It is obvious that God is in charge.

Jump with me to the present day: You and I have a homeland. Right now, we are exiled, but like the Jewish people, our exile is for only a limited period. We shall return in the Lord's appointed time. To hold us together as a family while we sojourn on this earth, God has ordained that we meet as a church and help each other carry on when life brings us bumps and turns.

God is in charge! God loves us! God has ordained that our time of exile from the body of Christ is over; we may return! God will soon announce that our time of exile from His presence is also over, and we will return to that garden where our first ancestors walked hand in hand with the Creator.

Life is pretty comfortable for most of us. We like change, but stability's not too bad either. But then God stirs everything up. It was one of those times for the Jewish people in Ezra's day.

The exiles had been in Babylon for nearly three quarters of a century. Many of them held prominent positions in the community. In the midst of this comfort and prosperity, God called them to leave: pack everything up, quit jobs, bid farewell to neighbors, abandon houses, set out on a trek of perhaps as many as a thousand miles to the ruins of a city they had never seen.

They heard the call and came from near and far. They came together with family they had not seen in years: distant cousins they had never met; siblings they'd held grudges against for ages; adult children who had not lived up to expectations; immature parents who had made mistakes with their offspring.

Yet they were a family, and they belonged together. He was their God. These were their people; they needed each other. There were relationships that needed healing, but the journey would provide opportunity for that. They would be on the road for months. They would be leaving behind all the distractions of Babylon. They would rebuild sacred relationships. They would renew holy habits long abandoned. They would rediscover the spiritual passion of their ancestors. They didn't know how long it would take or how hard it would be, but they did know who was in charge.

Ezra's time is not so different from our own. We have allowed barriers to separate us from both family members and church members. God is calling us to break down those barriers and come together to the homeland He has provided. It is not simple to be part of a family. Each of us is different; working out those differences can be tense and emotional.

The reason some of you no longer attend our church regularly is wounds inflicted by other members. Some are old scars: some are fresh raw wounds. Our instinct is to cling together, but even then we seem to lash out at each other. When apologies are required, the reconciliation process can be more painful than the separation. If we try to come back to church, we bring "baggage."

It is hard to return to a place filled with bad memories. But God has called you and me to come back together at this time. Like the souls of the exiles long ago, our souls respond to the call of God from deep within. He is our God. These are our people. We need each other.

A couple of Sabbaths ago I was unable to attend church. I enjoyed my Sabbath at home but my heart was still heavy over missing church services. I lost forever the chance to fellowship with the other Christians who gathered that morning. No one will ever know if my presence there might have been a lifeline to someone in need.

As it turns out, missing that Sabbath was detrimental to me personally. I am battling to "renew holy habits," one of which is fellowshipping with the saints. Since missing that Sabbath, it has been easier for me to skip Thursday night Bible study, to sleep too late for Sabbath school and attend only church, to put off writing this letter to you, to let my thoughts wander as I pray for each of you, to postpone my devotions until I'm too tired to get much out of them.

Remember, I have been an "exile" for seven years, and I've been doing just fine during those years. My marriage has been happier than when I was involved in church, my children and grandchildren have been growing well, my job has been financially and personally rewarding, and my hobbies have been fulfilling. I feel the tug of the Holy Spirit drawing me back to the fold, yet when I look over my shoulder, I know I'm comfortable right here, none too eager for a long journey home.

When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon, he issued a decree permitting the captives to return home. During the next 100 years, Darius and Artaxerxes issued decrees to rebuild Jerusalem. Still, not every family returned. Being in exile was not an uncomfortable existence, and the vast majority of the Hebrews saw no need to change their lives.

But God wanted to provide a great and lasting blessing for all His people. He wanted to teach them object lessons from rebuilding the altar, the Temple, and the city walls around Jerusalem. He wanted them to realize that they were merely stones, worthless and plain, unless they were bound together by His love into magnificent and useful structures.

Today He gathers the former stones, scattered near and far, to reconstruct His sanctuary. Worthless and plain, He binds them together with His love.

You and I-imperfect as we may be-are the stones God gathers. Regardless of our flaws or the flaws of other stones, the church stands only if all the stones stick together. Even if you are one of those whom God has created perfect and self-contained, you are still not alone. Even if you don't need others, others still need you.

If you knew the personal struggles I have with trusting and following God, you would laugh at my attempts to encourage you. When God first laid the Ezra Project upon my heart, I was looking for a small group fellowship. I reasoned that others who did not attend church regularly might have the same needs. Ultimately, though, my motivation was my own needs.

But God did not create us to bless us. He created us to serve Him. We have been redeemed so we may glorify and serve our Creator. Now that I am more active in church, the service aspect of God's great plan becomes clearer. God has called each of us to serve Him. Sometimes the service comes easily, other times not so easily. Sometimes we may thrash around for years, searching for our calling. It's possible that we need not search for it, but only accept it. Remember these words for yourself and encourage others with them: "Press on, weary soul. You are who the Lord is looking for." . . .

