Today, 12 June 2023, is the appointed day – I am moving into a new home. Last week, in a meeting with other committee members, we realized that three of us are moving to new homes in the next month or so. All of us shared our testimonies of how the Lord miraculously opened these new doors for us and I said that the Father is definitely talking to us about ‘house and heart’. Our chairlady walked in AFTER the conversation and started the meeting. She opened her Bible and His Word continued:
“Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”
Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”
This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”
Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the whole remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the message of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. And the people feared the Lord.
Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, gave this message of the Lord to the people: “I am with you,” declares the Lord. So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month."
There are 4 moral lessons we need for today:
1. Never be preoccupied by what appears on the surface, the things you can appraise by what people notice. My youngest confirmed this while I was ironing his hoodie before the Michael W Smith Worship Concert on Friday. I said: “What will the people think? Couldn’t his mom iron that?” He said: “Mom, you should stop worrying about what PEOPLE will think.” You see, we should worry more about what God think. We should look for the ways that God is working in hearts, and for ways to be part of His bigger plans. The world is changing so rapidly that we have trouble keeping up with who are the allies and who are the enemies.
· A well-known store dedicates a whole month to LGBTQIA
· A new wine is advertised as the perfect blend – whether you are a he, a she, or a them.
· Inflation is out of hand and money just doesn’t go as far anymore.
· Is the earthquake hitting home yesterday, today’s Haggai? Maybe we need to look at what Haggai had to say to a world that appears to be so similar to ours!
Haggai’s favorite word was: “Consider!” Some translations say: “Take heart!” It means to “refocus, place your attention on, intently observe.” What is our CONDUCT, CONVERSATIONS, AND the CONSEQUENCES?
2. Chapter 2:1-9 brings a healing message sent to heal broken hearts. God assures us that He was still going to “shake heaven and earth,” but that the “latter glory of the temple would be greater than the former,”. There is a reference of the Messiah that would come to be the Savior of the world. This is our Hope - that the Messiah is still the Desire of All Nations! He is the ONLY way, the ONLY truth, and the ONLY life. Today we have a world that sees no future, who needs something or Someone to get excited about. We have a multicultural audience in our country that hungers, hurts and craves this Redeemer! The “Desire of All Nations” stands ready to transform, redeem, and set free all who will come to Him.
3. A holy message follows in verses 10-19. Our past “holy” activities are not a “pass” for unholy behaviors today. Preaching about holiness has never been popular, but the more lifestyles seem to blur between the people of God and the unbelieving world the more necessary such preaching is. God’s message from Haggai reminded the people how God had to use bad circumstances to awaken them out of their unholy lives (2:15-19). We need to return to a life of holiness and no longer rest on our laurels of past spiritual successes. What is most needed is rarely popular.
4. Haggai ends with a hopeful message: Haggai tells Judah that in the end God will conquer their enemies, they will be victorious, and He will make them a prized possession because He has chosen them (2:21-23). It reminds us about all that we have in Christ - how He chose us before the foundations of the world, adopted us into the beloved, and has redeemed, forgiven, and glorified us through Christ. He reminds us that it is time to believe.
We need a wake-up call. We need a message that heals and bring comfort, a holy message to remind us to examine our lifestyles, and we are in desperate need of a hopeful message to guide us through these times of testing. This world is hungry for direction and conviction.
I have taken this message to heart. Soon…very soon, Anatello will add something new to the daily messages and the weekly blog posts. Watch this space… Let’s restore and rebuild His house to its former glory. Let’s rise together! Let’s rise with Him!
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