The Season Of Celebration Series

Occupations began yesterday (Saturday), in Vancouver and in other cities across Canada as a continuation of something known as "The Occupy Movement" (TOC). Just a few short months ago, staff members at Adbusters magazine watched, rapt, as scores of ordinary Egyptians took to the streets to depose a dictator and end decades of brutal repression at the hands of their government.“We had sort of a communal ‘Aha!’ moment,” Adbusters co-founder Kalle Lasn recalled in an interview. “We started wondering whether the same kind of tools that were used in Egypt, and the sort of regime-change philosophy, couldn’t be applied to America.”

In the United States, first in New York and then other places, thousands of individuals have turned out to air their troubles. The protests are scattershot. That’s okay, say some admirers. That’s the point. The unemployed, the politically disengaged, animal, environmental, or Native rights activists and especially the nation’s youth want to participate in something. The Wall Street protesters denounce government bail-outs, the political and economic short-shrifting of students and young workers, the high cost of post-secondary education, various forms of discrimination, U.S. foreign policy, union-busting, outsourcing, the oil industry, media misinformation and (more generally) capitalism and globalization.

Without a clear truth to solidify and direct them, the Wall Street protesters, should stop comparing their movement to the Arab Spring, which is now reduced to massacring Christians in Egypt and Kurds in Syria. Grass root movements without a clear objective truth, end up imploding on themselves.

(derrived from a collection of articles from http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2011/10/13-15 on "The Occupy Movement")

There is a clear difference when God moves a people on mass. This phenomena, known as a revival, has particular qualities that can be discerned. What is described in chapters 8 and 9 of Nehemiah, along with the other great spiritual renewals Israel had experienced under Asa (2 Chron. 14–15), Hezekiah (2 Chron. 29–31), and Josiah (2 Chron. 34–35), provide an interesting study of the basis for spiritual renewal and the ingredients found there have been present in every genuine revival ever since (Elwell, W. A. (1996). Vol. 3: Evangelical commentary on the Bible. Baker reference library (Ne 8:1). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Book House.).

In every genuine revival among God’s people the revealed word of the Lord has had a large place. It was so in Josiah’s day, and in the awakening under Hezekiah. It has been so throughout the Church period. It was the recovery of the Word that brought about the Reformation of the 16th century, and every true awakening since has been based upon Bible study and Bible practice. Of no spiritual movement in history could this more truthfully be said than of that special work of God which began almost simultaneously in many parts of Great Britain and Ireland in the first half of the 19th century. Here and there little companies of devoted believers were found gathering together to search the Scriptures, seeking a right way for themselves and their children in the midst of the existing ecclesiastical confusion and dead formality (Ironside, H. A. (1913). Notes on the Book of Nehemiah. (88–89). New York: Loizeaux Bros.).

Nehemiah, governor of Jerusalem, after he had succeeded in rebuilding Jerusalem’s great wall, beyond that objective he had the far more significant objective of rebuilding the nation. (Boice, J. M. (2005). Nehemiah : An expositional commentary (89–90). Grand Rapids, Mich.: BakerBooks.).

A revival among God’s people can be seen in a "Season of Celebration". This came though a recovery of the Word of God among the people of God as a whole as seen through: 1) The Communication (Nehemiah 8:1–6), 2) The Clarification (Nehemiah 8:7–8), and 3) The Celebration (Nehemiah 8:9–12)

1) The Communication (Nehemiah 8:1–6)

Nehemiah 8:1-6 [8:1]And all the people gathered as one man into the square before the Water Gate. And they told Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses that the LORD had commanded Israel. [2]So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month. [3]And he read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand. And the ears of all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law. [4]And Ezra the scribe stood on a wooden platform that they had made for the purpose. And beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand, and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hashbaddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. [5]And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was above all the people, and as he opened it all the people stood. [6]And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. (ESV)