Fresh start - priorities and comparisons

Discouragement is just as much a problem for believers in today's world as it was for the Jewish people who had returned to Jerusalem.
Last week we saw that a fresh encounter with God, with His Word, would point out our sins, but also confirm for us the grace that God offers us.
This week, we will continue with these thoughts.....

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. (Ezra 5:1-2)

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?” (Haggai 1:3-4) 

Getting back into God's Word will also straighten out our priorities. Haggai exhorted the people to get their priorities in order by putting God's house first. We are all prone to let the things of this world crowd the things of God right out of first place in our lives.
Many of the commercials on television today are for the newest cars on the market. The commercials make it seem that if we desire to be beautiful and successful, we need a new vehicle! I expect the car salesmen see it every day: people are trading in their "old" car to get a new feature or a newer style. The trade-in may not be two years old yet, but the customer thinks they "need" this new car.
Choices.
Debt.
Priorities.
Maybe we don't struggle in this area; maybe that new car doesn't attract us with a siren song of what could be. But what about our time? Do we put spending time with God as first priority in our lives? How about in the area of service? Of loving our neighbors? Do we get this skewed and desire to be served instead of serving others?

Wherever we look in God's Word, we will find our skewed priorities corrected. The Word keeps calling us back to the basics . . .

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:33)

We are confident, I say, and would prefer to be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So we make it our goal to please him,whether we are at home in the body or away from it. (II Corinthians 5:8-9)

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ (Matthew 22:37-39)

God's Word also teaches us how to change our behavior and our thoughts in order to live in a manner that pleases Him.
What do I mean?
I'm glad you asked!
Until these two prophets came along, most of the Jews in the land surrounding Jerusalem probably thought they were doing OK. They may even have patted themselves on the backs for giving up their established, comfortable lives in Babylon and making the long, treacherous journey across the desert. They were doing the right thing for their families, after all, and making them nice residences in the homeland. And perhaps they compared themselves to those who'd stayed behind, too. "Well, we don't have a temple yet, but these things take time. The peeps back in Babylon don't have a place to worship, either. At least we made the sacrifice and came back to the land!"
And their pride continued to swell . . . .
But then the prophets spoke, and the people realized that to please God, they needed to change their behavior AND their thoughts - they needed to commit to rebuilding the temple, and they needed to stop comparing themselves to others!

When God's Word speaks to us today, we can have the same kind of "ah hah!" moment. An epiphany of sorts. He wants our behavior and our thoughts to be pleasing, too.
God's Word shows us how to make our behavior match our commitment to God:

 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, (Titus 2:12)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

And His Word exposes the intentions of our hearts - it makes us adjust our thinking.

May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart    be pleasing in your sight,    Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.  (Philippians 4:8)

It's easy to lull ourselves into complacency, and even pride, if we compare ourselves to others. We always seem to choose someone to compare ourselves to, who is not as committed as we are! (Grin) But a fresh encounter in God's Word will make us realize that God wants honesty and purity in our thought life. He calls for us to love Him with all our heart, our soul, our mind, and our strength. So we can adjust our priorities and our thinking and please Him more.

These are all wonderful things to recall when we are dealing with discouragement. But if we just are too bowed down with fear, or with grief, or with disappointment, I want to encourage all of us to remember some Psalms to read. These will help us tremendously. Each of the psalms is of benefit, but if you just remember these verses, they will help, too:

The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears them;    he delivers them from all their troubles. The Lord is close to the brokenhearted    and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (Psalm 34:17-18)

As a father has compassion on his children,    so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed,    he remembers that we are dust. (Psalm 103:13-14)

Those who sow with tears    will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping,    carrying seed to sow,will return with songs of joy,    carrying sheaves with them. (Psalm 126:5-6)

We can overcome discouragement! He will help us make a new, new beginning!

Friday

Grace that is greater than all our sin.....

Thank you, Lord!

Wake up call - confirming His grace

Our study this week was so appropriate for our lives today. We are surrounded by the roaring lions of the devil and his minions, by humans who are misguided and ruthless -- we so badly need encouragement to keep on keeping on. We found yesterday that the first thing we need is a fresh encounter with the Word of God; just as the Jewish people did, in Haggai's time. The Word will confront our sin . . . but how can that help us when we are discouraged?

