Daily Manna (Coffee with Jesus)

We greatly enjoy going west to see family in Cody, Wyoming who are fun to be with as we laugh over stories in our past lives with those we love.  We are in awe of this part of the country with the Great Teton mountains, roaring rivers with lots of vast ranch lands as far as the eye can see.  The area is diverse in nature.  We visit Yellowstone National Park while we are there to discover the many facets of God’s creation there.  In one area, we are intrigued by the hot springs boiling up from the depths of the earth along with the “spewing” of Old Faithful showing off the forces of nature.  There is beauty and there is unquestionable power in the sulpher springs with not much growing seen on the same day with Artist’s Point with beautiful waterfalls and growing wild flowers of all colors! 

What is dangerous is ignoring the signs that tell you where to walk so you won’t be burned and swallowed up literally as you make your way through the interesting works of nature.  Other warning signs that tell you to stay in your car as the wild animals do their thing along the way are not to be ignored, either!  But some do and live to regret that decision.  Mm. 

God created all.  God is in all He created.  Because of Adam and Eve’s choice to disobey God their Creator and lover of their souls, we now live in a beautifully created world we must care for with diligence but where dangerous desires to sin lurks around every corner of our being.  We have to consistently be on guard!  Satan’s goal is to stand between God and us, distracting and drawing us away from God’s care, protection, and provision, with offers of self-made power, glory and temporary riches instead of receiving salvation from sins provided by God’s Son, Jesus, who gives life eternal.

The prince of lies wants us to think like him, not Jesus, teaching us with desire to be God as we disobey God! So, we must follow God’s sign posts along the journey lest we fall into a pit designed by the enemy to take our souls from God’s care and keeping—along with His plan of eternal life with Him.

Malachi is posting God’s warning signs of what happens to us when we disobey what and who is best for us—God.  He tells of the consequences of disrespecting the Creator of Life while our disinterest in who God is and what He says is overtaken by our pride and arrogance of being on our own without God.  We walk on dangerous ground while doing life the way we want to—having it our way along with whining and spewing if we do not get our way because others are getting in the way of our agenda!  Yikes.

Malachi 2, The Message

Desecrating the Holiness of God

^1-3 “And now this indictment, you priests! If you refuse to obediently listen, and if you refuse to honor me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, in worship, then I’ll put you under a curse. I’ll exchange all your blessings for curses. In fact, the curses are already at work because you’re not serious about honoring me. Yes, and the curse will extend to your children. I’m going to plaster your faces with rotting garbage, garbage thrown out from your feasts. That’s what you have to look forward to!

^4-6 “Maybe that will wake you up. Maybe then you’ll realize that I’m indicting you in order to put new life into my covenant with the priests of Levi, the covenant of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. My covenant with Levi was to give life and peace. I kept my covenant with him, and he honored me. He stood in reverent awe before me. He taught the truth and did not lie. He walked with me in peace and uprightness. He kept many out of the ditch, kept them on the road.

^7-9 “It’s the job of priests to teach the truth. People are supposed to look to them for guidance. The priest is the messenger of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. But you priests have abandoned the way of priests. Your teaching has messed up many lives. You have corrupted the covenant of priest Levi. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says so. And so I am showing you up for who you are. Everyone will be disgusted with you and avoid you because you don’t live the way I told you to live, and you don’t teach my revelation truly and impartially.”

¹⁰ Don’t we all come from one Father? Aren’t we all created by the same God? So why can’t we get along? Why do we desecrate the covenant of our ancestors that binds us together?

^11-12 Judah has cheated on God—a sickening violation of trust in Israel and Jerusalem: Judah has desecrated the holiness of God by falling in love and running off with foreign women, women who worship alien gods. God’s curse on those who do this! Drive them out of house and home! They’re no longer fit to be part of the community no matter how many offerings they bring to God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

^13-15 And here’s a second offense: You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse.

¹⁶ “I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat.

¹⁷ You make God tired with all your talk.

“How do we tire him out?” you ask.

