Photo copyright James T. Martin

Do you have a fence (or sometimes wish you did) between you and your neighbors? The poem “Mending Wall” written by Robert Frost in the 20^th century AD, states that “good fences make good neighbors.” This implies that sometimes a little separation can be a good thing when building relationships.

The Old Testament tells how in the 5^th century BC God called Nehemiah to mend a wall between Jerusalem and its neighbors. Without the wall, neighbors came and went as they pleased and the people living in the city had little protection. As you can imagine, most of the city lay in ruins without a way to control access.

Nehemiah answered God’s call and requested that the King of the Medo-Persian Empire grant him leave from his servant role in the palace. He desired to go to a city he had never seen before and build a wall. To fund this venture, Nehemiah requested resources from the king’s treasury. How many servants could make a request like this and expect to live? But the king liked Nehemiah and granted his request; he even made this layman the first governor of Judah.

The initial challenge for Nehemiah was to organize the people in and around the city to rebuild the walls and gates. Even though there was much opposition from neighbors, the task was completed in just 52 days. Nehemiah completed the task God asked him to do; so why didn’t he just return to the king and resume his position as a servant?

Nehemiah knew that building the wall was just the first step in what God desired him to do. He stayed for several years because the ultimate goal was to restore the relationship between the long-exiled people and their God and also prepare the way for Jesus to come. Now that the city was protected, commerce, worship, and other more normal tasks could resume. Essentially, Jerusalem was reborn after lying in ruins for over 100 years. All this occurred, thanks to Nehemiah taking the first key step of rebuilding the walls.

Has God called you to take a first step for Him? Is there something you can do to establish or restore a relationship between God and His people? Is there a wall that needs mending?

God called me, a layman, to write a book I titled “In the End… Jesus,” which explains Revelation and how it relates to end-time prophecy. After 3 years of research and study, the book is finally published. So now do I return to my former job, or do I follow through to the next task, like Nehemiah, to reach the ultimate goal God has established?

In my book, I describe Revelation as essentially a love letter of hope and encouragement from Jesus to His future bride. Few people read and understand Revelation because they don’t have the keys to translate the messages. They walk away scratching their heads like the people who heard Jesus teach the parables of hope and encouragement but did not comprehend them.

I want to share this love letter with everyone and help them understand what it means. In doing so hopefully many people will mend fences and establish, restore, or grow their relationship with Jesus. Isn’t that the ultimate goal? Perhaps after reading In the End… Jesus, you may mend the fence around your heart to enable your relationship to grow and prevent evil from entering in.

Writing this book was my first key step to answer God’s call but then placing it on the shelf to collect dust was not God’s ultimate plan. Like Nehemiah, I plan to take the next step of encouraging everyone to read and study this book and to start, resume, or enhance worshiping Jesus as Lord. Please check out my book and pass along this link to help me spread the Word.

www.InTheEndJesus.com by James T. Martin in paperback and eBook.

Photo from TheHallowedPath. wordpress.com

Life is a cycle. Each day starts in the darkness and ends when the sun sets. Our spiritual life is similar; it begins in darkness and changes when we see the light – the light of Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, would you classify your life as changed from darkness to light?

As our physical life sunsets, our spiritual life continues on in a resting state. After a period of sleep, we are called to begin the next phase of our spiritual life – a life in the light of glory or one of punishment in the light of fire.

The next phase has no end and thus, at this point the cycle forever ends. Amen.

According to Genesis 1:2, God formed the universe in the dark of night and then created light to shine during the second half of the day. God also created humans to emulate the rest of the universe. As such, we spend the first half of a new day (nighttime) at rest, forming and regenerating new cells in our body. This time of rest and regeneration allows us to be ready the moment we step out of bed to do our work during the part of the day when it is light. First we prepare ourselves at night, and then we do our work during the day.

Similarly, God creates a new human life the same way. He begins by forming new cells within a mother’s womb in the dark and allows it to see the light of day only after being prepared for the world’s environment. Just as a new day begins in darkness for humans, so does a new life – in the darkness of a mother’s womb.

Essentially all life begins in darkness: the universe, humans, animals in wombs or eggs, and plant seeds in the dirt. Why do you think God defined life this way?

Photo copyright James T. Martin

The ancient Hebrews followed the ways of God and defined a new day beginning at sunset. Their descendants today still observe sunset as the start of a new day.

Q. If we observe the beginning of a new day at a time other than when God defined it, whose rules are we following?

A. We are likely following man’s rules, not God’s.

Q. Who is it that inspires man to do things contrary to God and deny Him worship?

A. It has to be God’s adversary, Satan.

Q. Have you ever considered starting your new day at sunset?

Q. What would your friends say if you celebrated the New Year at sunset December 31 instead of midnight?

Q. When a time change occurs, do you set your clock before you go to bed or in the middle of the night?

God’s provides something cosmic like the sun going down to mark the transition to a new day. When you observe a beautiful sunset, are you moved to think of God and offer praise to him for a new day?

Satan doesn’t want you to praise God. So he influences us to choose another point in time to celebrate the new day. A time that has no cosmic activity to mark the occurrence and thus, we are not easily reminded of God. That’s likely part of Satan’s plan of deception.

If you follow God’s definition in Genesis 1, each new day begins at the return of darkness, not at midnight. Whether you start your day at midnight or sunset, you can still offer God praise when you see the sunset.

Photo by Joshua Miguel at Picable.com

Son: Why do we define a new day beginning at midnight?

Father: It’s been that way for centuries.

Son: Is there some cosmic event that occurs at midnight that we can see in the stars from 11 pm to 1 am? Will we see something special and thus, know it must be midnight and the start of a new day?

Father: No, midnight is some arbitrary man-made reference that likely evolved from the Roman time system. The Romans marked midnight as the time halfway between sunset and sunrise.

Son: Isn’t there a better way?

Father: For the creator of the universe, the first day started with darkness, evolved into light, and ended when darkness returned.

Son: Why don’t we follow His lead?

Father: The ancients Greeks and Hebrews, along with current Jews and some other religious groups do follow this pattern. The ancient Babylonians and some other groups who worshiped the sun thought the day began at sunrise.

Son: If I wake up between 2-3 am, do I tell people I woke up in the middle of the night or early in the morning?

Father: Most people say the middle of the night.

Son: Why do you word it that way? I think I’d rather say the day starts with a beautiful sunset created by God instead of a non-event at midnight.

Father: Me too, son. But it’s hard to fight city hall.

Learn more about the Roman Time System.

Photo copyright James T. Martin

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light. And God saw the light and it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.” – Genesis 1:1-5

Photo from http://startswithabang.com/?p=1429

In the darkness God formed the universe and then joined two nuclei together. This joining together or fusion at the subatomic-level produced energy and the reaction was light. As more and more nuclei joined, millions of stars were born. Scientists say the energy from this major reaction was the “Big Bang” that set the universe in motion 14 billion years ago. There was evening and then morning, the first day.

Learn more about the Big Bang.