Morning Musing: Haggai 1:5-7

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“Now, the Lord of Armies 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 be happy. 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 Armies says this: ‘Think carefully about your ways.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Have you ever watched someone try and do something the wrong way and struggle with it? There are some tasks for which the path to successfully accomplishing them is straight and narrow. If you don’t do them a certain way, they are going to be all but impossible to complete. What Haggai was trying to help the people understand here is that life is one of these tasks.

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Digging in Deeper: Haggai 1:1

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

A new book and a new theme today. And this is yet another minor prophet book, written some 2,500 years ago to a people entirely different than us on almost every count, yet whose central message is remarkably relevant to our lives today. Perhaps that’s why God preserved it for us. What is this message? It all centers on this question: What comes first in your life?

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Patterns

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As we continue in our new series, Going It Alone, we talk about the thing that has more power over our lives than just about anything else. Know what this is? Our habits. Israel set in place some habits and we have as well in our own lives. The question is: Where are these habits taking us? Join me as we look at where they took Israel and how we can be sure they’re taking us where we most want to go.

Patterns

So, I have been told on occasion that I have a habit-forming personality. Personally, I think this is totally preposterous. I mean, sure, I have to eat grapes in sets of two (then my mouth is better balanced), carefully nibble the shell of jelly beans or M&Ms before I eat the core (then the gooey insides don’t get stuck in my teeth so badly and I can savor the flavor longer), I have to totally unpack from a trip as soon as I get home (then I don’t have to do it later), collect things obsessively when I buy part of a set until I have the whole thing (who wants an incomplete set of something anyway?), and generally get ready in the same order every morning (that way I don’t forget to do anything), but those hardly mean I have a habit-forming personality. Right?

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Morning Musing: Zephaniah 3:8-9

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“Therefore, wait for me — this is the Lord’s declaration — until the day I rise up for plunder. For my decision is to gather nations, to assemble kingdoms, in order to pour out my indignation on them, all my burning anger; for the whole earth will be consumed by the fire of my jealousy. For I will then restore pure speech to the peoples so that all of them may call on the name of the Lord and serve him with a single purpose.”
— ‭‭Zephaniah‬ ‭3:8-9‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

I remember reading the first Lord of the Rings book when I was in college. The only thing I regretted was that I waited so long to read it. I eventually burned through the second and third books on a single week trip to South Carolina with my family that summer. After finishing the first book, I remember talking to a friend and being absolutely distraught that Gandalf had died in the end. He just smiled a knowing smile and said, “Keep reading.” What He knew was that the story wasn’t over. That’s a pretty good reminder for what we see here.

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Digging in Deeper: Zephaniah 3:5

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“The righteous Lord is in her; he does no wrong. He applies his justice morning by morning; he does not fail at dawn, yet the one who does wrong knows no shame.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

“Shame on you!” Have you ever heard that before? Have you ever said that before? The answer is probably yes on both counts. It is for me. Why? What is shame that it would be projected onto us by other people or by us onto them? And besides, isn’t shame a bad thing? We’re sure told as much by our culture. We should live lives that are free from shame, shouldn’t we? Well, yes, but maybe not for the reason you think. Let’s talk about it.

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