#but for every demoralizing sorrow in this world there is always an equal if not greater love

[giddlygoat]

it’s so funny bc i’m homeschooled and i avoided like 90% of the Average Kid childhood trauma bc of that and when ppl ask about my education i’m just like. look buddy. i can attribute an astonishing chunk of my good attitude, adventuresome spirit and kind heart to having watched my little pony instead of doing homework.

i know it sounds silly [because it is!] but i’m not kidding. being able to choose what i pursued was EXACTLY what i needed growing up, so i didn’t have to waste any extra time on subjects that didn’t appeal to me, worry about bullies or awful teachers, AND i had heaps of free time to spend doing what i pleased [almost entirely drawing]. i learned to write a check, order and shop for my own food, care for farm animals and pets, ask for help, speak my mind, dress as i like, and foster an outgoing and hopeful outlook on life that school would not have taught me.

my mom is incredible, and she has taught me countless invaluable things about life. but as a little kid, your parent’s lessons tend to bounce right off. the very same lessons from my favorite characters however, typically didn’t!

watching my little pony reinforced everything my mom stands for: kindness, reaching out and helping others, and looking out for and encouraging your peers, to name a few. good news - these very values are portrayed in flawed and deeply relatable pastel ponies with catchy songs full of heart and joy! watching my little pony prepared me for far more than i could have imagined in life, sometimes with something as simple as asking myself “what would rarity do?” in a situation i’m not confident in, for example.

i like to joke about how they should play my little pony for the kids in school, but i think it really does teach many things that aren’t inherently reinforced in the school system [although, i am only speaking on what i’ve heard from people who weren’t homeschooled. i have been inside a school only once for a short time].

anyway, this is all to say that it saddens me a bit when people casually reduce my little pony to something of little significance. mlp obliviously isn’t going to be everyone’s thing, but the positive impact it has had on me and countless others is undeniable, and it’s my hope that we soon live in a world that proudly encourages more media like my little pony for not only kids, but people of all ages to enjoy unabashed, no matter their story. every time i hear a friend say their parents didn’t let them watch it because it was ‘too girly’ or whatever nonsense, i become increasingly determined to make that world a reality.

long story short: i hold my little pony close and i am very grateful for what it’s taught me and continues to teach me, even all these years later. it’s good to be earnest and love as much as you can.

#my little pony #greenie lore dump ig LAWL #idk man i just watched oppenheimer and it got me thinking about my personal philosophy a lot #and i started thinking of all the reasons i always felt i had to seek joy and whimsy in my life no matter what #bc this world is in a bad way [as usual] and i wanted to know why the inherit terror of living wasn’t killing me already #and like. in the absolute most simplified terms possible. at the very root of it. #for me it started with taking mlp to heart and modeling myself after those characters #and really all i want to say is that i’m proud of people for trying. all i want to share is the delight i find in each day #and i want to acknowledge that the awful terrible everyday horrors of this world are very real and very certain #but for every demoralizing sorrow in this world there is always an equal if not greater love #that’s how i see it anyway #mlp #thoughts

[rockislandadultreads]

Titles with beautiful covers, non-fiction edition, from the bottom shelves of our library.

Summaries and Ratings from goodreads.com

Casa Nostra: A Home in Sicily by Caroline Seller Manzo

3.66/5 stars

In this enchanting memoir about food, family, culture, and culture shock, an Englishwoman shares the unpredictable adventures of her Sicilian family and the renovation of their villa At a mid-seventies Halloween party in London, Caroline Seller stumbled across a man in a lion mask. Although she spoke little Italian and he practically no English, both were undeniably smitten. After only a few more meetings, Caroline was invited to stay with Marcello's family in Mazara del Vallo, Sicily, where she was introduced to the eccentric Manzo clan—including Marcello's larger-than-life mother Maria—who lived in a magnificent but crumbling villa, Santa Maria. Soon afterward Caroline and Marcello married, set out on an expatriate life together around the world, and started their own family, but Santa Maria was never far from their thoughts. After much debate over the fate of the deteriorating villa, Marcello and his brothers united to save it. Determined in their mission—but not entirely prepared for what they were getting into!—Marcello and Caroline embarked on a restoration process full of disconcerting setbacks, demoralizing mishaps, and ultimately breathtaking results. Through amusing anecdotes, stunning photography, and inspired observations of Sicilian culture, Casa Nostra shows not only the renovation of the villa, but also the unique beauty and history of western Sicily and its people, as seen through the eyes of Caroline Seller Manzo—an outsider who is often surprised, and always delighted, by her family and adopted hometown.

Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured by Kathryn Harrison

3.44/5 stars

The profoundly inspiring and fully documented saga of Joan of Arc, the young peasant girl whose "voices" moved her to rally the French nation and a reluctant king against British invaders in 1428, has fascinated artistic figures as diverse as William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, Voltaire, George Bernard Shaw, Bertolt Brecht, Carl Dreyer, and Robert Bresson. Was she a divinely inspired saint? A schizophrenic? A demonically possessed heretic, as her persecutors and captors tried to prove?

Every era must retell and reimagine the Maid of Orleans's extraordinary story in its own way, and in Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured, the superb novelist and memoirist Kathryn Harrison gives us a Joan for our time—a shining exemplar of unshakable faith, extraordinary courage, and self-confidence during a brutally rigged ecclesiastical inquisition and in the face of her death by burning. Deftly weaving historical fact, myth, folklore, artistic representations, and centuries of scholarly and critical interpretation into a compelling narrative, she restores Joan of Arc to her rightful position as one of the greatest heroines in all of human history.

The First Muslim: The Story of Muhammad by Lesley Hazleton

3.92/5 stars

Muhammad’s was a life of almost unparalleled historical importance; yet for all the iconic power of his name, the intensely dramatic story of the prophet of Islam is not well known. In The First Muslim, Lesley Hazleton brings him vibrantly to life. Drawing on early eyewitness sources and on history, politics, religion, and psychology, she renders him as a man in full, in all his complexity and vitality.       Hazleton’s account follows the arc of Muhammad’s rise from powerlessness to power, from anonymity to renown, from insignificance to lasting significance. How did a child shunted to the margins end up revolutionizing his world? How did a merchant come to challenge the established order with a new vision of social justice? How did the pariah hounded out of Mecca turn exile into a new and victorious beginning? How did the outsider become the ultimate insider?       Impeccably researched and thrillingly readable, Hazleton’s narrative creates vivid insight into a man navigating between idealism and pragmatism, faith and politics, nonviolence and violence, rejection and acclaim. The First Muslim illuminates not only an immensely significant figure but his lastingly relevant legacy.

The Apparitionists: A Tale of Phantoms, Fraud, Photography, and the Man Who Captured Lincoln's Ghost by Peter Manseau

3.42/5 stars

A story of faith and fraud in post–Civil War America, told through the lens of a photographer who claimed he could capture images of the dead. In the early days of photography, in the death-strewn wake of the Civil War, one man seized America’s imagination. A “spirit photographer,” William Mumler took portrait photographs that featured the ghostly presence of a lost loved one alongside the living subject. Mumler was a sensation: The affluent and influential came calling, including Mary Todd Lincoln, who arrived at his studio in disguise amidst rumors of séances in the White House. Peter Manseau brilliantly captures a nation wracked with grief and hungry for proof of the existence of ghosts and for contact with their dead husbands and sons. It took a circus-like trial of Mumler on fraud charges, starring P. T. Barnum for the prosecution, to expose a fault line of doubt and manipulation. And even then, the judge sided with the defense — nobody ever solved the mystery of his spirit photography. This forgotten puzzle offers a vivid snapshot of America at a crossroads in its history, a nation in thrall to new technology while clinging desperately to belief.

The Rose of Martinique: A Life of Napoleon's Josephine by Andrea Stuart

4.11/5 stars

One of the most remarkable women of the modern era, Josephine Bonaparte was born Rose de Tasher on her family's sugar plantation in Martinique. She embodied all the characteristics of a true Creole-sensuality, vivacity, and willfulness. Using diaries and letters, Andrea Stuart expertly re-creates Josephine's whirlwind of a life, which began with an isolated Caribbean childhood and led to a marriage that would usher her onto the world stage and crown her empress of France. Josephine managed to be in the forefront of every important episode of her era's turbulent history: from the rise of the West Indian slave plantations that bankrolled Europe's rapid economic development, to the decaying of the ancien régime, to the French Revolution itself, from which she barely escaped the guillotine. Rescued from near starvation, she grew to epitomize the wild decadence of post-revolutionary Paris. It was there that Josephine first caught the eye of Napoleon Bonaparte. A true partner to Napoleon, she was equal parts political adviser, hostess par excellence, confidante, and passionate lover. In this captivating biography, Stuart brings her so utterly to life that we finally understand why Napoleon's last word before dying was the name he had given her: Josephine.

