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Tag: Nehemiah 3:29

  • Ownership And Responsibility! 

    Nehemiah 3:29 “After them, Zadok the son of Immer made repairs in front of his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs”

    Nehemiah has led God’s people to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. Instead of getting professional wall builders to do the work, he calls on each person to take a section, and he assigns many of the workers to make repairs right in front of their own homes! This decision is brilliant. Nehemiah assigns people to do work that impacts them the most. One would expect that the work on the wall would be done with excellence, for their own lives depend on the work they were doing. If they don’t do the work or don’t do the work well, they will be the first to suffer as the enemy would come through the opening or the weakened area.  One can almost hear Nehemiah saying, “autograph your work with excellence” as he gave out assignments!

    You and I are to take ownership and personal responsibility for our own lives and for the things assigned to us.  Are you taking ownership of your own life, of your own home? Do you take responsibility for your actions? Excuses are the enemy of excellence! Be a builder, not a blamer! 

    Have the ten two-letter word mindset; if it is to be, it is up to me! Don’t be your own worst enemy!

    A March to Remember

    For March 29, let us remember John 1:29. John 1:29 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

    There were many reasons for Christ coming to this sinful world.  At the top of the list is to take care of our sin problem.  So He does not come as the ruler of the world but rather as a lamb that would be sacrificed for us.  John the Baptist announced Him to be the lamb of God who takes away – hear those words – takes away the sin of the world – your sins. 

    On March 29 we encourage you to re-read Matthew 27 which tells the story of the crucifixion of Christ, And we encourage you to read Isaiah 53 as this OT chapter tells of all the horrible things that would happen to the Messiah.
    You can find the Bible reading plan on the Date the Word app.

    Continue Strong this March Remembering our Savior,
    And remember to DATE the Word

  • Verse to DATE the Word on March 29 (3/29) is Nehemiah 3:29

    Verse to DATE the Word on March 29 (3/29) is Nehemiah 3:29

    Our verse to DATE the Word on March 29 (3/29) is Nehemiah 3:29
    Nehemiah 3:29 After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs in front of his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs.
     HELP THEM HAVE OWNERSHIP

    In an interview with some other Christian University colleagues, I was asked to give several of the best “unknown” leadership lessons I had learned.  The aspect of “unknown” was they wanted to hear things that were not OBVIOUS.  As I pondered my answer I thought about the importance of generating student “ownership” of campus events and activities.  I recalled how I intentionally read through my Bible during the year and had done this several times.  By reading completely through my Bible meant I read all of NUMBERS and ALL of 1 and 2 Chronicles (you know these are challenging books).  And it meant I read all of Nehemiah 3.  While Nehemiah 3 has only 31 verses it has some of the hardest names to pronounce and it does seem many of the verses are repetitive as Nehemiah tells who was involved in building the wall.  Because I had heard the value of helping others on your team have ownership and I believed in cultivating ownership I noticed there were several verses in Nehemiah 3 about ownership that got my attention, such as Nehemiah 3:29.   To those interviewing me I would ask them to turn to Nehemiah 3:29 and from this verse with some hard names to say I gave them a RICH PRINCIPLE of LEADERSHIP.  I told them to HELP TEAM MEMBERS HAVE OWNERSHIP of their school, their residence hall, their teams, etc. like Nehemiah did with the wall builders.  I told them I did not know if Nehemiah was a genius or not but 6 words in Nehemiah 3:29 were pure genius.  

    Did you see the six words?  Look at it again. Nehemiah 3:29 says, “After them, Zadok the son of Immer made repairs in front of his own house.”  Just 6 words, but oh what they accomplished.  IN FRONT OF HIS OWN HOUSE.  One has to wonder how hard Zadok worked and how diligent he was to the details to make sure the WALL was built sound and secure.  After all his security and his family’s security rest on his diligent work!   

    As we worked to oversee the student body at Liberty we had leadership teams on every floor and we had prayer groups on the floor led by members of the leadership team on that floor.   I don’t know how many times I told teams to TAKE CARE OF THEIR FLOOR and TAKE CARE OF THEIR PRAYER GROUP.  I knew if each team member took care of their prayer group then the floor was taken care of and if each leadership team took care of their floor the campus overall would be taken care of.  And the guiding thought for all this came from 6 words found in Nehemiah 3:29 as he had a man build the wall in front of his own house.  

    In conveying what was not an obvious leadership principle I did bring it back to one of my most obvious leadership principles of the first person you lead is you.  Each of us should be RESPONSIBLE for ourselves.   

    To teach this idea of ownership I heard about a father-in-law who wanted to help his son-in-law out.  His son-in-law owned a construction company.  The father-in-law asked his son-in-law to build him a beautiful, grand house.  While he could not give him a blank check, he told him to spare no expense as he wanted him to build him a really nice house. The son-in-law went to work and knowing his father-in-law did not know how much things cost he decided to cut corners and buy cheap materials.  Using cheap materials ended up costing more as things broke while installing them.  When he finally finished the house, the son-in-law hardly had made any profit.  His father-in-law then comes over and, AND, instead of taking the keys to the new home from his son-in-law he tells his son-in-law to keep the keys as the house was his!    

    As said in another verse we need to have the mindset of autographing our work with excellence.  Are you owning your work?  If you are a student, are you owning your studies?   If you are part of a team are you “owning” the team?  

    Our actions or inactions can have a great impact on ourselves!  
    OWN YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES!!

    Verse to DATE the Word on March 29 (3/29) is Nehemiah 3:29. Nehemiah 3:29 says, “After them Zadok the son of Immer made repairs in front of his own house. After him Shemaiah the son of Shechaniah, the keeper of the East Gate, made repairs.”

    Continue Strong, 
    And remember to DATE THE WORD