“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.
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?
“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.
Have you ever tried to take on a big task all by yourself. In almost every case it is easier to tackle big things with help than it is to go it alone. The same thing applies to our relationship with God. When we try and go it alone in life, we are setting ourselves up for a much harder road than is necessary. But we don’t always believe that’s really the case. Fortunately, there are several great examples from which we can learn this important truth. One of those is the book of Judges…all of it. Starting today and for the next few weeks, we are going to walk through this intriguing and sometimes disturbing little book as we see over and over again that life is better when we walk it with God. Thanks for joining me as we go.
Missing the Mark
How many of you remember where you were on January 28, 1986? Like or comment if you do. I’ll confess that I was four and I really don’t remember much of anything prior to my 5th birthday, but I’ll bet some of you who are not all that much older than I am do. I’ll bet you remember very clearly. And just to prove my point, what happened on that date? Post your response in the comments. Some of you knew immediately. Just before noon local time, a space shuttle called the Challenger was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. While that’s always exciting, this launch was special because it was the first of the now-infamous Teacher-in-Space program. Christa McAuliffe, a history and English teacher from Concord, New Hampshire, had been selected from more than 11,000 applicants to the program in 1985 and here, just a few months later, she was making her debut. But the excitement quickly turned to shock and then horror as 73 seconds into the flight the Challenger exploded, killing McAuliffe and the six other crew members on board with her.
“I will completely sweep away everything from the face of the earth — this is the Lord’s declaration.” — Zephaniah 1:2 (CSB – Read the chapter)
So often, when people think about the prophets, they imagine a bunch of bearded, angry men who sit around condemning everyone and warning all who will listen that God is going to destroy everything in judgment. And as we have been on this journey through the prophets over the last few months, we have mostly discovered this image isn’t at all true. There has certainly been the promise of judgment, but there has been a whole lot more than that. As we come to Zephaniah, though, all that seems to fly out the window. Let’s talk about it.
