January 17, 2010
Admittedly, when I see Scripture added to an article, I usually bypass it and continue to read the “interesting” stuff. I have a feeling that I may not be alone in this, so I encourage you to bear with me as I share a bit that is really quite integral to the rest of this post.
Background: God’s people have returned to Jerusalem following their captivity in Babylon. King Darius has allowed some of the people to return to their city to rebuild the temple. God confronts them with a prophet named Haggai. You can read the entire story in the Bible in the book of Haggai.
” You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. There fore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.”
Perhaps this was written to the Isrealites of long ago but God’s Word has relevance today. For me. Having visited many churches while searching for one to call home after we moved to Calgary, I have noticed something that seemed to be present with nearly every church we visited. There is a lot of money. Cars in the parking lots, jewelry decorating people, homes of church goers are evidence… I am not saying that these are bad, however, let us not pour more attentions on our own “houses”, treasures, or selfish lives than we do for God and thereby also for others. As Jesus said in the Gospels, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’ (Matthew 25: 40)
I am struggling to be a living sacrifice day to day and this challenges me even more. I hope it does so for you, too.
