My Signed List/Agreement

 

Nehemiah 10:28-29 The rest of the people … join with their brothers, their nobles, and enter into ... an oath to walk in God’s Law …

Making a list is definitely my "thing."  It helps me get things done. It helps me remember things better. It helps me learn more and learn more quickly. 

Making a list helps me figure out a methodology for getting things done.

Yes, I would have to say I am definitely a “list person.”  

I think that is, in a way, what happened when Ezra and Nehemiah, along with the other leaders in Jerusalem made their covenant with God and they all signed it after reading God's Law with the people for the first time in a very lo-o-o-ong time. 

It was a list of obligations from the Mosaic Law – a list to help keep the people on track spiritually. 

The obligations were basic principles for their godly living that I see as a mirror of my 21st century godly living, based on the New Testament.

We promise (they wrote) to:

    1) ... not marry outside of our faith

    2) ... keep the Sabbath (the day set aside for rest and worship)

    3) ... make regular offerings to assist in God's work through the temple

    4) ... pay tithes of all our income

    5) ... not neglect God's house.

My list looks a little different due to the era in which I live, but it is amazingly similar to that ancient list of promises. 

I promise to:

    1) ... not marry an unbeliever, anyone who does not have faith in Christ and live it out regularly and faithfully. "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers." ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14

    2) ... worship with other believers regularly. "Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another." ~ Hebrews 10:25

    3) ... make regular offerings to the work of God through the church. "Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." ~ 2 Corinthians 9:7

    4) ... pay tithes out of my income. "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. " ~ Malachi 3:10

    5) ... not neglect God's house.

Signing the agreement made the obligation more binding than a list of just dos and don’ts would be.   

Their list - and now mine as well - was a vivid reminder of what needed to be done.

It is a way to show my love for God and what He has done for me.

I hereby sign my list:

                                    Jo Ann Rhodes