By saying, “God loves sinners and sin alike. God loves all.” And also by saying, “Judgment? God’s too nice to judge.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

I knew my limits of bad behavior just by the look in my parents’ eyes as they grew tired of my arguing my case to misbehave.  How it must make God tire of our whining and insolence, our arrogance and pride.  It breaks God heart when we choose to walk on the dangerous ground of sin that separates us from all He has to give.  Yes, He loves us that much—so much, in fact, that “he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) 

Believe and be saved.  God’s Holy Spirit comes as the Helper to guide us on our journey through darkness and danger with gifts of peace, joy, wisdom, insight and understanding—all from God who loves us more than we can wrap our heads around—more than we can imagine!  Put all your Hope in Jesus!

Pause for a moment…What steals our attention during worship? Do our thoughts wander toward the day’s demands? Do we become preoccupied with later activities and plans made by someone else? What are some strategies we could employ to help keep our minds focused on Jesus?

• Lay down today’s agenda.  Seriously, lay it down—all the way down!
• Lay down what we think we want or need. 
• Lay down all that is occupying our minds and distracting us from God. 
• Now, be still, let go, and listen for God.  He longs to talk with us.

If we do not practice the discipline of daily “laying down” what we want, we slip away from God’s best, for us— “His good, pleasing and perfect will”.  (See Romans 12)

God must deal with those He has called to lead His people.  The priests were dishonoring God’s name in another way: They were despising the very privilege of being priests. They were taking for granted the high calling God had given them and treating the temple ministry with contempt. Serving at the altar was merely a job, not a ministry, and they did it to please themselves, not to please and glorify the Lord. Unfortunately, that same attitude is in the church today. 

Watch out—look for signs that lead us away from danger—ourselves and our justification of our sins!

Oh Lord,

I repent of times when I thought I was better with a better plan so I went full steam ahead spewing orders which resulted in a mess to clean up.  I want your best so I can be at my best because of you working in me and through me.  I want what you want for me.  Transform my being by renewing my mind, cleansing my heart, refreshing and feeding my soul while restoring the joy of your salvation at work within me.  Yes!  I trust in you alone for Life!  You are my only Hope!

In Jesus Name, For your Glory, Amen!  Yes!

It seems believers must always judge each other on how we worship, the way we worship, the songs we sing or don’t sing, the platform of praise, the people who lead, the clothes they wear, the way they raise their hands or don’t raise their hands, as well as the way they act after stepping off the platform.  We also judge how loud or how quiet the instruments are played or not played. 

Yes, we are highly judgy people of praise and worship!  The more judgement we spew is probably the meter which measures the authenticity of our own worship.  “Worship wars” over the ages of time that include formulas that guide what and how long we sing, when we sing it with inserted prayer at the “right time” have been going on since people began to worship together.  And oh, how that breaks the heart of God.  It broke my heart as a musician and worshiper of God!

God gifted musicians centuries ago, led people to praises Him–yes even before we were born!  I became aware of this process of praise early as a worship leader trained early on by grandpa the “song leader” in church and then more formally in higher education.  I have discovered that worship is mostly manmade and will probably continue to go on as long as we live in an imperfect world with two choices of who we will worship—God or His enemy who wants to be God.  Satan is the contributor to our prideful thoughts as we praise.  Be aware.  Run from this enemy.

Therefore, we must always check ourselves in worship to our God who we say we love with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  We were born to praise the One who created us and who we have asked to live in us upon repenting, in Jesus Name, of our sins.  We are born to worship the One and Only who longs to have a real, wholesome relationship with us that is pure, holy, and eternal!

God says, “I love you!”  What we say back to Him with honest, humbled hearts of love for God is worship.  What we do, how we live, after we say we love Him back is also worship.  How we treat our brothers and sisters, again is also worship of God.

Malachi, God prophet, explains it well…

Malachi 1, The Message

No More of This So-Called Worship!

A Message. God’s Word to Israel through Malachi:

^2-3 God said, “I love you.”

You replied, “Really? How have you loved us?”

“Look at history” (this is God’s answer). “Look at how differently I’ve treated you, Jacob, from Esau: I loved Jacob and hated Esau. I reduced pretentious Esau to a molehill, turned his whole country into a ghost town.”

