Heads Up

We saw in Nehemiah 1 a great model of prayer that had elements of a formal petition: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. It gives insight into Nehemiah’s habits of personal devotion. Here we see something else. Nehemiah is talking to the king (ch.2). The king asks what Nehemiah wants. He realizes that after months of…

We have seen that an effective leader has a right relationship to God and to earthly supervisors (the “boss”). Nehemiah succeeded, and his success shows how we too can succeed in “middle management.” We see in Nehemiah chapter two some keys to his success. The story does not make a great point of Nehemiah’s loyalty…

Nehemiah was a man of prayer, in fact, the book that bears his name contains at least prayers. There is no better way to introduce Nehemiah’s mastery of prayer then by a study of the prayer with which the book starts – the longest. Nehemiah was an important man even before his success in rebuilding…

Few Bible books address modern concerns so strongly and directly or are so practical as Nehemiah. In today’s parlance one might title Nehemiah’s book, “Be a leader!” Learn how to: Gather information and form workable plans Get other people to do what you want them to do (and like doing it) Manage a difficult boss…

Another dissenter, Anne Hutchinson, posed an even greater threat to Massachusetts Puritanism. A midwife and member of Boston’s congregation, Hutchinson wanted to take orthodoxy farther than it was willing to go. Salvation was by faith, not works, all agreed. But orthodoxy declared that after salvation, good works gave evidence of that salvation. Hutchinson challenged that…

The first meeting house in Boston, built in 1632, had mud walls and a thatched roof, as did the Puritans’ first homes. Literacy in New England was high (though many could not write, writing and “doing sums” being a more advanced stage of education). For Puritans, who put so much stake on the Bible, reading…