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Happy Thanks – Giving!

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Haggai 1:4-8 Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses while this house [of the Lord] lies in ruins? 5 Now therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways and set your mind on what has come to you. 6 You have sown much, but you have reaped little; you eat, but you do not have enough; you drink, but you do not have your fill; you clothe yourselves, but no one is warm; and he who earns wages has earned them to put them in a bag with holes in it. 7 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways (your previous and present conduct) and how you have fared. 8 Go up to the hill country and bring lumber and rebuild [My] house, and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified, says the Lord [by accepting it as done for My glory and by displaying My glory in it].

Israel had returned from Persia (Babylon) and for sixteen years the Temple of the Lord lay in ruins. What was going on? Got Questions answers that question stating, “During his first year as king of Persia, in 538 B.C., Cyrus issued an edict allowing the Jews to return from Babylon to Jerusalem to rebuild the city and the temple (Ezra 1:1-4). The altar was repaired, and the foundation of the temple probably began sometime in 537 B.C. Then Samaritan opposition brought construction to a halt in 536 B.C. Ezra 4:24 notes, “Then the work on the house of God that is in Jerusalem stopped, and it ceased until the second year of the reign of Darius king of Persia.” The temple project languished for 16 years, until 520 B.C. Therefore, originally, the Jews stopped rebuilding the temple due to opposition from the neighboring Samaritans. But other reasons crept in. At the time of Haggai’s prophecies, some Jews simply said that the timing was not right. Yet the time was right for them to build their own homes. In fact, Haggai rebukes the people for their concern for their own houses while neglecting God’s house. Haggai taught that God was sending His judgment because of the Jews’ neglect of the temple of the Lord.”

“What does this have to do with Thanksgiving?” you may ask. Proverbs 18:21 states, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and they who indulge in it shall eat the fruit of it [for death or life].” According to 1 Cor. 6:19-20 you are a temple of the Holy Spirit. Corporately we are a Temple of the Holy Spirit. What happens in the temple? Well, if it’s God’s temple there are sacrifices of thanksgiving, worship, and praise. There are priests making intercession to the Lord. There are priests serving God and serving others. There is no praise, or worship in grumbling, complaining, or fault finding. God is not glorified when we are stingy with the “fruit of our lips” focused on death. Unfortunately, we end up eating the fruit of it.

The fruit of death tastes good – at first. Sweet to the tongue but then bitter in the stomach. It reminded me of our love for sugar. An article on the University of Michigan’s website cautions about sugar’s toxic effects: “Sugar is Killing Us. Here’s Everything You Need to Know.” Gretchen Voss writes, “You’d never willingly eat poison, right? Okay, maybe you snack on not-so-healthy treats every so often. Or scarf down non-nutritious junk at happy hour. But straight-up poison? Never. Or so you think. “Sugar can act like poison in high doses—and the amount in our diets has gone beyond toxic,” says Robert Lustig, M.D., a neuroendocrinologist at the University of California at San Francisco School of Medicine. The typical American now swallows the equivalent of 22 sugar cubes every 24 hours.”

Death and life are in the power of our tongue. Yet the “sugar” of complaining, fault finding, murmuring, gossiping, malice, scorn, profane speech, etc. – tastes sweet in the moment but is death to us spiritually – in the long run. Colossians 2:6-7 has the remedy to our overdosing on negative speech: “So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord; continue to live in Him, rooted and built up in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thanksgiving.” Did you catch all of that? Someone who has received, trusted and relied upon Jesus to be their Savior, Baptizer, and Master – will seek to continue living in Him, being rooted and built up in Him, overflowing with what? THANKSGIVING!

During this holiday season when we are tempted to complain, nit pick, fault find, or criticize why not let that be the “dummy light” on the dashboard of your life that it’s time to build up the House of God, be His priest, offering up and overflowing sacrifice of daily thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving from Jackie, and me!

Necessary Adjustments and the Soil of Your Heart

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Ezra 1:1-2 Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia [almost seventy years after the first Jewish captives were taken to Babylon], that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might begin to be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it also in writing: 2 Thus says Cyrus king of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He has charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem in Judah.

Imagine a cataclysmic event occurring in the United States in which every citizen is forced to relocate to Russia and live for seventy years. Then, following this time period, picture the prime minister of Russia proclaiming that their country would pay for every American citizen to return. All expenses paid. What would you do? What changes would have taken place in a persons life in those seventy years? One way to make this more pertinent is to visualize turning back the clock in our nations’ history seventy years. This would place us in the year 1955. I was born in 1963. Since that time I have graduated from High School, College, and Seminary. I’ve been married for 40 years, and have two married adult children, and three grandsons. All of my life would have been lived in Russia. English would not be my heart language – Russian would be. My parents were born in 1944 and 1945. That means my Dad would have been eleven years old when he was forced to move to Russia. My parents’ parents would have been in their early thirties. Their parents would have been in their sixties. That’s six generations of family members impacted by the move.

Now imagine the prime minister of Russia asking you to go rebuild a church back in America. What would you do? From the book of Ezra we can see that only three tribes responded in faith to the invitation. Out of twelve tribes only three chose to return: Ezra 1:5 Then rose up the heads of the fathers’ houses of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests and Levites, with all those whose spirits God had stirred up, to go up to rebuild the house of the Lord in Jerusalem. One fourth of the people chose to act in faith. Only one fourth of the people understood God’s call on their lives. Only one fourth of the people were willing to uproot their way of living and return in faith to God’s Word; His Promises; and His Prophetic Declarations.

We often criticize and judge the unbelief of the Jewish people. It’s no coincidence that in Jesus’ Parable of the Sower, or the soils, only one fourth of the soil bore fruit. Is there a correlation between Israel and the Modern day church? John 14:23 states that we are building God’s House with Jesus and the Father. But how is the soil of our hearts receiving the seed of God’s Word? Are we so entrenched with our families, and our way of life, that when the King summons us to build we choose to remain where we are, and as we are? You cannot stay the way you are and go with God. You cannot stay where you are and go with God. You must make the necessary adjustments in order to join God in what He is doing.