Wise Men and Their Tales: Portraits of Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Masters by Elie Wiesel

4.21/5 stars

In Wise Men and Their Tales, a master teacher gives us his fascinating insights into the lives of a wide range of biblical figures, Talmudic scholars, and Hasidic rabbis.

The matriarch Sarah, fiercely guarding her son, Isaac, against the negative influence of his half-brother Ishmael; Samson, the solitary hero and protector of his people, whose singular weakness brought about his tragic end; Isaiah, caught in the middle of the struggle between God and man, his messages of anger and sorrow counterbalanced by his timeless, eloquent vision of a world at peace; the saintly Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi, who by virtue of a lifetime of good deeds was permitted to enter heaven while still alive and who tried to ensure a similar fate for all humanity by stealing the sword of the Angel of Death.

Elie Wiesel tells the stories of these and other men and women who have been sent by God to help us find the godliness within our own lives. And what interests him most about these people is their humanity, in all its glorious complexity. They get angry—at God for demanding so much, and at people, for doing so little. They make mistakes. They get frustrated. But through it all one constant remains—their love for the people they have been charged to teach and their devotion to the Supreme Being who has sent them. In these tales of battles won and lost, of exile and redemption, of despair and renewal, we learn not only by listening to what they have come to tell us, but by watching as they live lives that are both grounded in earthly reality and that soar upward to the heavens.

#nonfiction #non fiction #reading recommendations #reading recss #Book Recommendations #book recs #currently reading #beautiful books #book covers #pretty books #library #public library #booklist #recommendations #booklr #books to read

[atmanviv]

Dealing with enemies

1. Hiding facts is no good. You will feel heavenly peace and strength if you share the reality about the enmity and enemies to those who might get affected.

2. If someone or some people is your enemy, be open and let the world know it. Why should you be hypercritical in your attitude towards them? Be straight. No hypocrisy. No closing the eye and drinking milk. Do not disturb your enemy with hypocrisy. Be true.

3. The biggest intention of your enemy will be to make you have fear. And once you fear, ninety percent work of the enemies will be done. So never fear. Fear is death. Fear is sin. Tell it in the face of your enemy that he/she should not expect you to fear you. Say that no attempt of their will make your fearful.

4. The difference between you and your enemies will be, that you will have tremendous patience whereas your enemy will lose patience sooner or later. And one who has the tremendous patience wins.

5. Enemies might commit crime with the fear that you may harm them in future. Fear is the cause of which sin is the result. Or, they may harm you because of jealousy and hatred.

6. Imitating the enemies is no good way. Let them play their game and you follow your own.

7. The enemies might rejoice over your misfortunes. But you need not be unholy and impure.

8. Enemies are like babies who have created a game for themselves where they laugh, enjoy, play around their circle. I should not get disturbed by that.

9. “All my worry and anxiousness is over what they may be thinking, how much they may be laughing seeing my suffering and by seeing my breaking of my ego. I'm not much worried thinking what I think but what they think.”

Just stand aside and let these thoughts and feeling go. Be a witness to the feelings which goes on within you, which you think is wrong.

10. Exposing reduces the chance of evil a lot. If you expose the suspected design of enemies, then the enemies may hardly do that as you and your near and dear ones would have prepared themselves for that.

Enemies do evil only when they knew that you are ignorant. Once they find you have the knowledge, they will hardly do it. E.g., the car which is waiting hundred meters away is meant to kidnap you. Now once you reveal it to the world through your facebook status or through holding a placard that a car having such and such number belonging to such person is waiting for you, the car instead of waiting there for you would run away as fast as it can.

11. The good thing about having strong enemies is that you stay alert and once their mischief starts an energy of alertness comes within you.

12. Should we think of evil, or should we not?

Will we become less intelligent, more vulnerable if we stop thinking of evil?

