Monday, May 06, 2013,
1:11 a.m. – Either the downpour of rain woke me or the Lord woke me, but
when I awoke, the song “Nothing Can
Separate Us” was playing in my mind. Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening. I read Haggai 2 (NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Haggai%202&version=NIV
How Does it Look?
It has been raining here for several days, and right now the
rain is coming down very hard. We also have rain predicted for the next few
days, as well. It doesn’t look like this is going to clear up until maybe
Thursday. We are under a flood warning. We get a great deal of water in our
backyard whenever we get a hard or an extended period of rain like this.
Speaking of our yard, our front and side yards had turned
into nearly all weed with not much grass left. There were about four different
kinds of weed growing in the yard, which had taken it over. So, over a month
ago we hired a lawn service to kill the weeds and to plant new grass. They
sprayed the yard four weeks ago and then the next week, as well. They were
supposed to till the yard last Monday and plant new grass, but it rained, so
they were supposed to come out today, but again it is raining. The yard looks really sad right now. It is all
brown and no grass is left where they sprayed, but one form of weed remained.
It is a tough weed. The yard is also filled with water/moisture from all this rain.
In Haggai the question is asked of the Lord to the leaders
and to the people, “Who of you is left who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Does it
not seem to you like nothing?” That sounds like our yard. It once looked pretty
good, then over time the weeds took it over, so we had to kill the weeds, and
now it appears all burned up, partially flooded, with no vegetation. It looks
like nothing right now – completely dead.
The house spoken of was the temple in Jerusalem which had
been destroyed nearly 70 years earlier by the Babylonian invasion. The people
were given the task of rebuilding the temple, but they had become slack, partly
due to opposition, but partly due to preoccupation with their own houses. They
were so busy with their own lives, trying to gain wealth, enjoy life, and pursuing
temporal happiness, that they neglected God’s house. So, the Lord did not bless
them, and he disciplined them because his people were busy with satisfying
their own needs, which were never fully satisfied, while his house was in
ruins.
I believe this is a picture of how the church here in
America looks today. I can’t speak for other countries. And, I am not speaking
of physical buildings or church programs, either. I am speaking of the temple
of the Lord – individual believers in Jesus Christ who form the church, the
body of Christ, together. So many of the people of God today, in particular
here in America, are so busy with their own lives that they neglect the Lord,
his word and obedience to his commands and thus fail to follow him in
obedience. So many have become self-consumed and thus neglect to honor God as
the holy God he is. They are so preoccupied with their own agendas, plans,
entertainment, pleasures and self-gratification that they fail to be the lights
for the gospel of Jesus Christ and/or to demonstrate the love of Christ to
those around them. Some of this neglect may be due to true opposition, but much
of it is rooted in pure apathy and self-centeredness. So, the Lord must send
his divine discipline and correction in order to get his people to return to
him.
Once More
God said that “in a little while I will once more shake the
heavens and the earth… I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all
nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory.” This, it appears, is
speaking of the last days when God will come to judge the earth and his
rebellious and lukewarm ‘house,’ and once again his ‘house’ will be filled with
his glory. In other words, I believe scripture teaches, especially in the
prophets of old, that when God comes to judge the earth in these final days
before Christ’s return that it will produce a harvest of righteousness in the
lives of his neglectful ‘house,’ and that many people will flock to the ‘house’
of the Lord, i.e. to Christ, to his church and to the gospel of Jesus Christ
and eternal salvation, i.e. to the kingdom of heaven.
Before Christ returns and sets up his kingdom reign on the
earth, though, an antichrist will appear and will deceive many. I believe he is
“the desired of the nations” who will come along with this shaking of the
nations (see Rev. 13), and via the shaking, many people will turn to, or back
to Jesus Christ, and God’s ‘house’ will be filled with his glory because his
church will be revived and no longer dead, and it will bear fruit (vegetation)
once again.
Yet, right now the church in America, in particular, looks
pretty sad, i.e. so much of it is dead and not bearing fruit for the kingdom of
heaven. It is all washed-up. The life of the Spirit is not in most of it. The “weeds”
of rebellion, sin, apathy, self-gratification, pleasure-seeking, idolatry and
spiritual adultery have choked the life of the Spirit out of much of the
church. And, this final weed of rebellion and idolatry is holding on tough and
is not easy to kill. So, God is bringing the rains of judgment against us, and
he will till up the hard ground (hearts) and will make the soil of our hearts
ready for his word and truth to be planted in us so we can bear fruit
(vegetation) for God’s eternal kingdom.
Be Strong
The encouragement here is to get busy rebuilding God’s
house, i.e. busying ourselves with sitting at our Lord’s feet, listening to
what he says, then in obeying what he teaches us. We need to shake off those
things that hinder our walk with the Lord (see Heb. 12:1), i.e. we must rid our
lives of these weeds of idolatry and spiritual adultery, and it is necessary
that we run with perseverance the race God has marked out for us to run. It is
essential that we till up our hardened hearts so we can be receptive to God’s
words, and we must pull out the tough weeds that still remain and seem
resistant to God’s discipline and corrective measures. Scripture (God) demands
that we turn from our sins and that we to turn to walk in faithful obedience to
our Lord (see Luke 9:23-25; Eph. 4:17-24; Ro. 6; Gal. 2:20, et al).
Nonetheless, we will not bring about this change in our own
hearts and lives of our own self-efforts. We must yield our hearts and lives
over to the Lord and cooperate with his work of revival in our hearts in
tilling up our hardened hearts, and in uprooting and killing the weeds of sin
in our lives, so he can plant new seeds of love, kindness, faithfulness, joy,
peace, obedience, self-discipline and purity in our hearts and lives, so that
we can bear new fruit for his kingdom. God says to be strong and work, for he
is with us, and his Spirit remains with us, so we need not fear divine
correction and/or the opposition of men. In other words, in all of his divine
correction and discipline, and in all the opposition we will face from sinful
humans, we must know and realize that he will never leave us or forsake us and
that nothing we go through in this life can separate us from his love if we are
truly in Him and he is Lord of our lives. He will bless us once again, and he will
multiply his seed in our hearts and in the lives of all those lives we touch
with his love and with his gospel.
Nothing Can Separate
Us / An Original Work / March 28, 2013
Based off Romans 8:28-39
Nothing can separate us
From Christ’s love now within us:
Not trouble, hardship, nor famine,
Nor danger, nor sword.
No, in all of these things
We are more than conquerors!
For your sake we face hardship.
We are sheep to be slaughtered.
I am convinced that death,
Nor life, nor anything else
Will separate us from
The love of God now in Christ.
What, then, shall we say to this?
God for us: who against us?
He who did not spare His Son
But gave Him for us all –
How will He not, with Him,
Graciously give us all things?
Who brings a charge against us?
God justifies His chosen.
Who is He that condemns?
Christ Jesus; died, rose again.
He’s at the right hand of God,
Interceding for us.
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