Preface: The following post is from March of 2021. We attempted to rebuild this country....as the church lay in shambles. Now....you may challenge my assertion that the church was and is in shambles but I would ask you to read again the book of Malachi....where time and again the Lord brought a charge against the 'church' of that day....and time and again the people say....who us....where....how did we do this that you accuse us of? Should God endue us with this discernment and desire to rededicate....it would have to start somewhere....and it would have to start some particular day. May God if it be His will....and to His glory....have that day be tomorrow! May these pastors....these shepherds....awaken from their slumber! Only the Holy Spirit can do this....only He can humble the proud....and restore vision to the blind! And as in the case of Haggai's message in the below post....may we not...."despise the day of small beginnings"....but praise God in that He has opened our eyes to our own culpability....and given us renewed hope in His power not ours!
In three days it will be sixty years since that terrible day of November 22, 1963. I have posted this often...President Kennedy was to give a speech later in the day. That speech was never given because of what happened in Dealey Square. Who wrote these words? Probably Kenny O'Donnell....I don't know....but that speech on paper ended with Psalm 127:1 from the KJV...."Except the LORD build the house, They labour in vain that build it" These were the last official words of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. 1962 began the....as of today....sixty year collapse of our country. That verse ended with...."Except the LORD keep the city, They watchman waketh but in vain." God's Word is filled with warnings and impending judgments on nations....once blessed...that forget or depart from God!
"Consider Your Ways!"
Haggai....his job....should he accept it....and he did....(his words did not self-destruct after five seconds....but still speak to us today....should we accept it)....was to reprimand the Jews for whom Cyrus had cleared the way....to rebuild their temple....but they had not....instead they set about remodeling their own homes.
You see we thought it necessary to make America great again....but the church was in a state of great disrepair....false prophets were everywhere....and the shepherds did not watch over the sheep. God told the people through Haggai....twice in short order....and twice again later...."Consider your ways." That appears to be what He is saying to us as He let us play around with Donald Trump for a while....showed Trump to be the mockery that he was and is....and yet we apparently want to do it again! It is not that we should not individually work on or repair our own homes....or our government....but that we are in effect....remodeling....and adding to....(rather building upon)....towards a seemingly greater outward glory....whereas inside those doors....the glory has long departed....Ichabod....we may thus celebrate a structure....but not the God who is to dwell in that structure!
"Now, therefore, thus saith the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways! You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways." (1:5,6,7)
If God is telling us the same thing that He told told the Jews through Haggai....then we also are to begin rebuilding on the foundation that has already been laid. Well....the leaders in both the 'church' and the state in Jerusalem.....and also the remnant of the people....obeyed this Word of the LORD!
"And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel....and Joshua....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." (1:14)
So we go on to the second chapter of Haggai. Here is where the people are told to look at the temple being built....and although it is nothing like the former....to take heart....and be strong....and continue....for He the LORD is with us! We are not to fear....not the Democrats....nor our enemies....nor in my case this horrid man Trump. We are not to despise the day of small things....(Zechariah 4:10)....but that day must begin sometime!
"For thus says the LORD of hosts: Yet once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land....and I will fill this house with glory. says the LORD of hosts." (1;6,7) and....
"Consider from this day onward....Since the day that the foundation of the LORD's temple was laid-consider carefully." (2:18)
The glory of the LORD was present in the tabernacle of Moses....and in the first temple....but it departed because of the rebelliousness of the people....just as the glory that was once in the church of today in America....had also departed....Ichabod....because of what we had become and the directions that we chose to go. Haggai then gives a few short sermons....beginning with chapter 2 verse 11....describing how to the Jews of that day....and us today....we have fashioned a church in ways that do not please or honor the Lord. Haggai informed them of what had happened....and why it happened....and pointed to the coming of the Messiah....where the glory of the LORD will once again fill His house! That message is also to us today....the Messiah is coming again.....take heart!
Folks....this is how I read the book of Haggai. I'm not a shepherd....I'm just an old man shouting to the shepherds that their flocks are scattered all over the surrounding hills.....eating that which they should not....and unconcerned about wolves roaming those same hills. Read for yourself....pray for our pastors....for mercy extended upon them....thus that mercy extended upon us....and all this would be to the glory of the the LORD of hosts!
Addendum: I have recommended this sermon a number of times....even very recently....but it fits in with this post so here it is again. I listened to it for probably the fourth time an hour ago. Martyn Lloyd-Jones makes a statement on a Bible verse that you surely are familiar with that may shock you. The verse is Revelation 3:20....."Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any man hear my voice and open the door, then I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with me." His statement was that this verse should never be used in evangelism. The sermon can easily be Googled at....Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Lukewarm Church. His point in the sermon is that one may have all the correct doctrine....and worship and do everything else in the correct way....but....well I'll The Doctor as he was affectionately known...tell you what comes after the....'but.'