Won't that just make us more mopey and blue?
News flash!
His Word will also confirm His grace when we repent! That's an occasion for joy!
Haggai and Zechariah were like a tag team for God.
Not sacrilegious. Just sayin'.
Zechariah was evidently the younger of the two and was one of the people who returned from Babylon where he was born and reared. He and Haggai were actually friends and supported one another in their work, as mentioned in the book of Ezra. Zechariah's ministry kept going for about a year after Haggai's work.

Here's how they tag-teamed: Haggai confronted the people's sins, and Zechariah gave them hope that God would remember them and keep His promises to them. He especially reminded them of God's promise to send the Messiah.
Commentaries hold some awesome nuggets for those (like me!) who don't read Hebrew or Greek when they are studying . . .  Zechariah's name means "whom the Lord remembers." His father was called Berechiah, and that means "the Lord blesses." Finally, his grandad was called Iddo, which means "at the appointed time." (Iddo was mentioned in Ezra 5.)   If you put those names together, they pretty much sum up the theme of Zechariah's prophecies: "Whom the Lord remembers, He blesses at the appointed time."  Cool, huh? (Grin)

So after Haggai rebuked the people for their sin, and really lambasted them and went into details, along comes Zechariah. He starts off by talking about God's fierce wrath:

“The Lord was very angry with your ancestors." (Zechariah 1:2)

Why? Here's why:

Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the earlier prophets proclaimed: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Turn from your evil ways and your evil practices.’ But they would not listen or pay attention to me, declares the Lord. (Zechariah 1:4)

But then he turns right around (immediately) and shows the graciousness of God:

Therefore tell the people: This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the Lord Almighty. (Zechariah 1:3)

Apply this to our lives today: if we will repent (remember, that carries with it the image of TURNING AWAY from our sin) God will show mercy to us. This is illustrated for us in the fifth chapter of Ezra: it's a new "new beginning."
The first new beginning was in chapter three, when the exiles returned to Jerusalem, set up the altar, made sacrifices and more. They celebrated the Feast of Booths (or Feast of Tabernacles) and then they laid the foundation for the temple.
Then, lo and behold, the opposition frightened and discouraged them, and the work stagnated for sixteen years! For sixteen years nothing happened on the rebuilding of the temple. But now, we have a second new beginning.

Praise God that He allows for new, new beginnings -- and even for new, new, new beginnings!
Each morning that we awake and breathe here on this earth is a new beginning.... there are new mercies awaiting us. Did we fall yesterday? Repent of that sin and start fresh today!

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,    for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;    great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22-23)

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  (I John 1:9) 

“Forget the former things;    do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?I am making a way in the wilderness    and streams in the wasteland." (Isaiah 43:18-19)

This is the confirmation of a fresh start; when we have a fresh encounter in His Word, we repent of our sins, and we receive confirmation by the Holy Spirit that we have His grace which is "greater than all our sin."

“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,    “when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel    and with the people of Judah.... 
33 “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel    after that time,” declares the Lord.“I will put my law in their minds    and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,    and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor,    or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’because they will all know me,    from the least of them to the greatest,”declares the Lord.“For I will forgive their wickedness    and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31, 33-34)

A new covenant was given to us through Jesus' blood. It's our hope. Our inheritance. Christ is the truest proof of newness in our lives . . . . newness of heart, and newness of eternity. We've gone from death to life! Praise God!

Wake up call - a fresh start

God sent out a wake up call! Last time we studied, we looked at both the fifth chapter of Ezra and the first chapter of Haggai. We saw that the prophet Haggai spoke as the Lord told him to, and rebuked the people. Their priorities had gotten skewed. They were making lovely, luxurious homes for themselves, and neglecting the worship of God. They were happy to have their own houses, but didn't see the importance of God having a house.
They needed a fresh start.
Last week, I was working in my garden, and I realized that the two rows of green beans were petering out. What do I mean? The plants had produced vigorously, and we'd had wonderful side dishes of freshly picked and cooked beans, but now the plants were past their prime. No more blooms brightened the tops, so no more beans would be growing. I needed a fresh start, so I pulled up all the plants, chopped them up and incorporated them into the garden soil (green beans are fabulous since they "fix" the nitrogen in the soil) and tilled it thoroughly. Next step? Plant more beans! I will probably get another crop before frost - another nice thing about living in the south!

The Jewish people needed a fresh start, too. A fresh encounter with the Word of God. In their day, that was a prophet who said, "Thus saith the Lord." (In our day, we can dig in and glean new knowledge from our Bibles.) In the Old Testament, the prophets didn't talk so much about God's already-written Word....they received new revelations from God - He spoke directly to them, and they were to pass His Word along to the people. Consequently, when a prophet spoke, the people realized that God was talking right to them.

