I have to say that I am so blessed to have a husband who is a man after God's own heart. It makes me so happy every morning when he gets up to do his Bible study & prayer time, to see him sitting at the kitchen table communing with God. This morning he sent me this email (I don't get up nearly as early as he does!) of the things he has been learning from God's Word. Now mind you, he has yet to read my blog entry from yesterday, but yet somehow we are on the same page as far as God's plan for our life.
This is Joel's email to me today:
Hey – My bible study this morning was Haggai, chapter 1. It would appear that God made sure the bible was not put together in chronological order so that this book would be timed for our circumstances right now J. This is the text of the first chapter (from the Blue Letter Bible) as well as Chuck Smith’s commentary on it. Please read it all the way through. It’s unbelievably timely and I think God couldn’t be telling us any clearer what He wants from us. - Joel
So in the second year of Darius [520 B.C.], in the sixth month, in the first day of the month, [the second year of the reign of Darius the king,] there came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel [who was one of the leaders in this movement of rebuilding] the son of Shealtiel, the governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedech, the high priest, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the LORD'S house shall be built (Hag 1:1-2).
"This isn't the time to do it." There was a procrastination on the part of the people.
Then came the word of the LORD by Haggai the prophet, saying,
They were saying, "The time isn't come," and he said,
Is it time for you to dwell in your ceiled houses, and this house lie waste? Now therefore thus saith the LORD; Consider your ways (Hag 1:3-5).
Now it is interesting how that Haggai, or the Lord through Haggai is constantly calling the people to consider. You know, there are a lot of things that happen around us and we never take it into consideration. It seems that we've become very shallow people. Through our television news and through our news magazines and through all of the media that we have today, we've become extremely broad people. We know a little bit about everything because of all of the glorious media that we now have, able to condense things down and give us a little synopsis of this, and a little synopsis of that. So we've become extremely broad. We know a little bit about everything. But we don't know much about anything. We're very shallow. We don't really stop to consider a lot of times things that are happening around us. The Lord is saying, "Hey, look. Take a look at this. Consider this now. Consider this now." So Haggai is calling the people to consider their ways. For he said,
[Look,] you have sown a lot of seed, but you've harvested very little; you don't have enough; you drink, but you're not filled; you are busy making your clothes, but you are not warm; and he that earns wages earns wages to put it into a bag with holes (Hag 1:6).
Very descriptive, isn't it? Remind you of anything you've experienced? You put your wages in a purse that has holes. Where does the money go?
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways (Hag 1:7).
The second challenge to consider, "Consider this, times are bad, your crops are failing, you don't have enough, there's not enough to go around." Now he said,
Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. For you looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when you brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that is waste, and ye have run every man to his own house. Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground brings forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon the labor of their hands (Hag 1:8-11).
The Lord said, "I've brought the drought because you have forsaken My house; you've allowed my house to lie waste because you are putting yourselves first."
Now Jesus said that the heathen world, the Gentile world is seeking after what it's gonna eat, what it's gonna drink, and what it's gonna wear. These are basically the things that the Lord is talking to these people about. So many people today are working double jobs. They're both, husbands and wives working because they're so concerned with what they're gonna eat, what they're gonna drink, and what they're gonna wear. Times are tough. There's not enough money to go around. There seems to be a drought. But the Lord said, "The reason why is because you have forsaken My house. You've allowed it to be desolate." So the Lord, he said, called for the drought.
Now in the New Testament where Jesus said, "These things do the Gentiles seek," He said, "but you seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be taken care of" (Matthew 6:33). You see, the people had messed up their priorities. They were seeking themselves first. They were seeking their own luxuries first, and as a result, they didn't have enough. They were seeking to provide for their physical needs: their clothing, their food, their drink, and they never had enough. They never had enough. The Lord said, "Look, you seek first My kingdom and My righteousness, and all these other things will be added." Get your priorities straight. Put the Lord first in your life. Seek the Lord first in your life, and God will take care of your needs.
Now our sinful hearts of unbelief said, "But I don't know how He can do it." But it isn't yours to know how; it's only yours to obey in faith. If you obey in faith and put God first and seek God first, you can be sure that His Word is true, and all these other things will be added to you. God will take care of you. God will provide for you if you put Him first. But you know one of the first things to get whacked out of a budget is the Lord's place. One of the first things to go. "Oh, I've got to work on Sunday, gonna miss church, but I'll listen. I'll get the tapes, and I'll catch up on the Sunday lesson." We're putting our own needs above the things of God. God is getting short-changed. But hey, that's a one-way street. The more I short-change God, the shorter my change becomes. God said, "Look, I've called for the drought."