch. That’s why we should hang on to all our journal entries—those first and last entries and all those entries in-between are a record of our spiritual growth.

The Pilot Test
Back to the subject of writing this book: I understood if I was going to share my journey or put it into a study format, I needed to commit to praying, planning, and practicing Nehemiah’s principles. One more thing was needed—a pilot test of the 52-Day Challenge. Together, my older brother, Tom Carpenter, and I took the Challenge. I learned quickly that doing the Challenge was very different from writing about it. The enemy constantly tried throwing me off-balance and trick me into believing I’d reached my spiritual pinnacle or that my spiritual life was at a standstill. At times, faced with discouragement, I would re-read a few journal entries and Viola! Faith, hope, trust, and the love of Christ revived me.

My journal entries serve as an example of what you can do with your own writing and where it can lead you. Don’t be afraid to get personal with your journal. Name your journal if you want. Draw in your journal. And please, don’t feel bad if you miss a day of writing. On days when you feel stretched for time, simply write, “Too busy because. . .” or “Too tired,” and limit your entry to a sentence or two. More than once I’ve fallen asleep in the evening while writing, which is why I find mornings a good time for prayers and reading. Remember, the section, “Nehemiah and Me” translates into “Nehemiah and You.” It’s about your personal journey to know Christ better. I also recommend that after a few weeks or months, re-read what you’ve written. You’ll be amazed at how God uses your words and His words to impact your life. One good thing about keeping a journal is finding an entry written in the past that confirms you’re on the right track with something you may be dealing with in the present.

The Truth About Enemies
As you’ll learn in Nehemiah, our enemies will do anything to stop us from growing spiritually. They lie, they use discouragement, and they tell us that we aren’t worthy of God’s love or that Christ did not die for us. The more you progress spiritually, the harder these enemies such as Anger, Jealousy, Fear, Hopelessness, will try to disrupt your life. Nehemiah’s adversaries tried to trip him up again and again. His enemies were scared that he would actually complete the wall; that would mean their lives, their commerce, and their control over the Israelites would come to an end. The same is true for us. Our enemy knows that the stronger we grow in Christ, the less control our spiritual enemies have over us. My prayer is that this book will help you identify the conspiracies and scare tactics the enemy uses to stop us from rebuilding and protecting our spiritual wall.

Proverbs 24:3
Through wisdom, a house is built
(or a spiritual house, or wall or city)
and by understanding it is established; by knowledge,
 its rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.