We don't depend on prophets anymore to get a revelation from God. The Holy Spirit's job (one of them, at least) is to instruct us as we get into the Word. We have the heart of the prophets' messages in the Old Testament, and we have our Redeemer's words and His disciples' writings in the New.  The thing that will inspire and refresh us most when we are dealing with discouragement is to hear God speaking to us in our particular circumstances, through His Word! Whether we "open at random," seek a particular and familiar passage, or read through the Bible systematically, what we read will have relevance to our day - the Spirit does that. Have you ever had that happen? A verse or a passage will just "get in your face" and demand your thoughts and attention -- it's the perfect verse that addresses just what we are going through. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and He is a master at it!

Yes, a fresh encounter with God's Word is awfully important. How do we do that? Well, of course, we have to have some exposure to the Word. If we never open our Bibles or sit listening to a teacher or preacher, it's hard for distinctly new and fresh concepts to enter our minds! Yep, I know, when we are discouraged we may not FEEL like getting into the Word, but in this day of technology there are so many ways to do it! In addition to reading and turning real pages, we can listen on tapes or discs; we can pull up a favorite teacher on the web and watch/listen as they speak. It may be necessary for us to schedule a certain time each day - we've discussed this before - to get alone with God. He speaks to us through His Word, and we must take the time and the effort needed to expose ourselves to it.

How is all of this going to work?
What does a fresh start, a fresh "dunk" into the pool of God's Word get us?
The first thing it does is confront sin in our lives . . . .
That's actually the main thrust of the prophet Haggai's book -- in the verses that we've read, he is directly confronting the people with their sin. I'm sure that had an impact on his popularity for a time, but hey, somebody's got to do it! Haggai told the people about their sin of building their own luxurious homes while neglecting God's house. God used Haggai to stir up Zerubbabel, Jeshua (Joshua in some translations), and the people, too:

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, (Haggai 1:14)

It's not always pleasant, in fact, we may be thinking, "Wow, when I'm discouraged, I sure don't want to confront my sin! I don't think that would be ENcouraging!"

Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper,    but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy. (Proverbs 28:13)

No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. (Hebrews 12:11)

It's the medicine we all need. Confession of sin and then receiving a fresh outpouring of grace from our Redeemer can be VERY encouraging! Sin destroys us, and it also damages those who are close to us. To avoid and neglect our study of the Bible because it confronts our sin? That's like avoiding the doctor when we have received a diagnosis that can be treated and cured; our diagnosis is that we are all sinners, and our cure is the love and mercy of Christ. We need to get into the Bible when discouraged, and let the Spirit tell us of sins we may have overlooked.....

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (II Timothy 3:16)

Our fresh encounter with God's Word will not only point our our sins, but it will confirm for us that if we repent, His grace is there for us. We'll cover this in our study tomorrow!

Prayer requests

So many things to do . . .
Housecleaning, laundry, meal prep, meal cleanup. Outside job, grocery shopping, errands to run. Church services, discipleship training, devotion time, ministry. Encouraging loved ones and friends, comforting, chastising, and more. Praying. Always praying.

When we really stop and think about the big picture, the most vital things that we should all be focused on are our eternal salvation and our relationship with the Lord. We have a limited amount of time here on this earth.
All the money we will ever make, all the possessions we will buy, and all of the successes we will have will mean nothing if we don't accept Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior before we die and depart this life.

Not one bit of the money we will make, and none of our possessions will be going with us to the other side. No suitcases will need to be packed on our deathbed. The only things that will cross over when we die will be our souls and our spirits. Everything else will be left behind.

I hate to tell somebody this if they've been hanging on to this hope, but there won't be any reincarnation to get another chance and try again. We only have this one chance in the eternal scheme of things. One life in which to accept His gift.
It's true that God has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives. As we travel on this incredible journey each day to fulfill whatever God is calling us to do, we must never ever forget -- our radars need to be up to either witness to someone who is not yet saved -- or to pray to God for someone's salvation if we can't witness to them directly.

It's so powerful, and so important for parents to keep praying for their children. For children to keep praying for their parents. For friends to keep on praying for their friends. No matter how far off the track they may seem to be, and no matter how hopeless the situation may appear.

Pray for them as the Holy Spirit leads . . . it may be many years. Some people literally get saved on their death beds. Our direct, heartfelt, personal prayers to God are important. I don't think that we can "pray too much" or bug or pester God. I believe that we can request that He move in a mighty way to save them. We can ask for His Spirit to call out to them. I could be needing instruction in this area, but I believe that God can be moved and touched by our continued prayers.