At the same time Vivekananda says that all truth in the universe will manifest in your heart if you are sufficiently pure.

13. If you could collect intelligence about your enemy, their plans and secrets, from the latter's feelings, words, body language or by some way or the other, then keep doing it. This is a precious talent.

14. Why should I listen to evil? When my enemies speak of evil, it is not true. It is not the true character of a man which Vivekananda has defined. Why not I counter these evil thoughts with the thoughts of strength preached by Vivekananda? So every time the enemies start speaking evil, it will be a practicing session for me. And I must thank my enemies for freely starting the practicing session.

Evil means that which is not true, not correct about the real nature of man.

15. Do not disturb yourself when you hear the laughs of your enemies. Don't try to find out what for they are laughing; whether they are hatching a big conspiracy against you. Firstly, it might just be a psychological trick to demoralize you. They might want you to think of your past misdeeds, embarrassments.

Don't open your mind to these things. If anything comes face it head on.

16. Do not try to disturb the faith of Mr.XYZ (enemy). If you can, give him something better; if you can, get hold of him where he stands and give him a push upwards.

17. Many times the taunts and scoffs and scorns are not genuine. The enemies hardly know the real fact. The intention behind those behavior might simply to hurt you, irrespective of the fact if you had committed mistake or not committed.

They may be in illusion. But you know yourself best. They may think you as weak. But you know what you are. They may be rejoicing over your failures. But you know how to get success. They may be thinking you as a defeated person, but you know how to seek the truth.

If the enemies take your struggle as defeat, it is their problem, and if they are celebrating let them do.

Why should I be in a hurry to seek victory? I've eternity to struggle.

The enemy will try it's best to show you that you are weak and they are strong, that they have power and you don't have power, that they can do and you can't. That they are good and I'm bad. That they must live and I must die.

18. Getting angry even over evil doesn't help.

'Do not open your mind, unless you feel it will be positively essential'.

So, we want, always, positive thoughts, positive ideas, optimism, and everything positive.

19. Do not think of evil things. Why should we think of evil? Do you think you will become less intelligent if you stop thinking of evil? Do you think you will become insecure if you stop thinking evil?

No. No such thing happens.

And even lawyers need not think of evil, because indeed nowhere it is needed.

20. If the enemy grumbles it shows that he is putting more labor in research and analysis over you.

Other subjects

1. Our work should be to communicate to others whatever good things we know and at the same time learn from others whatever good things we can learn.

2. He who loves is a fortuitus fellow, also he who is in love he too is a fortuitus fellow. And is a happy man too.

3. It is better to die making effort to live than to die without.

4. It is better to live in the struggles of life than like stocks and stones. But peace is higher than all these.

5. A friend is one who has power to bring a genuine smile on your face. And you know that the cost of a smile is very high.

People are always open to good and genuine friendship.

Everyone has a story. Everyone has an encyclopedia within him/her.

6. The pure soul, the unselfish heart sees truth, speaks truth. It is only from such person from whose heart genuine appreciation comes.

7. The great fact: 'Strength is life, weakness is death'.

Whatever is strong, lives on; whatever is weak is liable to die.

8. When you come face to face with any crisis think only strong thoughts, positive thoughts, helpful thoughts, till the last breath.

9. Love teaches patience.

10. 'Take heart and work'.

Put your heart in to the work you do. Whatever work you do put your whole heart in to it.

11. Crime in India is growing because of corruption in judiciary and because of corrupt governments. If there is corruption there will be no justice. Investigation is not done properly so the real culprits are not booked.

When someone doesn't get justice, he/she many times takes law in to his/her hand. And in this way crime grows.

12. Give equal respect and equal attention to one and all. Never make any distinction between high and low.

13. No one can teach you, you've to teach yourselves.

No one can help you; you've to help yourself.

14. As experience is the only teacher, therefore, 'less-good things', and crime are the reality of life.

15. You never really learn from others. Whatever you read, you simply refresh what you had already learned from yourself.

Whatever you read is simply refreshing your own consciousness, which you were aware already.

16. Love forgives all and everything. Love bears all and everything. Love loves all and every good thing. When love comes to your heart and soul and mind, you realize the highest peace. And life turns in to a lovely song for you, which you go on singing. The highest truths, the highest knowledge, automatically comes to your heart, the highest secret is revealed in your heart.

