“Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.”
~ Ezra 10:11
Hi James and Ellen,
Do you know how a guy or a gal or a kid becomes a Christian? A guy or a gal or a kid will become a Christian when he or she is led by God through His Spirit to believe who His Son Jesus Christ is and who accepts Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior. God through His Spirit compels a Christian to confess his or her sinfulness to Him. God through His Spirit provokes a Christian to be remorseful of his or her waywardness towards Him. Before God created planet Earth, God elected the guys, gals and kids who He would have become Christians. Some kids – like you, are born blessed. God has these kids born to Christian parents – like your ma and dad. Your grandmaa’s ma and dad were Christians. Your grandpaa’s ma and dad are Christians. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are Christians. You have help all around you to help you live your lives as Christians. Before Jesus Christ came to planet Earth to give His life as a sacrifice for the sins of the guys, gals and kids who He would have become Christians, God chose a family – who became the Israelite people group, to be His special people. God gave the Israelites – His specially chosen people, rules and laws which He expected them to always obey. God told the Israelites over and over again that He would punish them by having them be taken away from their country by other countries if they did not keep His regulations and commandments. God told His specially chosen people that He would destroy their country if they did not always obediently heed His directives and edicts. God helped the Israelites by having Moses write down His rules and laws. You will read and hear a lot about how the Israelites would forget God. God sometimes had to do something drastic to His specially chosen people to enforce the consequences that He had told them would take place if they did not do what He had told them to do. Your ma and dad have rules in your home. What happens if you do not obey a rule that your ma and dad have for you to keep? They will ask you to confess – like admitting, that what you did was wrong for you to do. Your dad and/or ma may punish you. You are to learn from the ways that God punished His specially chosen people – the Israelites, when they did not obediently obey His rules and laws. As Christians, you are to be faithfully obedient to God by doing what God says in the Bible for you to do.
Your grandmaa and grandpaa wanted to be good Christians when they were first married but . . . they did go to church. Your grandmaa taught a Sunday school class for a time. When your dad was about your age James, your grandpaa was asked to manage the Liberty Loan office in Springfield, Massachusetts. Your grandmaa and grandpaa had to sell the new house that they had bought in Claymont, Delaware. Your grandmaa and grandpaa really did like living in Massachusetts. They would take your dad fishing at a nearby lake. They would go for long rides because the area around where they lived in Agawan was really picturesque. They began attending a Bible Baptist Church. The pastor and his wife became friends. After about six months, the pastor was asked to teach in a Bible school in Minneapolis. The Bible Baptist Church’s new pastor thought that your grandmaa and grandpaa should be baptized by immersion. Because your grandmaa and grandpaa had both been baptized right after they were born, they did not think they had to be baptized again in another church. When the Bible Baptist Church’s new pastor kept mentioning in his sermons that everyone needed to be baptized by immersion, your grandmaa and grandpaa stopped going to his church. When your grandmaa and grandpaa could not find another church which they liked in the area where they were living, they decided to relocate to South Dakota. It was a move your grandmaa and grandpaa had talked about doing when they were first married but . . . God had a reason for having your grandmaa and grandpaa move from Massachusetts to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. God led your grandmaa and grandpaa to begin to attend church again. After living for a couple of years in Sioux Falls, your grandpaa was asked to manage the Beneficial Finance office in Aberdeen, South Dakota. Your dad had to move again. Your dad’s Uncle Hal and Aunt Jean suggested that your grandmaa and grandpaa visit the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church in Aberdeen. It was God’s will that they went there. Your grandpaa will tell you someday how that happened. Not long after your Aunt Lynn was born, a deeper life speaker spoke in the church. Your grandmaa and grandpaa like sitting as far in the back of a church as they can. During one of the evenings, the special speaker – Don McKaughn, while he was talking pointed straight in the direction of where your grandpaa was sitting and said ‘if you say that you are a Christian, why are you not acting like one’. Your grandpaa knew that he was a Christian but your grandpaa also knew that he was not acting like a good Christian. Your grandpaa at that moment decided he would be a Christian who acted like a Christian.
Ezra – in Ezra 10, is angry with some former Israelite exiles in what they were doing. God had allowed a small number of Israelite guys, gals and kids to return to their land after He had punished them by making them slaves in another country. Some of the guys had married gals who were not Israelites. Ezra was not happy with these guys. Because Ezra knew what God wanted, Ezra tells the Israelites in verse 11 “Now make confession to the LORD, the God of your fathers, and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples around you and from your foreign wives.” God wanted His specially chosen people – the Israelites, to only live for Him. He did not want them to be with those who did not believe Him. God did not want them marrying gals who did not believe Him. Your grandmaa and grandpaa are praying that you will always live like Christians and that your spouses will be faithful Christians.
Ezra 10 (11)