In my mind, we are like a small band of travelers, weary from months on the road back to our homeland. Some of us are alone; some of us have large families to journey with. All of us are focused on a common destination.

In Ezra's time, when God moved upon the heart of the mighty emperor Cyrus, he issued a decree releasing all the Hebrews to return to Jerusalem. Our modern exile has been to a darker and more powerful ruler: Satan is emperor of earth at this time, but he knows it is God who allows him to exercise his power. When God commanded Satan to release you and me from bondage, he had no choice but to obey.

But Satan rages against us, using all his powers to keep us from the journey or destroy us along the way: "Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings" (1 Peter 5:8-9).

This return from exile has been difficult, and many are still along the trail, not yet able to see the homeland. But we have not been sent back just to receive the blessings of home. We have been sent back to rebuild the altar-our personal relationship with God. We have been sent back to rebuild the temple-our relationships with other Christians. We have been sent back to rebuild the city walls-to show all the world what God we serve, no mere idol of wood or stone, money or sports, but the Creator of heaven and earth (Revelation 14: 6-7).

The city alone is not our destination. We have a higher goal, a greater purpose. Our purpose is to serve God in whatever way He sees fit to use us. Pray for wisdom, watch for open doors, practice stretching your faith.

We have been called to return to our church in preparation for returning to our heavenly homeland. We have been called to rebuild relationships with other Christians and with the world at large. It is a call to serve our awesome God: "Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. Worship him who made the heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water" (Rev. 14:7, NIV). Some of us seem too busy to heed this call, but in His great mercy God winks at this slight. He calls us again. Passionately. Repeatedly.

The same was true in Ezra's time. As the journey ended and the exiles saw the ruined city before them, some were eager to begin rebuilding, but others were discouraged. God allowed the exiles to go back to their former lands and reestablish the old homesteads (Ezra 2:70). The people would get settled in and then come together later in the year to rebuild the altar.

God may be allowing some latitude right now for you to get yourself situated and ready for the reconstruction project, but He has called you home. The consequences of ignoring the call are dire, and none of us know when the Holy Spirit will last plead with us. His mighty armies fend off evil forces to allow us one more chance. Yet the time may pass, and we may not be ready.

We need to uphold one another when the load bears down. We need to set one another back on track when we wander too far. We need to encourage one another when the days look more like nights. God's plan is that we serve Him as a united body of believers, unconquerable: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another-and all the more as you see the Day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25, NIV).

At the end of Ezra 2 we're told the people went to settle their own towns right after arriving in Jerusalem. At first I thought this a shortcoming of the returning Hebrews. Now I see these verses in a different light. These trail-weary Jews put God first by answering His call to return to the land of their ancestors. It is natural for us to think that their next priority would be to rebuild the Temple. But in truth, we cannot fault them for putting the safety and nurturing of their families before their responsibilities to the church. Ezra's record shows us that God does not want us to sacrifice our families to the busy-ness of our church duties.

I am the last person to be saying that church should not be the most important thing in our lives. But this is the message recorded in Ezra. It is the next step in our return to the land God has given us. If we put God's will before our own, He will show us when we are to take care of our primary family's needs and when we are to take care of the church family's needs. We must humbly and honestly put our lives in the hands of God.

Seven months after they returned to Jerusalem, the exiles met to rebuild the altar. They were still afraid of the warring peoples around them, but they built the altar and sacrificed burnt offerings. They began to celebrate ordained feast days. The exiles set about to renew the holy habits of their forebears, drawing closer to God as they did so.

Today we must renew holy habits as well, habits such as morning and evening worship, prayer before meals, attending church and midweek services, and sharing Communion and foot washing. We cannot rebuild these habits without thinking of Him to whom they point us. With such a focus, we are changed: "We, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3:18, NIV).

In our Ezra model, the Hebrews come together as one body to rebuild the House of God (Ezra 3:6-13). Funds have been provided by God; the workers have been commissioned and materials delivered to the job site; hearts are full of worship and joy; the forgotten worship rituals and feast days have been wholeheartedly embraced; and the Temple site is alive with the sound of workers singing and praising God.

We also have been greatly blessed. The same heartfelt praise should reach heaven today. During the nine months I have been writing to you, I have watched the power of God move mightily in our church. We are growing in numbers; more important, we are growing in faith and in works. Many of you have begun to attend church regularly again.

God deserves to hear us get excited about what He is doing in our lives and our community. God gave us a passionate nature: passion is a powerful facet of our personalities. Passion provides us with the will to live, to overcome obstacles, to succeed beyond our wildest dreams. He has given everything for us. How dare we be less than intensely passionate about His gift?

Turn your passion over to the Lord, that He might use it to transform your life and the lives of those you touch. Plead with a broken and contrite spirit for the power of God to change your heart and redirect your passions.

