QT: Uplift with power (4) Neh10:1–39 Week 34: 18/08/2023. Fri
Uplift with power (4)
https://www.esv.org/Neh10:1–39
Week 34: 18/08/2023. Fri
From the Our Community of Families 2023 photo album, many could not even call out the names of those in the photo without help from the accompanying texts. It's time to meet and co-work again for community integration, so that the uplift to the next level of maturity could be an awesome period of growth.
To experience an uplifting community life, we need one another to stay healthy, to look out for each other, for companionship and synergy. Mutual edification and supervision could only happen in close relationships, not closed relationships from afar with degraded audio, visual, handshake and "presence".
Community is not only for flora or animals who stay high up on trees, but even more so for the people of God who assemble for worship. The God whom we worship is a community of sorts, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
We see here in Nehemiah's time the support that they gave one another so that the whole community would be lifted in power to the next level of maturity. People of multiple backgrounds were involved—people, priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants (10:28). They supplied resources to run and fund the worship activities (10:34–39).
The Tabernacle and later the Jerusalem temple was the centre of their worship for Israel. The believers then were obligated to worship at the Jerusalem temple at least three times a year even though the journey was long for many of them.
In addition, it is not possible to worship God long term without the involvement of other believers. We observe from the past that many who grew well, grew healthily, did so with much participation and involvement from others.
In a modern society, where the "self" is very much elevated nowadays, more and more people are placing higher and higher value on privacy, personal convenience, wants and opinions, so much so that they get disengaged and even disconnected with the rest of the church body. Meet up and get uplifted.
