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Our Daily Bread Ministries April 26 Bible in a Year: 2 Samuel 23-24; Luke 19:1-27 Restoration Efforts Encourage one another and build each other up. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 READ Ezra 2:68; 3:1, 3-7 In April 2019, a fire broke out in Notre-Dame de Paris—the city’s famed medieval cathedral—destroying the spire and a “forest” of oak beams supporting the lead roof. Almost immediately, plans formed to restore the cathedral. Donations poured in from across the globe, and craftsmen have undertaken restoration using the same building techniques and the same types of timber and stone employed in the original structure. When Nebuchadnezzar instructed his armies to set fire to God’s temple in 586 bc as part of his siege on Jerusalem, the structure was decimated (2 Kings 25:9). When the people returned to Jerusalem after decades in captivity in Babylon, they “gave freewill offerings toward the rebuilding of the house of God” (Ezra 2:68). After tending first to the altar, they “gave money to the masons and carpenters” and secured “cedar logs by sea from Lebanon” to lay the temple’s foundation (3:7). Though their rebuilding efforts were opposed and even sabotaged, the task was finally completed, and God’s people once again worshiped Him in His temple (6:14-22). As believers in Jesus, we—together—are God’s temple (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). God equips us to continuously restore fellow believers and “build each other up,” not with wood or stone, but with encouraging words, prayer, and spiritual gifts (1 Thessalonians 5:11). By Kirsten Holmberg REFLECT & PRAY How are you building up fellow believers in Jesus? How has someone built you up recently? Thank You, loving Father, for supplying what I need to build up and restore others as Your temple. Amen.