TEMPERATURE RISING?

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.  Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.  (Rom.1:20-25)

As the physical temperature rises in summer, it often corresponds that our spiritual temperature cools.  The creation that emerges in full glory and splendor—as birds sing, flowers bloom, grass and leaves green and grow, waves roll onto white sand, rivers ramble across rocks, children run and play, and more—sometimes we move from focusing on the Creator this points to and become fixated on the creation itself—and that is idolatry.

Should you think I am some church curmudgeon trying to spoil your summer vacation, you are wrong.  Sabbaths are part of God’s design.  They should be observed on a regular basis for the good of our mind, body, and soul—don’t forget that last part.  How can we take a vacation from God?  I am thankful He doesn’t take a vacation from us!

The danger is that we neglect our Bible reading and prayer time because we are pursuing leisure.  Our gathering for worship with the saints lessens as a priority because we may be away from home.  I mean—who will know if I don’t show up for church?  It is a subtle temptation to take the dollars meant to fund the mission and ministries of the kingdom of God and spend them at the Magic Kingdom.  Fishing is a wonderful diversion, but fishing for souls must be an ongoing passion.  Taking a swim in the pool can be refreshing, but diving into God’s presence is the ultimate.

So, enjoy your trip and thank God for the blessing of being able to do so.  Take a hike into the woods or lounge in a beach chair at the ocean.  Look at the splendor of summer.  Smell the smoke and hear the crackle of a campfire.  Don’t feel guilty about it at all.  We need a break from the daily grind.  Just be cautious and don’t take a break from God.  Fall will come next—and it might mark a spiritual fall.

PRIORITIES IN MINISTRY

But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.  And on some have compassion, making a distinction; but others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.  (Jude 20-23)

There is not enough time to do all you want to do.  There is not enough time to do all others want you to do.  There is enough time to do what God wants you to do!  It is a matter of finding His agenda to drive your priorities.  When it comes to church ministries, there are many good things that can claim the time of pastor and people.  Jude gives us insight on God’s priorities.  

Priority number one is BUILDING (v.20a).  Jude isn’t referring to bricks and mortar, but building up God’s people.  We have tended to measure a church’s effectiveness by the buildings, budgets and bodies.  But that isn’t what the Scripture here suggests.  This is spiritual development.  

It is a conscious action.  You must make a decision to build.  It is costly, time consuming business with little immediate results.  Building people up won’t happen by accident.  

It is a careful action.  God has given us a blueprint—the Bible.  We must take care to build according to His specifications.

It is a continuous action.  The Greek verb is a present active participle meaning continuous action.  The work of discipleship is never done—personally or corporately—this side of eternity. Faith is the foundation, but we must carefully build upon it. 

Priority number two is PRAYING (v.20b).  Concerning praying, when all is said and done—there is often a lot more said than done!

This speaks to the priority of prayer.  Without it, we’re on a religious treadmill.  We can do much after we pray, but nothing until we pray.

We recognize the power of prayer.  The Spirit gives the direction and dynamic to our praying.  He is the source of our power.

Priority number three is LOVING (v.21a).  Jesus loved the church and gave himself for her.  We are to follow His model.

This demands our personal effort.  You must keep yourself—it’s a choice.  You don’t fall in or out of love.  Guard your heart.

It speaks to our present environment.  We abide in an atmosphere of holy, heavenly love.  This is love for our Father and love for our brother.  You can’t love one and not the other. 

Priority number four is LOOKING (v.21a).  The most effective ministry is one done with an eye on eternity.

This is a look or preparation.  The most important dimension of Christ’s return is a call to readiness.  What are we doing that is of eternal significance?

This is a look of expectation.  The script of this story we call life can bring difficulty, but just remember the final chapter ends in glory!

Priority number five is REACHING (v.22-23).

This speaks to our compassion (v.22).  All about us we see the misery caused by the mastery of sin.  We can help by reaching out with the Gospel!

This should be our compulsion (v.23).  The fire of hell compels us to sound the warning.  Lost souls cannot rescue themselves.  We must pull them out.

May God keep us focused on these priorities!  Some day when we stand before Him, we’ll be glad we did!

FREEDOM FROM FEAR

I sought the LORD, and He heard me,

And delivered me from all my fears.  (Psalm 34:4)

Fear and faith are forever foes; they cannot coexist.  God’s children are to live by faith, directed by God.  Many, however, are living in fear, driven by dread.  David was at one of the most critical junctures of his young life.  King Saul was hot on his heels.  David panicked and behaved in a manner unworthy of a child of God.  Rather than trusting the Lord, he sought refuge in the world.  He went to a pagan king for help.  When the Philistines recognized it was their old nemesis David, they began to threaten David.  The Bible tells us David acted like a lunatic, drooling and scratching at the door like a dog—so they drove him away with scorn.  The young soldier learned a hard lesson.  His deliverance was not found in adopting worldly wisdom, but in hearing and heeding God.

