So, Hey everybody it's Matt. This is a 10 minute Bible hour podcast and I hope stuff is going awesome for you.

The world, hmm, it's hard to put your finger on what exactly the state of the world is right now.

I'm not sure anybody really gets it, but it seems

like when you read things about the news in the state of the world it looks bad at times, but then when I walk out my front door and talk with people

it seems like people are pretty cool and there's a lot of beautiful rich

things going on. So I don't know how it actually is. I'm not sure there's a way to even say how all the things actually are.

All I can say is that sometimes, and in my country at least seems like every four years,

we've just about healed up from the damage we did to each other the last time

we had an election and now all the wounds get pulled back open just before they're finished knitting

and we're as I'm recording this we're in election year and

crazy things are happening and so I don't know I guess I just wanted to turn on the

microphone before we talk about Nehemiah and be like hey I, I hope things are going well. I hope you're finding

richness in your time with your family and the people that you love. I hope that you

were seeing the beauty of what God has made. I hope you are drinking deeply of beautiful art and

redemptive things and I hope that you are able to feel a sense of lightness and

peace in the middle of a bunch of news stories and new cycles and things that maybe

aren't trying to inspire such feelings of peace and grace in you. So yep you've been on my mind over the weekend as modern events have unfolded and I found

myself hoping that things are going well.

Okay, Nehemiah 12.

We've got a big ceremony here in the second half of this chapter, where the descendants of

Abraham are rededicating these walls that they just at break-neck speed got built

under the leadership of the temporary governor

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