When God places His hand on you!

Part of today's Bible reading from the "One Year Bible" was from Ezra 7. In the reading there is phrase used 3 times regarding the man Ezra; the gracious hand of his God was on him (Ezra). Now one of the things I have noticed in studying scripture; if God repeats something it must be important. Here we find this "gracious" phrase mentioned 3 times in 28 verses. Scripture is full of examples of men and women who experienced the hand of God upon them from time to time. Often times God placed his hand upon people because He had a  special task for them to accomplish or because they had a unique skill that would be beneficial to His purpose. When God placed his hand on Ezra it was not because of a special skill or a special moment in Israel's history. Verse 10 gives us the reason why God chose to place His hand on Ezra; This was because Ezra had determined to study and obey the Law of the LORD and to teach those decrees and regulations to the people of Israel. The reason why God chose to place His hand on Ezra was two-fold; Ezra was determined to study the word of God and he was willing to teach the decrees of God to the people of Israel. No special skill, no crisis of the moment, just a determination to study the word of God and and a desire to share the word with others. Ezra understood it was not enough to simply learn the word, Ezra knew the word of God must be taught to others. Ezra's determination and desire made him the worthy candidate to have God's hand placed upon him.

This morning, I sat in the Florida Christian College Convocation Service and listened to our President share the importance of being in the word of God to the student body. He then went on to challenge them to make sure they get the word out as well. As I sat there listening to him, I could not help but wonder how the student body of FCC will have numerous opportunities to get the word out in the years to come. Some will become preachers, missionaries, youth ministers and other vocational ministers; every week they will study, prepare and present the word of God and God's hand will be on each one of them as they get the word out. There was another group in the audience today, they will not go in to full-time vocational ministry, however, they too will have the opportunity to get the word out through their career choices as well. FCC has a simple motto; Strong in the Scriptures. We understand the importance scripture has in every area of our life. Scripture is foundational to our life. We also understand it is not enough to make scripture a part of our life we must teach the message of scripture as well. If we do, then like Ezra, we will find God's gracious hand upon us as well.