We do this BY WHAT WE SPEAK.  We are to speak words of PRAISE  (v.1-3; 11-13).  Words are powerful—to help or to hurt.  It seems a strange time to be praising God.  If David allowed his mood and circumstances to dictate his speech, his mouth would be filled with negativism.  He had just made a fool of himself; peril hunted him like hounds tracking their prey.  Despite this, he chose by an act of the will, to bless the Lord.  In so doing, he would build the faith of those around him.  His men needed confidence—underpinned or undermined by what he said.  Everyday, by what we say we are fortifying faith or fueling fear.  The old need to teach the young the power of the tongue to help bring unleash the vitality of faith or the venom of fear by what we say.

Freedom from fear comes BY WHAT WE SEEK.  We are to seek the proper PRIORITY (v.4-10; 14).  Are we worried about our family?  Are we concerned about the economy?  Are we fearful of all the evil things that haunt our future?  Jesus addressed that.  He said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  (Matt.6:33)  David made seeking God his priority.  If we fear God, we need fear nothing else.  David’s face was transformed from a shameful expression of irrational fear to a radiant one reflecting the glory of God.  It radiates from the countenance of one who has spent time with the Lord.  If we will but get a taste of whom God truly is, our senses will be overwhelmed so that we would never return back to eating the hog slop of the world.  We need to loathe that which God despises and love that which God delights in.

Then, we are delivered from fear BY WHAT WE SECURE.  We will secure PRESERVATION (v.15-22).   There is the God who remembers us (v.15-16).  Quite a contrast isn’t it—those that God’s face is set against and His holy fire burns to nothing, and those God remembers—His eyes and ears open to them?  There is also the God who rescues us (v.17-18).  Maybe, like David, we have failed God—but you can have a broken heart of repentance and experience His rescue.  There is the God who redeems us (v.19-22). We are not exempt from trouble, but can endure the trouble.  Verse 20 promises preservation and resurrection.  This quote is messianic (see John 19:33-36).  If the last enemy—old Death—has been overcome (and he has in Christ’s work on that bloody cross and empty tomb), then what have I to dread, what have I to fear—I’m leaning on the everlasting arms!

THINK!

[Too often we are guilty of "stinkin' thinkin'" that gets us into trouble.  With that in mind, I repost this from last year--somebody needs to read it--and stop and THINK!]

“The Lord of Hosts says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways.’” (Haggai 1:7 HCSB)

The old fellow was often found sitting in a wooden chair on the porch of the general store. His skin was plowed with furrows as deep as the spring fields, his hands weathered as his bib overalls. Jim had been a sharecropper in Alabama and was now a fixture in town. One day, a boy who regularly came with his Mom, to help carry her purchases from the store, let his curiosity get the better of him. He asked, “Excuse me sir, but what do you do here every day?” Old Jim, leaned near the rail, let go a brown stream of tobacco juice, and turned to the lad with these words, “Well, sometimes I sits and thinks…and sometimes, I just sits.”

Can we plead guilty to the latter much more than the former? How much real thinking do we do? I am concerned that we don’t seriously think very often, for precisely that reason—it is serious business. Of that serious business, the most deliberate and deepest thinking should be thinking about God.

Someone has said that we are “amusing ourselves to death.” That seems on target. Our time is spent on thoughts that are trivial, absorbed with the vacuous nature of the temporal to the exclusion of the eternal. Our faces take on the demeanor of Alfred E. Neuman, the icon of Mad Magazine, “What, me worry?”

Yet, the quality of our thinking in terms of the subjects we contemplate and the quantity of our thoughts about such profound considerations shape us. The Apostle Paul said it this way, “Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any moral excellence and if there is any praise—dwell on these things.” (Philippians 4:8)

Think on things that are worth thinking about. Sit and think…don’t just sit.

It is the challenge issued to the Jews by the Lord through His prophet Haggai. Twice in the span of a few verses of chapter one, we hear God underscore the need to, “think carefully” (1:5, 7) and then twice in chapter two He calls His people to, “Consider carefully” (2:18). In this brief book, the Lord lets loose a barrage of nine questions to stimulate their thoughts.

What were they to carefully contemplate? These are subjects for us to consider also.

THINK ABOUT YOUR WAYS.

“In the second year of King Darius, on the first day of the sixth month, the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest:

‘The Lord of Hosts says this: These people say: The time has not come for the house of the Lord to be rebuilt.’

The word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: ‘Is it a time for you yourselves to live in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins?’ Now, the Lord of Hosts says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways:

You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough to be satisfied. You drink but never have enough to become drunk. You put on clothes but never have enough to get warm. The wage earner [puts his] wages into a bag with a hole in it.’ The Lord of Hosts says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways. Go up into the hills, bring down lumber, and build the house. Then I will be pleased with it and be glorified,’ says the Lord.

‘You expected much, but then it amounted to little. When you brought [the harvest] to your house, I ruined it. Why?’ [This is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts. ‘Because My house still lies in ruins, while each of you is busy with his own house.

So on your account, the skies have withheld the dew and the land its crops.

