Just One

Ezra 7:10 For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.

Have you ever longed to be the ONE in the crowd who could make a difference FOR God?

I don’t really think that is such an uncommon desire – especially among true Bible-believing Christians. After all, that is exactly what Jesus commanded us to do – make a difference in the world.

We have a couple men who are bent on making a difference right now in a very public way. We call them presidential candidates. The most profound part of their message is they both want to “change things.”

Again, that is not an uncommon desire. Most of us would like to “change things.” Only if we could.

We tend to think presidential candidates have a greater opportunity to do that – change the world that is - but I don’t think that’s true. In fact, there are NO political solutions which change the world…

But you can.

Ponder that for a moment. How can you change the world? How can I change the world?

It begins with a desire planted in your heart by Jesus Christ – not a political affiliation. Ezra is a great example of this to us.

Here we see a small man in a distant time carving out a huge part of enemy territory FOR God. The reason Ezra was successful where so many others failed is because he prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to teach others.

It does no good to teach others if you have not prepared your heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and it does little good to prepare your heart seek the Law of Lord if you have no desire to teach others. Both things must be in place to be useful to God to change the world. Your world.

Ezra focused on changing his world. He sought to affect a change in the hearts of the men and women he knew personally - his brothers and sisters. He had no idea in doing so what a profound affect he would have on the entire history of the world by preserving the Law of the Lord, one person at a time. Just one.
- Pastor Bill