⁴ When Edom (Esau) said, “We’ve been knocked down, but we’ll get up and start over, good as new,” God-of-the-Angel-Armies said, “Just try it and see how far you get. When I knock you down, you stay down. People will take one look at you and say, ‘Land of Evil!’ and ‘the God-cursed tribe!’

⁵ “Yes, take a good look. Then you’ll see how faithfully I’ve loved you and you’ll want even more, saying, ‘May God be even greater, beyond the borders of Israel!’

* * *

⁶ “Isn’t it true that a son honors his father and a worker his master? So if I’m your Father, where’s the honor? If I’m your Master, where’s the respect?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies is calling you on the carpet: “You priests despise me!

“You say, ‘Not so! How do we despise you?’

“By your shoddy, sloppy, defiling worship.

“You ask, ‘What do you mean, “defiling”? What’s defiling about it?’

^7-8 “When you say, ‘The altar of God is not important anymore; worship of God is no longer a priority,’ that’s defiling. And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you’re trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn’t that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.

⁹ “Get on your knees and pray that I will be gracious to you. You priests have gotten everyone in trouble. With this kind of conduct, do you think I’ll pay attention to you?” God-of-the-Angel-Armies asks you.

¹⁰ “Why doesn’t one of you just shut the Temple doors and lock them? Then none of you can get in and play at religion with this silly, empty-headed worship. I am not pleased. The God-of-the-Angel-Armies is not pleased. And I don’t want any more of this so-called worship!

Offering God Something Hand-Me-Down, Broken, or Useless

¹¹ “I am honored all over the world. And there are people who know how to worship me all over the world, who honor me by bringing their best to me. They’re saying it everywhere: ‘God is greater, this God-of-the-Angel-Armies.’

^12-13 “All except you. Instead of honoring me, you profane me. You profane me when you say, ‘Worship is not important, and what we bring to worship is of no account,’ and when you say, ‘I’m bored—this doesn’t do anything for me.’ You act so superior, sticking your noses in the air—act superior to me, God-of-the-Angel-Armies! And when you do offer something to me, it’s a hand-me-down, or broken, or useless. Do you think I’m going to accept it? This is God speaking to you!

¹⁴ “A curse on the person who makes a big show of doing something great for me—an expensive sacrifice, say—and then at the last minute brings in something puny and worthless! I’m a great king, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, honored far and wide, and I’ll not put up with it!”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Real worship of God comes a sincere heart of love for God that permeates every part of our being and affects how we live our lives.

Eugene Peterson explains:

“Most of life is not lived in crisis—which is a good thing.  Not many of us would be able to sustain a life of perpetual pain or loss or ecstasy or challenge.  But crisis has this to say for it:  In time of crisis everything, absolutely everything, is important and significant.  Life itself is on the line.  No word is casual, no action marginal.  And almost always, God and our relationship with God is on the front page.”

“But during the humdrum times, when things are, as we tend to say, ‘normal’, our interest in God is crowded to the margins of our lives and we become preoccupied with ourselves.  ‘Religion’ during such times is trivialized into asking ‘God-questions’—calling God into question or complaining about him, treating the worship of God as a mere hobby or diversion, managing our personal affairs (such as marriage) for our own convenience and disregarding what God has to say about them, going about our usual activities as if God were not involved in such dailiness.”

“The prophecy of Malachi is made to order for just such conditions.  Malachi creates a crisis at a time when we are unaware of crisis.  He wakes us up to the crisis of God during the times when the only thing we are concerned with is us.  He keeps us on our toes, listening for God, waiting in anticipation for God, ready to respond to God, who is always coming to us.”