I have summoned a drought on the fields and the hills, on the grain, new wine, olive oil,
and whatever the ground yields, on man and beast, and on all that your hands produce.’” (1:1-11)

Carefully consider your priorities.

There is nothing wrong with making a living, but it should not be interpreted as the same thing as making a life. Providing for our household is commendable, but to do so while neglecting the house of God is condemnable. Jesus set the priorities of the eternal and material in their proper order, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you.” (Matthew 6:33) When we concentrate on the material then our minds will be gripped with anxiety and insecurity. Those were the misplaced priorities in the skewed thinking of the Israelis of Haggai’s congregation.

THINK ABOUT YOUR WORK.

“Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the entire remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of the prophet Haggai, because the Lord their God had sent him. So the people feared the Lord.

Haggai, the Lord's messenger, delivered the Lord's message to the people, ‘I am with you’--[this is] the Lord's declaration.

The Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, the spirit of the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people. They began work on the house of Yahweh of Hosts, their God, on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.” (1:12-15)

Carefully consider your purpose.

God has placed us here to glorify Him (1:8). This is our great purpose. The Westminster Catechism puts it this way, “Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever.” This is to be our consuming passion.

How do we do that? Jesus said, “My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples.” (John 15:8). It is about producing fruitful works that are of eternal quality—and not doing it grudgingly but gladly. It is in the context of abiding in a love relationship with Christ and His joy abiding in us that this is done.

“As the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Remain in My love.

If you keep My commands you will remain in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commands and remain in His love. I have spoken these things to you so that My joy may be in you and your joy may be complete.” (John 15:9-11)

This understanding stirred the souls of the Jews and stimulated their activity. The proper attitude of reverence toward God led to the proper action of service to God. They were abiding in Him. God says, “I am with you.” (Haggai 1:13)

THINK ABOUT YOUR WELFARE.

“On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of the Lord came through Haggai the prophet: ‘Speak to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, to the high priest Joshua son of Jehozadak, and to the remnant of the people: Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Doesn't it seem like nothing to you? Even so, be strong, Zerubbabel’-[this is] the Lord's declaration. ‘Be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, high priest. Be strong, all you people of the land’--[this is] the Lord's declaration. ‘Work! For I am with you’--the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

‘[This is] the promise I made to you when you came out of Egypt, and My Spirit is present among you; don't be afraid.’ For the Lord of Hosts says this: ‘Once more, in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all the nations so that the treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘The silver and gold belong to Me’--[this is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.

‘The final glory of this house will be greater than the first,’ says the Lord of Hosts. ‘I will provide peace in this place’--[this is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.” (2:1-9)

Carefully consider your promises.

God never asks us to do something without providing the resources to accomplish our task. His aim is not to use us up like something expendable and then throw us away, but to use us to exchange what we do in the temporal sphere for that which is of eternal worth. We can exchange the coin of earth for the currency of eternity!

Let this world be shaken! The people of God are promised an unshakable kingdom! God shakes the things of this world—sifts out the dirt so only the valuable remains. It is the promise of stability.

Not only is there the promise of stability, there is the promise of strength. Three times God exhorts believers in these verses to, “be strong.” (2:4). Whatever the circumstances, we have the indwelling presence of God that drives out all our fear (2:4-5).

THINK ABOUT YOUR WITNESS.

On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth [month], in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came to Haggai the prophet: ‘This is what the Lord of Hosts says: Ask the priests for a ruling.

If a man is carrying consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and it touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any other food, does it become holy?’ The priests answered, ‘No.’

Then Haggai asked, ‘If someone defiled by [contact with] a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?’ The priests answered, ‘It becomes defiled.’

Then Haggai replied, ‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me’--[this is] the Lord's declaration. ‘And so is every work of their hands; even what they offer there is defiled.

Now, reflect back from this day: Before one stone was placed on another in the Lord's temple, what state were you in? When someone came to a [grain] heap of 20 measures, it [only] amounted to 10; when one came to the winepress to dip 50 measures from the vat, it [only] amounted to 20. I struck you--all the work of your hands-with blight, mildew, and hail, but you didn't turn to Me’--[this is] the Lord's declaration. ‘Consider carefully from this day forward; from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day the foundation of the Lord's temple was laid; consider it carefully.

Is there still seed left in the granary? The vine, the fig, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yet produced. But from this day on I will bless you.’

The word of the Lord came to Haggai a second time on the twenty-fourth day of the month: ‘Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overturn chariots and their riders. Horses and their riders will fall, each by his brother's sword. On that day’--[this is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts—‘I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, My servant’--[this is] the Lord's declaration—‘and make you like My signet ring, for I have chosen you.’ [This is] the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.” (Haggai 2:10-23)

Carefully consider your position.

God chose Israel to be His holy people. They were to be a witness to the nations. Impurity would damage the credibility of their claims. Hands defiled by sin could not offer a pure sacrifice—they contaminated what they touched.

Yet, God’s intent was to bless them. When He sifted everything, all that would remain would be that which was of eternal value.

Think about it! What a difference it will make!