This is what love does. Whether love comes within you for a person or for the humanity at large.

17. Stick to your words because experience is the only teacher.

18. When the temptation of doing those wrong things comes in to your heart, say "no" firmly to yourself. Because experience has taught you that those were wrong.

19. Fear is the cause of sin. Many times, someone attacks you first because he/she thinks you might attack him/her now or in future. They think if you live, you might harm them in future. So they want you dead.

20. Throw self (feeling of shy, etc) overboard, and exercise, for the sake of good health.

21. The joy of friendship: While being with the friend you forget all your pain and sorrow; all animosity, fear, troubles. You get tremendous amount of happiness.

22. It's true, in life there is nothing fixed. But there should be fixed time to go to bed and to get up. The good old,.. early to bed and early to rise....

23. Do not disturb yourself by vain criticism. Even if it seems thought provoking, intelligent criticism; and even if it is from a very learned person.

24. Everyone justifies their action as the best. Nobody likes to do anything lesser. Each one is right from his own perspective.

25. Now I'm ready to commit mistakes in future, un-intentionally, and thereby learning from those examples, without making myself disheartened.

26. The person who had invented airplane have never had a business class trip. So just because you are not there to see the future, you should not give what you are supposed to give. Be fearless and express yourself.

A mother gives birth to a baby but in future many people love that child, other than the mother, as it grows up and becomes a man, even in some cases more than the mother. So your idea can be even used more better than you who have discovered that.

27. We give second thought to that which interests us, which is pleasurable, which draws our attention. And when we know that we are in everything, that God and good is in everything, then that (anything) turns in to our subject of interest.

28. The reality of the world: We know what AIDS, Covid-19 is, yet millions get infected with it each year.

29. Re-discover all the knowledge of the reality (everything).

30. Witness what's going on in your mind and in your emotion and note those down.

31. Give your message. Do not vainly argue with anyone. Though you may be having a better message than him yet do not always impose your views.

32. One can be inspired and suggested for some work. But it is hard to exactly recommend and prescribe someone for a particular work. The choice is obviously up to that person.

33. Many thoughts and worries will make you anxious. Do not care for those troubles. Let them come. Do your duty, or your studies. Do them well, in perfection. Then take one trouble. Put all the teachings of Vivekananda over it. Put all your effort to solve it, to get rid of it. Do every possible legal work which is necessary to solve it, every good and great deed. And in no time that trouble will be over. And then go to the next one.

If a person can take one step, he or she can take hundred steps too. If you can solve one problem you can solve hundreds of problems.

34.

Swami Vivekananda

1. Whatever resources you use for your enjoyment and pleasure, shift those resources to fulfil the basic needs of poor.

3. If Vivekananda gives an easy way to rise faster just by obeying his commands and words, then why should one not go for it?

4. You are in control of your mind. You are in power whether to use it on something or not.

5. Re-live Vivekananda. Do not leave living on a single word said by him. This life is an opportunity.

You progress tremendously faster with the help of a Guru.

6. When you are to take decision on something, first refer Vivekananda's message and filter everything through it. Then your thoughts is safe to apply.

7. The sayings of Vivekananda are the most precious things which one can find on earth and in heaven.

8. Swami Vivekananda didn't live for himself even for a sec. He lived and worked so that whoever follows his sayings get salvation.

9. You just need to sail smoothly along with Vivekananda's words, and obey everything he says. This is all there is to do.

10. Our body is our enemy and yet is our friend. People do crime by being dragged by emotion and even pass whole of life behind bar. Over here our body makes us do sin; over here our body is our enemy.

Society expects us not to let our emotion rule over us.

11. "Live for an ideal and leave no place in mind for anything else".

So, what's that ideal you are currently living on?

12. "Work like lions". Following this ideal gives you strength to work and you work like lions even though you would have got some pain from your enemies.

13.

[refugechurchri]

Flashback Friday--Nehemiah Chapter two.