“Malachi gets in the last word of Holy Scripture in the Old Testament.  The final sentences in his message to us evoke the gigantic figures of Moses and Elijah—Moses to keep us rooted in what God has done and said in the past, Elijah to keep us alert to what God will do in the days ahead.  By leaving us in the company of mighty Moses and fiery Elijah, Malachi considerably reduces the danger of our trivializing matters of God and the soul.”—Peterson, Introduction to Malachi, The Message

Lord,

As Paul directed us in Romans 12, “In view of your mercy”, I offer all I am to you as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is my true and proper worship of you so I will know what your perfect will is for me today and always. Thank you, Lord for saving my soul. Thank you for continuing to transform my mind with your teaching.  I worship you with all that is in me for I love you heart, mind, body and soul.

In Jesus Name, Amen

What a day that will be
When my Jesus I shall see
And I look upon his face
The one who saved me by his grace
When he takes me by the hand
And leads me through the Promised Land
What a day, glorious day that will be (in the second person)

There’ll be no sorrows there
No more burdens to bear
No more sickness and no more pain
No more parting over there
But forever I will be
With the one who died for me
What a day, glorious day that will be

Zechariah predicted that the Lord would visibly appear. Our Lord ascended to heaven from the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:9–12), and when He returns to earth, He will stand on the Mount of Olives and cause a great earthquake to change the terrain (Is. 29:6; Rev. 16:18, 19). This will create a new valley that will provide an escape route for many of the people. Changes will also occur in the heavens so that the day will be neither light nor darkness, morning nor evening (see Is. 60:19, 20).

Zechariah 14, The Message

The Day Is Coming

^1-2 Note well: God’s Judgment Day is on the way:
    “Plunder will be piled high and handed out.
I’m bringing all the godless nations
    to war against Jerusalem—
Houses plundered,
    women raped,
Half the city taken into exile,
    the other half left behind.”

^3-5 But then God will march out against the godless nations and fight—a great war! That’s the Day he’ll take his stand on the Mount of Olives, facing Jerusalem from the east. The Mount of Olives will be split right down the middle, from east to west, leaving a wide valley. Half the mountain will shift north, the other half south. Then you will run for your lives down the valley, your escape route that will take you all the way to Azal. You’ll run for your lives, just as you ran on the day of the great earthquake in the days of Uzziah, king of Judah. Then my God will arrive and all the holy angels with him.

^6-7 What a Day that will be! No more cold nights—in fact, no more nights! The Day is coming—the timing is God’s—when it will be continuous day. Every evening will be a fresh morning.

⁸ What a Day that will be! Fresh flowing rivers out of Jerusalem, half to the eastern sea, half to the western sea, flowing year-round, summer and winter!

⁹ God will be king over all the earth, one God and only one. What a Day that will be!

* * *

^10-11 The land will stretch out spaciously around Jerusalem—to Geba in the north and Rimmon in the south, with Jerusalem towering at the center, and the commanding city gates—Gate of Benjamin to First Gate to Corner Gate to Hananel Tower to the Royal Winery—ringing the city full of people. Never again will Jerusalem be totally destroyed. From now on it will be a safe city.

^12-14 But this is what will happen to all who fought against Jerusalem: God will visit them with a terrible plague. People’s flesh will rot off their bones while they are walking around; their eyes will rot in their sockets and their tongues in their mouths; people will be dying on their feet! Mass hysteria when that happens—total panic! Fellow soldiers fighting and killing each other—holy terror! And then Judah will jump into the fray!

^14-15 Treasures from all the nations will be piled high—gold, silver, the latest fashions. The plague will also hit the animals—horses, mules, camels, donkeys. Everything alive in the military camps will be hit by the plague.

* * *

^16-19 All the survivors from the godless nations that fought against Jerusalem will travel to Jerusalem every year to worship the King, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, and celebrate the Feast of Booths. If any of these survivors fail to make the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem to worship the King, God-of-the-Angel-Armies, there will be no rain. If the Egyptians don’t make the pilgrimage and worship, there will be no rain for them. Every nation that does not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths will be hit with the plague. Egypt and any other nation that does not make pilgrimage to celebrate the Feast of Booths gets punished.

^20-21 On that Day, the Big Day, all the horses’ harness bells will be inscribed “Holy to God.” The cooking pots in the Temple of God will be as sacred as chalices and plates on the altar. In fact, all the pots and pans in all the kitchens of Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to God-of-the-Angel-Armies. People who come to worship, preparing meals and sacrifices, will use them. On that Big Day there will be no buying or selling in the Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We prepare our hearts, minds, and souls for the coming of our Lord. 