Among those celebrating the foundation for the new Temple were those who had seen the majesty of the original Temple, built by King Solomon. Cries of woe nearly drowned out the laughter, music, dancing, and singing. Garments were rent, and grief flowed. The aged had traveled so far, only to have their dying vision be, in their minds, a mockery of the splendor for which their culture had been famed. For these people, the new structure was a poor replacement for the Temple of Solomon (Ezra 3:12). It was more reason to weep than to rejoice.

Yet the Lord had brought them to this point. He had worked miracles to have the Temple rebuilt. In fact, God promised the glory of the second Temple would surpass that of Solomon's Temple-"The desire of all nations shall come: and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of Hosts. . . . The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former" (Haggai 2:7-9).
Five hundred years later this prophecy was fulfilled. Along an avenue of palm branches a Carpenter would ride upon a donkey's back. Those who had so long waited for the Temple of Jerusalem to be filled with the cloud of Jehovah's glory would instead see the Temple cleansed of money changers and filled with the living presence of the Lamb of God.

This is the season for us to cease from weeping and mourning over what is past and rejoice over what God has shown us will be in the future. The body of Christ has a divine commission: God calls us to become a beacon to the community. He will open the doors: we must move through them. The glory of Christ filled the latter Temple 2,000 years ago. The same glory fills the temple of our hearts today.

Today is a day to rejoice and serve. Today is a day to commune with God. Today is a day to fellowship with believers and a day of decision. Come build the Temple with us! . . .

With work underway, the Samaritans who had been living in the land while the Hebrews were in exile now want to help rebuild the city and temple (Ezra 4:1, 2). These men were enemies of Judah, yet they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families and offered to bury the hatchet: "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of Esar-haddon king of Assyria, who brought us here." An interesting offer.

The similarities between the experiences of the Jewish nation in Ezra's day and our own experiences are marked. They were building a temple; we are building a church. There have been many delays. All the neighbors watch to see if the temple becomes a reality. As the Lord began to move miraculously for the Jews of long ago, so He has begun to move mountains for us.

Now there are offers of help: "If you folks are determined to build a church, let me help out. It is an impossible task to complete on your own. I'll get some of my servants from the neighborhood to come over and pitch in. Then you folks and my other subjects can get to know each other, find out all the things you have in common, make some compromises, and be one big happy family, safe under my umbrella."

Let me write plainly. It is not human determination that will build a temple or a church, it is the Spirit of God moving upon the hearts of His people. Our local church is not merely a building, but a Beacon to the community, a sign for all the world to see God's powerful presence in our community, just as rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem was to be a sign to the ancient world that God had again shown favor to His chosen people.

Whether the project is an ancient temple in Jerusalem or a modern church makes no difference; God alone is the Author and Finisher of both. He has given clear instruction: God's children don't search for answers from the witch of Endor; God's children don't run to Egypt for protection from enemies; God's children don't seek safety by making compromises with the world; God's children don't yoke together with idolaters to do a great work for God.

Our Father has given us a place in history, a high calling. He has endowed us with gifts to take His message to lost souls around the world. He has given us an opportunity to serve Him with all our hearts and to praise Him will all the possessions He has placed under our watchcare. This is not a day for wringing hands and counting coins; this is a day to step aside and watch God work.

With work underway, the Samaritans who had been living in the land while the Hebrews were in exile offered to help rebuild the city and Temple (Ezra 4:1, 2). These men were enemies of Judah, yet they came to Zerubbabel and to the heads of the families: "Let us help you build because, like you, we seek your God and have been sacrificing to Him since the time of Esarhaddon king of Assyria, who brought us here" (verse 2, NIV). An interesting offer.

Turning from the offer of help was a hard decision on the part of the leaders of the nation in Ezra's day: "You have no part with us in building a temple to our God. We alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel" (verse 3, NIV). A working relationship with the Samaritans might have been beneficial in many ways, but it would have destroyed the more important relationship between the Jews and the Lord their God.

Sometimes God calls on us to make tough choices in relationships. Jesus made His relationship with His earthly family secondary to His work on earth (Matt. 12:48-50). He also said that anyone who puts their relationship with Christ above their family and friends would be blessed a hundredfold (Mark 10:29, 30).
We've been learning a lot about stepping out in faith, about getting from "here," where we merely talk of being Christians, to "there," where by faith we actually live the life of service Christ has planned for us. I've been guilty of clinging to a "here" relationship. God, in His mercy, has reached down from heaven and shown me He has a more perfect plan for my life (Jer. 29:11).

In the beginning, God created a perfect world. When "God saw that it was good" (Gen. 1:25), He created us in His own image. Each day the Creator came and walked with His children, teaching them, enjoying them, building a strong relationship with them. They recognized His voice. They loved Him and had a trusting relationship with Him.

In the cool of the day, I hear God's voice calling me. I know He is gathering His children. Wherever the Lord is, wherever He is gathering His children, "there" is where I want to be.

How about you, are you coming?

_________________________
Polly Cunningham lives in Elkwood, Virginia, and attends the Fredericksburg church.