by Terry Wane Benton<\/p>\n
A city or country without walls is vulnerable to destruction. Jerusalem was an easy target for invaders until the walls were built. Walls protected the city. It was foolish to rebuild the city in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and not have the walls in place to protect the city. See Ezra and Nehemiah. The wisdom of Solomon declared: “Whoever has no rule over his own spirit Is like a city broken down, without walls<\/em>” (Proverbs 25:28 NKJV).<\/p>\n His point is that we must rule our spirits to keep things out and protect the good things within our hearts. Controlling the flow of what comes in and what goes out is wisdom-it is common sense. Failing to rule the spirit is as foolish as a city that does not protect the flow of people into it. Eventually, the wrong people will come in and destroy the city.<\/p>\n To improve our personal lives, we must build good principles and values within us and then build walls to protect those values. We cannot allow evil people to rob us of our values. For 2025, let us build within such valuables as faith, hope, love, kindness, joy, peace, faithfulness, loyalty, dedication, contentment, purity, holiness, and godliness. Be rich toward God. Protect the values within. Rule your own spirit.<\/p>\n Do not let the lust of the eye and lust of the flesh break through your protective walls and take your values away. Fill your heart and storehouse with good things, and keep out the corruption. Do not be foolish and be like a city without walls. Grace and peace rule within!<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Terry Wane Benton A city or country without walls is vulnerable to destruction. Jerusalem was an easy target for invaders until the walls were built. Walls protected the city. It was foolish to rebuild the city in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah and not have the walls in place to protect the city.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[1430],"class_list":["post-82982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-self-discipline"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17798,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-did-nehemiah-have-to-rebuild-the-walls-of-jerusalem-what-happened-to-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":82982,"position":0},"title":"Why did Nehemiah have to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? What happened to it?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why did Nehemiah have to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem? What happened to it? Answer: God had the Babylonians come to take Israel into captivity because of Israel's sins. The Israelites resisted and the Babylonians (also called the Chaldeans) broke into Jerusalem and leveled the city. \"And in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":93225,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-christians-grow-confused-about-ice-borders-and-the-bible\/","url_meta":{"origin":82982,"position":1},"title":"When Christians Grow Confused About ICE, Borders, and the Bible","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Brad Harrub, Ph.D. Few issues today generate more emotional confusion among Christians than immigration and the role of ICE. Social media has a way of reducing complex biblical questions into shallow slogans: \"Jesus would tear down the walls,\" or \"Borders are unloving.\" Those statements may sound compassionate, but they\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15694,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/they-promised-to-put-away-their-wives\/","url_meta":{"origin":82982,"position":2},"title":"They Promised to Put Away Their Wives","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton The book of Ezra is a remarkable book of \u201cthose whose spirits God had moved\u201d (Ezra 1:5). The city of Jerusalem lay in ruins for seven decades and the house of the Lord was burned. Zerubbabel led the faithful back to Jerusalem and the Temple was rebuilt.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4279,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/where-can-i-find-information-about-the-falling-of-jerichos-walls\/","url_meta":{"origin":82982,"position":3},"title":"Where can I find information about the falling of Jericho’s walls?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am doing a paper for school trying to prove that the Bible is true. One example I was going to use was the walls of Jericho.\u00a0 What I have to do is find the verses, and then try to prove it looking in books, interviews, the Internet, etc.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":62749,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-did-jericho-fall\/","url_meta":{"origin":82982,"position":4},"title":"How Did Jericho Fall?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Joshua 6:6-20 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The record of the fall of Jericho is familiar to many people. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was an impressive victory for the people of Israel who had recently entered the land. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Despite the fact that the city was heavily fortified - Joshua 6:1 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23972,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-the-lists-in-ezra-2-and-nehemiah-7-different\/","url_meta":{"origin":82982,"position":5},"title":"Why are the lists in Ezra 2 and Nehemiah 7 different?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 10, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: When I read Ezra and Nehemiah, I had some problems with the counting numbers recorded in both books. I believe the list of names in Ezra chapter 2 and Nehemiah chapter 7 are the same thing. But the number of singers and porters are different in these two books.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}