We decide now, this day, whom we will love, serve and trust and obey.

Holiness will characterize all of life. For the believer today, this is the Old Testament version of 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” The Christian life has no “secular” or “sacred” divisions because everything comes from God and should be used for His glory.

Lord,

Make us holy and pleasing to you.  Make me a sanctuary of your love, mercy and grace as you abide in me and I in you.

In Jesus Name, Amen

Come, Lord, Jesus, come.

There is a fountain filled with blood
  Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
  Lose all their guilty stains:
  Lose all their guilty stains,
  Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
  Lose all their guilty stains…

Zechariah 13, The Message

Washing Away Sins

“On the Big Day, a fountain will be opened for the family of David and all the leaders of Jerusalem for washing away their sins, for scrubbing their stained and soiled lives clean.

^2-3 “On the Big Day”—this is God-of-the-Angel-Armies speaking—“I will wipe out the store-bought gods, erase their names from memory. People will forget they ever heard of them. And I’ll get rid of the prophets who polluted the air with their diseased words. If anyone dares persist in spreading diseased, polluting words, his very own parents will step in and say, ‘That’s it! You’re finished! Your lies about God put everyone in danger,’ and then they’ll stab him to death in the very act of prophesying lies about God—his own parents, mind you!

^4-6 “On the Big Day, the lying prophets will be publicly exposed and humiliated. Then they’ll wish they’d never swindled people with their ‘visions.’ No more masquerading in prophet clothes. But they’ll deny they’ve even heard of such things: ‘Me, a prophet? Not me. I’m a farmer—grew up on the farm.’ And if someone says, ‘And so where did you get that black eye?’ they’ll say, ‘I ran into a door at a friend’s house.’

* * *

^7-9 “Sword, get moving against my shepherd,
    against my close associate!”
        Decree of God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
“Kill the shepherd! Scatter the sheep!
    The back of my hand against even the lambs!
All across the country”—God’s Decree—
    “two-thirds will be devastated
    and one-third survive.
I’ll deliver the surviving third to the refinery fires.
    I’ll refine them as silver is refined,
    test them for purity as gold is tested.
Then they’ll pray to me by name
    and I’ll answer them personally.
I’ll say, ‘That’s my people.’
    They’ll say, ‘God—my God!’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Come to the fountain to be cleansed by the blood of the lamb!

What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Isaiah had admonished the nation, “Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean; put away the evil of your doings from before My eyes. Cease to do evil” (Isaiah 1:16), but they refused to listen. Jeremiah had pleaded with His people, “O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness that you may be saved” (Jeremiah 4:14), but they wouldn’t obey. But here, in response to Israel’s repentance and faith, the Lord would wash them clean. This forgiveness is part of the new covenant that God had promised to His people (Jeremiah 31:31–34).  The new covenant is Jesus!

In contrast to the false prophets, the true Shepherd is presented throughout Zechariah.  The True Shepherd is Jesus!  Jesus quoted part of this prophecy when He was on His way to Gethsemane with His disciples (Matt. 26:31), and He referred to it again when He was arrested in the garden (Matt. 26:55, 56).

“IF MY PEOPLE…” 

“Certainly the church is a defiled people who need to repent and be cleansed, and the promise of forgiveness is still valid (1 John 1:9). God often has to put us through the furnace of suffering before we’ll call on Him and seek His face (Hebrews 12:3–11; 1 Peter 4:12). If God’s people will follow the instructions of 2 Chronicles 7:14, the Lord will cleanse and bless the church and bring healing to the land.” –Warren Wiersbe, Wiersbe Study Bible

Repentance to God through Jesus brings forgiveness forever from our sins.  Freedom from confessed sins at the fountain flowing with God’s love, grace, and mercy makes us squeaky clean to enjoy His gift of peace and eternal joy no matter what happens next in our lives.  Yes!