Our series on Nehemiah continues with a sermon drawn from chapter two with an emphasis on Nehemiah 2:1-5, 8b-12, 16-18. Recall that the central figure of our narrative, Nehemiah, is cupbearer to the Persian king. A position often second only to the king himself. Upon hearing the news that the walls of Jerusalem were broken down, Nehemiah wept and prayed for months. The broken-down walls of Jerusalem represented for Israel the possibility of their extinction, calling into question whether or not God had abandoned His promise to them. The broken down walls also represented the consequences of their own disobedience to God as His people. This left the people of God and therefore the fame of God, at least in the eyes of the nations “in great trouble and shame” (1:3). But, as we saw in Nehemiah’s prayer last week God always keeps His covenant and steadfast love (1:5) And “he is fundamentally disposed to keep His promises to Israel”. Every generation of God’s people from Abraham, to Nehemiah, to us today has the promised guarantee that God will build His kingdom through His people when they humble themselves and worship Him only. This principle is not bound to any era in Biblical history. It is a trans-dispensational promise. God’s people are to “love Him and keep his commandments” and consequentially His kingdom walls will be built around each heart and collectively around his people. Our challenge as God’s people then is to be renewed and inspired to what is the unifying vision of God’s purpose and the opposition we should expect when it becomes our chief concern. This is the heart and theme of Nehemiah chapter 2 and our sermon today. God’s singular purpose in all the Bible is to establish His kingdom. In our hearts, in His people, and in this world. And promoting the welfare of God’s people means that God’s Kingdom is advancing. When God’s Kingdom is advancing, wouldn’t you know that what is heightened is the conflict of good and evil. Put God’s purpose before your desire and emotions and expect resistance. God’s enemies always attempt to interrupt the purpose of God. We see this no more clearly than in chapter 2 of Nehemiah. When Nehemiah becomes chiefly concerned with the welfare of the name and fame of the God of Israel in chapter 1, we see the immediate conflict of good and evil in chapter 2. In the original Hebrew writing of the text there is constant contrast between the terms good and evil. The Hebrew word for good is tob, and the word for evil is ra. Here are some examples of the contrast: 2:6—7: Nehemiah’s face is SAD (evil - RA) – yet it pleased the king (Tob – good) to assist. 2: 17—18: The people of Israel and the city were in “trouble” (evil-RA) yet began the “good” (tob) work. 2: 10 It displeased them (evil-ra) that one had come for the “welfare” (good-tob) of God’s people. One writer noted, “Underlying the action in this chapter is the conflict of good and evil. Everything that serves the interests of the returned exiles-the king’s decision, the rebuilding of the walls – is good; all that tends towards…their loss – the broken walls, Nehemiah’s grief, the aspirations of sanballat…is evil.” This should remind us that any opposition to the building of God’s kingdom in your heart and in His people is spiritual opposition. The opposition might appear to be physical, but Paul in Ephesians 6 “…locates it in the ‘heavenly places’, and names the real antagonists of God’s people as ‘the spiritual hosts of wickedness’. The outward forms of such opposition vary from age to age. Yet it is war. And the only recourse of the people of God is in the words of Nehemiah, “Rise up and build”. I want to look at three sources of opposition to Jesus’ reign in your heart and in His people and then look at how we resist this opposition. 1. Personal resistance Our text says that Nehemiah’s face is SAD (evil - RA – vv. 6-7). Anytime we resist God’s good purpose and will for our lives it will always crush us, Break down our walls, and leave us in despair. It is likely that Nehemiah’s sorrow resembles more of the sorrow Jesus felt over Israel’s hard heart and also over the death of Lazarus. This sorrow did not leave him incapacitated or without hope as we seem Him act in faith and hope. But it is often the case that our sadness of heart prevents us from rising-up and building. And often, for the Christian, new life seems hopeless either because we think God won’t provide it, or we feel are not worthy of it. But does not the psalmist say in 81:10, “I am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, open wide your mouth and I will fill it”. It seems to me that the first step to “building the Kingdom” in our lives and others is internally resisted for the following reasons: Idolatry – we disobey God’s word because we think what we will gain from that disobedience will fill more perfectly a personal emotional need than God can or that the name and fame of God is a lesser objective than others: leisure, affirmation, applause, or the like. Insecurity – we feel we are not up to the task Guilt – we feel we are not worthy of the task And this despairing of heart can strip our faith, leave us without hope, and convince us that the Lord’s life is past tense in our lives. Yet the struggle is not simply personal There is a second reason. 