You see, I don't believe there would be so many verses encouraging us to pray if it didn't have some effect! I don't think God requires us to do anything just for the sake of doing it. I think our prayers can influence outcomes.
True, God knows the end from the beginning. He knows everything in between, as well. In other words, He not only knows the outcome of a situation; He also knows how that outcome will be reached. He knows in advance if we'll pray for a particular outcome or not.....

Many times as a battle was beginning, we read that God told His people, "I have given the enemy into your hands." But they still had to take up arms and fight! God knew that they would fight, and because of that, He fought with them to ensure the victory He had promised.

God is not content that any should die without Him.
Let's not give up.
Keep praying.
Keep asking Him to do what He's promised, to save our loved ones and friends. To save that stranger that we met today.

That the world might know......

A wake up call!

Like we have done before, we will be studying a whole chapter today. The fifth chapter of Ezra is our focus, and I'd like to request that you read through it and then come back here to share some thoughts.
I'm going to re-read it right now . . .
Will you do that, too?

Wow!
Pretty intriguing, right?
We've had all these setbacks and obstacles and now there's a crinkle in the plot line . . . wonder what will happen next? Well, before we get too far ahead of ourselves, let's look at these verses, OK?

Now Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the prophet, a descendant of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, who was over them. 2 Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jozadak set to work to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. And the prophets of God were with them, supporting them. (Ezra 5:1-2)

We've noted the verses before that showed exactly what Haggai said to the people. It was a wake up call, no?
He chastised them pretty roundly!
The Spirit of God was upon him and he spoke exactly what the Lord told him to say. In addition to the rebuke, though, there is something really important to notice: an additional ingredient of the recipe . . . . encouragement!
At the end of the second verse there, it says that the prophets were with them, supporting them.
Awesome!
Have you ever been discouraged?
I guess that's like asking, "Are you alive? Breathing?"
(Grin)
Being at the bottom of the roller coaster hill happens to all of us. Sometimes it's because of a physical cause. We may be worn down and tired. Needing a break. Or perhaps we are ill, or prone to depression.
We can end up at the bottom of the coaster because of expectations, too. We can be idealistic and on fire for God; no matter how hard we work and pray, the devil may thwart our efforts.
We can be disappointed by our expectations of other human beings, too. Maybe we were counting on someone and they let us down. Perhaps we had high hopes for a friendship with someone, and they turned against us.
We can be discouraged like the remnant was, by criticism and slander.
We can even be discouraged by what we perceive as disappointment with God. As far as we could tell, we were working and praying for something that we felt would bring God glory - but it fell apart. We begin to wonder if we should try anything for the Lord again.
We human beings are a curious lot sometimes. We try to deal with discouragement in many wrong ways. Many immerse themselves in things they think will be fulfilling: sports, travel, social media, entertainment, their careers, building wealth, building popularity. You name it. Humans will try it. It's a tragedy, though, and we should not make light of the fact that some turn to drugs, alcohol, or sexual sin. Some become so filled with despair that they try to take their own lives.

In the first chapter of Haggai, we read that the people's focus had shifted away from God. It was as if they said to the prophet, "Hey, we tried that. It didn't work so well!"
God knew they needed a wake up call, and he had two people picked out for the job! He raised up two prophets, Haggai and Zechariah, and caused them to speak to the people in His name.
The results were nothing short of incredible!
Under the renewed leadership of our old friends Zerubbabel and Jeshua, the people started building again. And the work was finished in just a tad over four years.

I think we will find some clues in this chapter that will tell us how to overcome discouragement in our work for the Lord!
This promises to be a very uplifting week of study -- hope you'll be here!

Friday slowdown

This sweet song was first written for a children's event -- but what a wonderful reminder as we try to be like our Savior!

Hope your heart is blessed as mine was . . .

1. I'm trying to be like Jesus;
I'm following in his ways.
I'm trying to love as he did, in all that I do and say.
At times I am tempted to make a wrong choice,
But I try to listen as the still small voice whispers,

Chorus
"Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught."

2. I'm trying to love my neighbor;
I'm learning to serve my friends.
I watch for the day of gladness when Jesus will come 
again.
I try to remember the lessons he taught.
Then the Holy Spirit enters into my thoughts, saying:

Chorus
"Love one another as Jesus loves you.
Try to show kindness in all that you do.
Be gentle and loving in deed and in thought,
For these are the things Jesus taught."