The Lord's house in ruins

I came across the first chapter of Haggai and immediately thought, "nothing has changed in all these years." Haggai is warning the remnant of Jerusalem that the time is indeed now to restore God's house.  He speaks for the Lord chasting the people for taking care of themselves only;  they are never content and suffer much because of their selfish ways. How true is this even today? Maybe some of this is the underlying truth behind the decline of our churches. People are too busy tending to their own selfish needs and wants instead of building up the church for the Lord (both the physical structure and the whole church body). So, I just want to encourage you to get your priorities straight, just as I am trying to do this year. Put God above all else.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says 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. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.  Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”

Haggai 1:2-11 ESV

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Please join me this week in praying for the healing and growth of our local churches.

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