Wednesday, April 5, 2017, 11:23 p.m. – Throughout the day, I was aware that there were bad
storms and tornadoes happening in various parts of the eastern USA, in
particular in the southern states, and that more bad weather was coming yet
tonight. I went to bed around 9:00 p.m., but I was awakened at around 10:30
p.m. by a storm that was brewing outside. The wind was blowing through the open
window, and this is what awakened me. The Lord Jesus then put in mind the song “Seek the Lord.” And, then I also heard
in my mind the name “Zerubbabel.” I
had just finished reading the book of Isaiah earlier in the day, so I suspected
the Lord was leading me to now read about Zerubbabel, which then led me to the
book of Haggai. Speak, Lord, your words to my heart. So, I read Haggai 1 (NASB).
Rebuild the House (vv. 1-4)
In the second year of Darius the king, on the first
day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came by the prophet Haggai to
Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of
Jehozadak, the high priest, saying, “Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘This people
says, “The time has not come, even the time for the house of the Lord to be
rebuilt.”’” Then the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying, “Is
it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house
lies desolate?”
Since Jesus Christ, the Son
of God (and God), died on a cross for our sins, rose from the dead, ascended
back to heaven, and then sent his Holy Spirit to indwell the lives of his
followers, the House of the Lord has been, and always will be those who have
trusted in Jesus Christ to be Lord and Savior of their lives, until Jesus
returns. Collectively we are called “the church.” Yet, this is not to be
confused with a physical building called “a church,” nor with institutions of
human origin, nor with corporations under the federal government. In other
words, now rebuilding God’s house, which lies in ruins, has NOTHING to do with
restoring a physical building, or property, or any kind of physical structure
or organization instituted of men (and women).
So, if the House of the Lord
lies in ruins today and it needs to be rebuilt, what does this look like? Well,
we are that house, so it has to do with our individual lives, and collectively
we comprise the church, the body of Christ, so it also has to do with the
church, as Christ’s body. So, what would it mean that we lie in ruins? Ruins
are wrecks, devastations, decays and collapses. They are declines,
deteriorations and a weakening. It means our lives are far from what they are
supposed to be. It means we are not living what we say we believe, but we have
fallen away from God’s design for our lives in saving us out of slavery to sin,
and we have, instead, engaged ourselves in what is sinful, adulterous,
idolatrous and in spiritual adultery.
Although it is certainly bad
enough that God’s house lies in ruins, what makes matters even worse is that
the people of God, his saints, are largely complacent about that fact. They are
too busy building their own kingdoms and their own houses than they care about
rebuilding (reviving) their own hearts and the hearts of others who have fallen
away from pure devotion to Jesus Christ. Even though a vast majority of the
church, the body of Christ, has gone the way of the world, and is following
after the idols of men, instead of following their Lord in obedience, it
appears that most people who call themselves Christians are not moved or
grieved by this at all.
Consider Your Ways (vv. 5-9)
Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider
your ways! You have sown much, but harvest little; you eat, but there is not
enough to be satisfied; you drink, but there is not enough to become drunk; you
put on clothing, but no one is warm enough; and he who earns, earns wages to
put into a purse with holes.” Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Consider your ways!
Go up to the mountains, bring wood and rebuild the temple, that I may be
pleased with it and be glorified,” says the Lord. “You look for much, but
behold, it comes to little; when you bring it home, I blow it away. Why?”
declares the Lord of hosts, “Because of My house which lies desolate, while each
of you runs to his own house.”
So, the Lord is calling out
to his church, and he is saying, “Consider your ways.” What he is asking of his
church is that we prayerfully and thoughtfully examine our lives (our hearts,
actions, etc.) before Almighty God and in light of the teachings of scripture,
and see if there be any wicked way in us. If there is, then we need to turn
from the sin, allow the Spirit of God to revive our hearts, and turn to follow
our Lord in faithful obedience, and in surrender to HIS will for our lives, from
this moment forward.
As part of this heart
examination, we must consider what we know of what scripture teaches and then
evaluate our own lives by that standard (measurement). Most of us probably know
already if we are living up to what we know God’s Word teaches regarding how we
should live, but sometimes people suppress the truth through regularly ignoring
the Spirit’s voice, and soon they become desensitized to all the evil which
they are taking into their minds and hearts on a daily basis. So, a good
measure would be Philippians 4:8 where we are told to think on what is true, pure,
honorable, just, right, praiseworthy, etc. We should ask ourselves if what we
are doing, watching, thinking, speaking, etc. is true, pure, right, etc. If it
is not, then we need to cut it out of our lives, and we need to replace those
things with what is pure, honorable, righteous, godly and holy.
In this way, we are
rebuilding the ruins, because we are removing the decay and what is rotten and
we are throwing out those things in the trash, where they belong, and we are
building now into our lives what is pleasing to God, and what is fruitful for
his kingdom, and what has eternal value rather than us working toward only what
is going to pass away, such as houses that can be quickly blown away by a
severe storm or a tornado. We can spend our lives working for and building what
is only going to rot and decay or disappear, or we can spend our lives working
for what is eternal, and for what makes a difference in our own lives and in
the lives of other humans.
Reverence for God (vv. 12-15)
Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the
son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed
the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the
Lord their God had sent him. And the people showed reverence for the Lord. Then
Haggai, the messenger of the Lord, spoke by the commission of the Lord to the
people saying, “‘I am with you,’ declares the Lord.” So the Lord stirred up the
spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of
Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant
of the people; and they came and worked on the house of the Lord of hosts,
their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month in the second year of
Darius the king.
If we do not obey the Lord,
and if we, as his church, continue to go our own way, and to do our own thing,
and to focus our hearts, passions, time and affections on what is only going to
die off and disappear, while we ignore the spiritual condition of our own
hearts, God will discipline (correct, judge, rebuke) us (See: vv. 10-11 omitted).
I believe he is already doing that in many different ways, and that it is only
going to get much more severe as we near his return. And, I believe this is
because our God wants us to return to him as our ONLY Lord so that he can
revive our hearts and restore us to a correct relationship with him, according
to his design for our lives.
Then, when the church, which
has strayed from him, has humbled herself before her God, and confessed her
sins, and turned from them to follow her Lord, and to walk in his ways, he will
restore and renew her. He will be with her in the work of rebuilding (transforming
and restructuring) the lives of individual believers in Christ, and also the
life of the church, as a whole. Our God will move in the hearts of his people
in this rebuilding process, and he will show the way in which this needs to
take place. And, he will empower and strengthen his people to do all that is
necessary to forsake sin, idols and worldly ways, and to now walk in his
holiness and in his righteousness.
Seek the Lord
/ An Original Work / July 20, 2012
Based off Isaiah 55
“Come to Me all you who
thirst; come to waters.
Listen to Me, and eat what’s
good today,
And your soul will delight in
richest of fare.
Give ear to Me, and you will
live.
I have made an eternal
covenant with you.
Wash in the blood of the
Lamb.”
Seek the Lord while He may be
found; call on Him.
Let the wicked forsake his
way, in truth.
Let him turn to the Lord, and
he will receive mercy.
Freely, God pardons him.
“For My thoughts are not your
thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,”
declares the Lord, our God.
“My word that goes out of My
mouth is truthful.
It will not return to Me
unfulfilled.
My word will accomplish all
that I desire,
And achieve the goal I
intend.
You will go in joy, and be
led forth in peace.
The mountains will burst into
song… before you,
And all of the trees clap
their hands.”
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