O precious is the flow
that makes me white as snow;
no other fount I know;
nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Lord,

Thank you for showing us yet again how the prophets’ words tell of Jesus.  Jesus, you are proved once more to be at the beginning of creation…alpha and our Lord on that “big day” at the end of time…omega.  You are Lord of my life.  I trust in you alone for life eternal.  Thank you for saving my soul, changing my mind, feeding my soul and most of all for cleansing my heart.

In Jesus Name, Amen

He touched me, oh, He touched me
And oh, the joy that floods my soul
Something happened, and now I know
He touched me, and made me whole

Since I’ve met this blessed Savior
Since He’s cleansed and made me whole
Oh, I will never cease to praise Him (to praise Him)
I’ll shout it while eternity rolls

I don’t know about you, but I get so disappointed by “click bait” when searching for real news of what is interesting to me and might help me to know more so I can learn more.  What is clickbait, you ask?  It is content on the internet whose main purpose is to attract attention and encourage visitors to click on a link to a particular web page to advertise something unrelated to the photo or headline that baited your attention to “hook” you.  Truth is lost as you click to find answers to what baited your hook.

God cannot and does not lie.  His Word tells it like it is.  He is Truth whether we choose to believe it or not.  God does not change.  His truth does not change.  God does what He told the prophets He would do—step by step, in detail.  God’s Word can be trusted from Genesis to Revelation.  The proof is in the reading; the validity to others is in the living, doing what He says.  Jesus was the Word made flesh who moved into the neighborhood of humanity to fulfill all that God said about who He is and what He wants from us.  He wants to save us.  God wants us to love Him back and grow in a relationship with Him, a connection that cannot be broken.

The breaking news is God sent His Son, Jesus to earth to save us.  Jesus came to teach the world the Truth about who God really is, overcoming the fake news reports by religious leaders down through the ages that twisted and manipulated the message of God to suit themselves.  Zechariah delivers the news of this Big Day coming straight from God’s voice to Zechariah’s ears, then delivered to His people.  Zechariah foretells how God’s “religious” will have Jesus put to death, a piercing sword into his body.  And oh, how those who realize Jesus was God in flesh, come to save them, will weep…

Zechariah 12, The Message

Home Again in Jerusalem

^1-2 War Bulletin:

God’s Message concerning Israel, God’s Decree—the very God who threw the skies into space, set earth on a firm foundation, and breathed his own life into men and women: “Watch for this: I’m about to turn Jerusalem into a cup of strong drink that will have the people who have set siege to Judah and Jerusalem staggering in a drunken stupor.

³ “On the Big Day, I’ll turn Jerusalem into a huge stone blocking the way for everyone. All who try to lift it will rupture themselves. All the pagan nations will come together and try to get rid of it.

^4-5 “On the Big Day”—this is God speaking—“I’ll throw all the war horses into a crazed panic, and their riders along with them. But I’ll keep my eye on Judah, watching out for her at the same time that I make the enemy horses go blind. The families of Judah will then realize, ‘Why, our leaders are strong and able through God-of-the-Angel-Armies, their personal God.’

⁶ “On the Big Day, I’ll turn the families of Judah into something like a burning match in a tinder-dry forest, like a fiercely flaming torch in a barn full of hay. They’ll burn up everything and everyone in sight—people to the right, people to the left—while Jerusalem fills up with people moving in and making themselves at home—home again in Jerusalem.

^7-8 “I, God, will begin by restoring the common households of Judah so that the glory of David’s family and the leaders in Jerusalem won’t overshadow the ordinary people in Judah. On the Big Day, I’ll look after everyone who lives in Jerusalem so that the lowliest, weakest person will be as glorious as David and the family of David itself will be godlike, like the Angel of God leading the people.

⁹ “On the Big Day, I’ll make a clean sweep of all the godless nations that fought against Jerusalem.

