Month: July 2020

Haggai 1:1  In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jozadak, the high priest: This is what the Lord Almighty says: “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’” 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.

The citizens of Jerusalem told themselves that it wasn’t yet time to resume work on the temple.  The people made their excuse sound spiritual. They couldn’t speak against the idea of building the temple, so they spoke against its timing. They said, “It isn’t God’s timing to rebuild the temple.”  Because of the great obstacles against the work, God’s people began to rationalize and decided that it wasn’t time to rebuild after all. “If it’s so hard, evidently, God doesn’t want us to do it – at least no time soon.”  We never like to hear God speak to His people this way – saying, “this people” instead of “My people.” He said this because He saw their excuses and their poor priorities and noticed that they were not living like His people.   God saw and heard their excuses and poor priorities – and He had something to say to them.   The people said that it wasn’t time to rebuild the temple, but their actions said that it was time to live in nicely rebuilt houses.  The problem was simply wrongly ordered priorities. They were content to let the cause of the Lord suffer at the expense of their comfort. Instead, they should have felt no rest until the work of God was as prosperous as their personal lives, and been as willing to sacrifice for work of God as they were for their personal comfort and luxury.  God sees through similar excuses today and is like an unwelcome but necessary alarm clock.  Haggai asks God’s people to consider what direction their life was headed, and if they really wanted it to continue that way.   The cause of their financial difficulties was their wrong priorities. They suffered setback after setback because the blessing of God wasn’t on them.  The people of Israel were being judged and they didn’t even know it – they probably wrote it all off as bad luck or tough economic times, but God was trying to tell them something.  Sometimes our priorities are out of order and we seem to suffer no hardships. In such times we should never presume on the mercy of God – we should turn to Him and re-order our priorities before He needs to use crisis to get through to us. If our priorities are wrong, nothing will satisfy us. Each accomplishment soon reveals that there must be something more, something that can really satisfy, Nothing fills the God-shaped void in our life except putting Him first.

How can a man be in the right before God?
–Job 9:2

Right now, conservative Christians are waffling and wavering on the foundational belief of Christianity–that salvation is available only to those who trust in Christ as Savior. A Pew study revealed that 70 percent of Americans with a religious affiliation say many religions can lead to eternal life. You say, “Most religious people in America are not necessarily Christian. Surely the statistic among evangelical Christians is different.” Not by much. The same study revealed that 57 percent of evangelical church attenders believe that many religions can lead to eternal life.

You may say: “As long as I believe in Jesus, what difference does it make if there are other ways to heaven?” The difference it makes is this: What you believe about the exclusivity of Christ for salvation determines whether you spend eternity in heaven or in hell. If you think that’s an exaggeration, consider this illustration. Suppose you want to travel to Houston from Dallas. But instead of driving south to Houston, you mistakenly go north to Oklahoma. No matter how sincere you are, if you keep traveling north, you will never get to Houston. You are going the wrong way. Apart from GPS or a map to guide you, how do you know which of the many roads and highways in Texas will lead you to your desired destination?

Jesus said if you want to go to heaven, there’s only one way to get there. In Matthew 7:13-14, He said, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” Jesus said the way to heaven is narrow. He also slammed the door on any possibility of another route to heaven. In John 14:6, He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

This issue of the exclusivity of Christ is the essence of Job 9:2. “How can a man be in the right before God?” How you answer that question affects not only your eternal destiny but the destiny of your family, your friends, and the entire world.

The mind of man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.
–Proverbs 16:9

Maps can be crucial for providing direction, especially when you’re in unfamiliar territory. But the only thing worse than having no map when you’re in unfamiliar territory is having the wrong map. In his book, “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” Stephen Covey wrote about the importance of having the right map: “Suppose you wanted to arrive at a specific location in central Chicago. A street map of the city would be a great help to you in reaching your destination. But suppose you were given the wrong map. Through a printing error, the map labeled ‘Chicago’ was actually a map of Detroit. Can you imagine the frustration, the ineffectiveness of trying to reach your destination? You might work on your behavior–you could try harder, be more diligent, double your speed. But your efforts would only succeed in getting you to the wrong place faster. You might work on your attitude–you could think more positively. You still wouldn’t get to the right place, but perhaps you wouldn’t care. Your attitude would be so positive, you’d be happy wherever you were. The point is, you’d still be lost. The fundamental problem has nothing to do with your behavior or your attitude. It has everything to do with having a wrong map.”

The problem with most motivational books and motivational sermon series, even the Christian ones, is that they talk about things like setting goals and persevering and having the right attitude without providing you with the right map. And by map, I’m talking about the way of viewing life. A geographical map is helpful in getting from point A to point B, and it is based on certain geographical realities. In the same way, a spiritual map shows us how to get from where we are into the place we want to be in our relationship with God. And this spiritual map is also based on certain spiritual realities. Just imagine you did arrive in Chicago and instead of asking for a map of the city you decided to draw your own map of Chicago, even though you’ve never been there. You base your map on what you wish Chicago were like instead of what it is actually like. The result would be a disaster, wouldn’t it? It is the same thing when we try to create our own spiritual map, when we try to worship the god of our own understanding, according to what we wish God were instead of what He actually is. When we just make up reality, the end is going to be disaster. We have got to have the right spiritual map if we are going to be successful in life.

During the past several weeks, we have been studying biblical attitude choices that are absolutely crucial in life. This week, we are going to look at the most foundational attitude choice of all, the only one that will give you a proper spiritual map of life, and that is the decision to choose intimacy with God over isolation from God. All other attitude choices that we make should be built on the foundational decision of choosing intimacy with God.