2. Internal Corporate Resistance The people of Israel and the city were in “trouble” (evil-RA, 17, 18). Not only did Nehemiah have to deal personally with insecurity, guilt, and external opposition, likewise the people needed to complete this project were equally demoralized, deflated and discouraged. They were the ones whose sin had brought on this broken-down city in the first place. And they were the ones who had to contend with local hostilities, lack of resources, and lack of support. Nehemiah not only needed to revive his faith in God, but Israel corporately needed to repent and trust in God to complete this magnificent task. We know the city and the temple was destroyed in 586BC and that the people of Israel went into exile. We also know that the Persian rise to power allowed the Jews to return and rebuild the temple. Yet the city walls remained a shambles. Consider also that these same people had already attempted to rebuild the walls only 13 years prior with permission from the same king (Artaxerxes). But in Ezra chapter 4, they are accused of defiance towards Persia. Artaxerxes believes the slander and stops the work. So here is a group of people who have tried and failed. And isn’t it true that over time, after many defeats, you sort of lose heart and give up. The Israelites had been conquered because of the curse of their own sin. They Had to contend with those subsequent feelings of guilt. And what’s more had to contend with feelings of insecurity which no doubt resulted from their failed rebuilding attempts. There was a corporate cloud halting the work – a shared gloom. Which leads to our third source of opposition. 3. External Resistance It displeased them (evil-ra) that one had come for the “welfare” (good-tob) of God’s people (10). The remaining portions of Nehemiah will show that this external material force did not go away either. There were three different prominent figures that were highly displeased with the fact that Nehemiah was in Jerusalem to proclaim the name and fame of YHWH by rebuilding the walls. In our text there are three prominent antagonists: Sanballat, Tobiah, and Geshem. These were basically influential governors from other countries to the North, South, and East of Jerusalem who viewed a strong Jerusalem as a threat to their own power. But make no mistake, their hostility came not just from a desire for power, but from a hatred toward the nation of Israel. They sought to oppose the purpose of God. And if you determine to follow Christ Evil forces will be very much disturbed. So lets see how did Nehemiah resisted this opposition. We will see he did this in three basic ways. A. recalling the good promise of God Nehemiah’s vision and courage was sourced first in the promise of God and second in His humble pursuit of God in prayer. The promise of God guarantees success to anyone seeking to promote God’s purpose. Nehemiah founded his vision and established His courage in the unchanging promise of God. Notice when the king asked what he wanted He was bound up in bouts of insecurity. Let me go rebuild the walls, he asks. He believed HE could do it, not because of some masterful leadership prowess, but because of “the lord’s gracious hand”. B. having a good plan Though Nehemiah knew that only God can do the work That didn’t prevent him from shrewd planning. He knew how to respectfully address the king. He knew when to ask him (when he was in a good mood). He knew HOW to ask him (note he didn’t use the name “Jerusalem” which no doubt would have made the defensive because he was the same king who shut down the project 13 years prior – he also made it personal/emotional (the city where my father’s are buried is in ruins). He knew how long it would take him. He knew what materials he would need. And he knew he would need the king’s letters to cut through red tape. He also did reconnaissance around the city for three days to assess the project. He was a prayer, but also a planner. C. having a good mission with a specific goal Though Nehemiah had a plan, he did not primarily motivate himself or the people with strategy, but with mission. Recall, You see the trouble we are in: Jerusalem lies in ruins, and its gates have been burned with fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem, and we will no longer be in disgrace.” I also told them about the gracious hand of my God on me and what the king had said to me. They replied, “Let us start rebuilding.” He gave them a vision of a renewed city. One that radiates the power of God to all watching. This the greatest answer to all negativity and opposition. The vision of God’s glorious kingdom reigning in our lives. Assured by the divine promise of God. Promised to us even after we failed. Promised to us in our inability. Promised to us even in the midst of opposition. So, rise up and build friends. Build up the broken down walls of God’s will and purpose in your life. Consider the famous words of Winston Churchill: “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. What is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory – victory at all costs, victory in spite of the terror; victory no matter how long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival; we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight…” Friends, the walls of God’s love, purpose and will might have long ago fallen but if we Rise up and build He WILL DO IT! this is a prodcution of Refuge Church, Warren, RI.