^10-14 “Next I’ll deal with the family of David and those who live in Jerusalem. I’ll pour a spirit of grace and prayer over them. They’ll then be able to recognize me as the One they so grievously wounded—that piercing spear-thrust! And they’ll weep—oh, how they’ll weep! Deep mourning as of a parent grieving the loss of the firstborn child. The lamentation in Jerusalem that day will be massive, as famous as the lamentation over Hadad-Rimmon on the fields of Megiddo:

    Everyone will weep and grieve,
        the land and everyone in it:
    The family of David off by itself
        and their women off by themselves;
    The family of Nathan off by itself
        and their women off by themselves;
    The family of Levi off by itself
        and their women off by themselves;
    The family of Shimei off by itself
        and their women off by themselves;
    And all the rest of the families off by themselves
        and their women off by themselves.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Interesting to note: “History shows that every nation that has ever tried to destroy the Jews has itself been destroyed. It will be no different when the nations collectively attack God’s chosen people.” –Warren Wiersbe

In delivering Israel from her enemies, God’s ultimate goal is more than their national preservation, for their spiritual restoration is uppermost in His heart. He wants to reveal Himself to them and establish the kind of relationship that was impossible in previous centuries because of their unbelief.

We cannot save ourselves from our sins.  Repentance isn’t something we work up ourselves; it’s a gift from God as we hear His Word and recognize His grace (Acts 5:31; 11:18; 2 Tim. 2:25). God will pour out the Spirit upon Israel as we read earlier from the prophet Joel (Joel 2:28, 29), and the people will realize their sins and call out to God for forgiveness.

Only Jesus can save us!  The people will finally see their Messiah whom the nation pierced (Ps. 22:16; Is. 53:5; John 19:34, 37) and will put their faith in Him. Forgiveness comes to any believing sinner only through faith in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross.

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) Because “…God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16)

“Don’t overlook the obvious here, friends. With God, one day is as good as a thousand years, a thousand years as a day. God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change.” 2 Peter 3:9, MSG

Lord,

Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole. Thank you for your Word that never changes but is Truth that changes me.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

As I have written before in some of these posts, I used to teach first grade.  Early in my years of teaching, I acquired a tall paper mâché rabbit made by my husband for one of his college classes for his elementary degree.  In teaching young ones, it is very hard to step away, even for a moment, to answer a question of another teacher or the principal without stern directions to the children to behave and stay on task.  But as soon as they cannot see your eyes, their minds turn immediately to mischief.  Even though you are just outside the door and can hear them. 

So, I had the idea to use the new rabbit sitting on the shelf that they all admired as a “listener.”  (This was before Elf on the Shelf was invented!  I was ahead of my time!)  I stepped outside the door to talk briefly with the teacher, then walked back in, went right over the rabbit and put my ear next to him.  “How did they behave; what happened?” I asked the rabbit.  “They did what?”  Then I named a few names of people I knew would most likely be “guilty” with certain behaviors.  I almost laughed out loud at their eyes growing wide with wonder as I related exactly what happened!  From then on, I had the quietest class who stayed on task every time I stepped in the hall.  This may be trickery but it seems all humans need a “watcher” to hold them accountable for their actions.

At the end of the school year, a young little man came up to me and whispered, “I know it works…how the rabbit knows.”  Uh oh, he has figured it out, I thought.  Then he said, “There’s a tape recorder in his belly.”  All I could say was, “That’s a good observation!” 

Seriously, who are we when we think no one is watching?  Isn’t that part of growing up, doing the right thing simply because it is the right thing to do?

The following verses describe the invasion of the Holy Land by the Romans. Key places like the Jordan Valley, Lebanon, and Bashan are mentioned. The invading army is like a fire that burns the forests. The wailing shepherds are the rulers of the nation who have led the people astray and are now paying for their sins. 

God commanded Zechariah to play the role of the true Shepherd. He became a type of the Messiah at the time when our Lord was ministering on earth. The flock of Israel was destined for slaughter because of their wicked rulers, but he was to do his best to rescue them. The Jewish leaders weren’t concerned about the sheep; they were concerned only about their own position and power.  Recall Jesus preaching the difference the difference between good and evil shepherds as we read. 

