The following is from earlier this year:
"The LORD of Hosts says this..... These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt".... that is how the prophet Haggai related it. The skies withheld their dew they were told because they lived within their paneled houses as the LORD's house lay in ruins. Now what was spoken of here was the temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. I read Haggai a number of times a year and each time I read it my mind goes immediately to the Christian church in America, for I am drawn there by the similarity.
Here surely is an issue of contention, the state of the church in America today, and I am firmly on one side of that contentious issue. The American Christian church is in shambles. It is Laodicean....neither hot nor cold. You disagree, but it is my contention that it's ministers no longer know how to preach. I am going on 37 years of visiting churches for one reason or another and a chasm as wide as the Nile exists between this church age and previous church ages.
The majesty of Christ, when even addressed today, is eerily absent of depth. The cross is purposely ignored in many churches and mentioned in others almost as if in passing. To say that Bible study is weak is an understatement, as virtues are a hot topic but truth aka doctrine is too divisive. Faddish doctrine, bad books and worse teachers are everywhere! The result of all this is that America itself in the middle of collapse by way of an internal coup with ravenous wolves circling to devour the carcass while relatively few in the pulpits discern the reason for this, proclaim effectively or adequately the glories of Christ, nor warn of judgement or herald our coming King.
The Lord of Hosts then exhorted Zerubbabel and Joshua son of Jehozadak...."Be strong...work for I am with you...don't be afraid....For the LORD of Hosts says this: 'Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.' I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory." The people then heeded the words of the LORD through Haggai.
Zerubbabel was used mighty in the restoration of the temple but Haggai was more pointing to a future house of the LORD which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Twice the prophet points to the last days and this is what I allude to here in this post. God's house once again lay in ruins yet we build and build for ourselves and wonder why our nation is collapsing. We sought answers in politics which was essentially building our own houses, when our attention should have been on our own failures.
Folks, these are but personal thoughts that I give...as if we were sitting across a table from each other. There are pastors all across America that I would be humbled to even be in their presence and congregations in which it would be a wonderful blessing to worship with, but these are remnants, many though they may be, of what America once was! Should not we at least meditate on these two short chapters in Haggai to see if God may be speaking to us also?
"The LORD of Hosts says this..... These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt".... that is how the prophet Haggai related it. The skies withheld their dew they were told because they lived within their paneled houses as the LORD's house lay in ruins. Now what was spoken of here was the temple that had been destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar. I read Haggai a number of times a year and each time I read it my mind goes immediately to the Christian church in America, for I am drawn there by the similarity.
Here surely is an issue of contention, the state of the church in America today, and I am firmly on one side of that contentious issue. The American Christian church is in shambles. It is Laodicean....neither hot nor cold. You disagree, but it is my contention that it's ministers no longer know how to preach. I am going on 37 years of visiting churches for one reason or another and a chasm as wide as the Nile exists between this church age and previous church ages.
The majesty of Christ, when even addressed today, is eerily absent of depth. The cross is purposely ignored in many churches and mentioned in others almost as if in passing. To say that Bible study is weak is an understatement, as virtues are a hot topic but truth aka doctrine is too divisive. Faddish doctrine, bad books and worse teachers are everywhere! The result of all this is that America itself in the middle of collapse by way of an internal coup with ravenous wolves circling to devour the carcass while relatively few in the pulpits discern the reason for this, proclaim effectively or adequately the glories of Christ, nor warn of judgement or herald our coming King.
The Lord of Hosts then exhorted Zerubbabel and Joshua son of Jehozadak...."Be strong...work for I am with you...don't be afraid....For the LORD of Hosts says this: 'Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land.' I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory." The people then heeded the words of the LORD through Haggai.
Zerubbabel was used mighty in the restoration of the temple but Haggai was more pointing to a future house of the LORD which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Twice the prophet points to the last days and this is what I allude to here in this post. God's house once again lay in ruins yet we build and build for ourselves and wonder why our nation is collapsing. We sought answers in politics which was essentially building our own houses, when our attention should have been on our own failures.
Folks, these are but personal thoughts that I give...as if we were sitting across a table from each other. There are pastors all across America that I would be humbled to even be in their presence and congregations in which it would be a wonderful blessing to worship with, but these are remnants, many though they may be, of what America once was! Should not we at least meditate on these two short chapters in Haggai to see if God may be speaking to us also?