“I am the Good Shepherd”—Jesus (See John 10)

Zechariah 11, The Message

^1-4 Open your borders to the immigrants, proud Lebanon!
    Your sentinel trees will burn.
Weep, great pine trees! Mourn, you sister cedars!
    Your towering trees are cordwood.
Weep Bashan oak trees!
    Your thick forest is now a field of stumps.
Do you hear the wailing of shepherds?
    They’ve lost everything they once owned.
Do you hear the outrage of the lions?
    The mighty jungle of the Jordan is wasted.
Make room for the returning exiles!

Breaking the Beautiful Covenant

^4-5 God commanded me, “Shepherd the sheep that are soon to be slaughtered. The people who buy them will butcher them for quick and easy money. What’s worse, they’ll get away with it. The people who sell them will say, ‘Lucky me! God’s on my side; I’ve got it made!’ They have shepherds who couldn’t care less about them.”

⁶ God’s Decree: “I’m washing my hands of the people of this land. From now on they’re all on their own. It’s dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest, and every person for themselves. Don’t look for help from me.”

^7-8 So I took over from the crass, money-grubbing owners, and shepherded the sheep marked for slaughter. I got myself two shepherd staffs. I named one Lovely and the other Harmony. Then I went to work shepherding the sheep. Within a month I got rid of the corrupt shepherds. I got tired of putting up with them—and they couldn’t stand me.

⁹ And then I got tired of the sheep and said, “I’ve had it with you—no more shepherding from me. If you die, you die; if you’re attacked, you’re attacked. Whoever survives can eat what’s left.”

^10-11 Then I took the staff named Lovely and broke it across my knee, breaking the beautiful covenant I had made with all the peoples. In one stroke, both staff and covenant were broken. The money-hungry owners saw me do it and knew God was behind it.

¹² Then I addressed them: “Pay me what you think I’m worth.” They paid me an insulting sum, counting out thirty silver coins.

¹³ God told me, “Throw it in the poor box.” This stingy wage was all they thought of me and my work! So I took the thirty silver coins and threw them into the poor box in God’s Temple.

¹⁴ Then I broke the other staff, Harmony, across my knee, breaking the family ties between Judah and Israel.

^15-16 God then said, “Dress up like a stupid shepherd. I’m going to install just such a shepherd in this land—a shepherd indifferent to victims, who ignores the lost, abandons the injured, and disdains decent citizens. He’ll only be in it for what he can get out of it, using and abusing any and all.

¹⁷ “Doom to you, useless shepherd,
    walking off and leaving the sheep!
A curse on your arm!
    A curse on your right eye!
Your arm will hang limp and useless.
    Your right eye will go stone blind.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Sin as consequences.  Sin still has consequences.  Jesus pays our sin-debt and His Holy Spirit can help us live through the consequences of our own behaviors.  We must ask for forgiveness from those we have hurt by our sins.  We must forgive ourselves for Jesus as forgiven us completely.  And we must forgive those who sin against us. Humbled, sincere hearts are restored and renewed by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

Zechariah was commanded to adopt the role of a “foolish shepherd.” The word doesn’t mean “stupid” but “morally deficient, corrupt” because he doesn’t receive God’s truth. He’s “a worthless shepherd” because he doesn’t care for the sheep. Unlike the Good Shepherd, he doesn’t seek the lost, care for the young, feed the flock, or heal the injured. All he does is slaughter the flock to feed himself!  Zechariah plays a role to accentuate Truth telling. 

Zechariah is foretelling what Jesus will experience while on earth.  That God’s chosen people, who possess the inspired Scriptures, should reject Him who is “the truth” (John 14:6) and has come from the Father, and follow one who is a liar and is energized by Satan, is incredible to comprehend, but it will happen just as the Scripture says. 

And does the “thirty pieces of coins” sound familiar?  “They counted out for him thirty pieces of silver. From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him (Jesus) over. — Matthew 26:14-16 Aren’t the prophets’ messages from God amazing?!  Don’t be a Judas!  Don’t sell out to evil!

Pause to reflect…do I really believe that what God says is really real? 

Do I need a “watcher” to keep focused on the one who loves me most?  Yes, I do—we all do.  We cannot be “good” on our own.  Tap into the power God gives us!  The work of God’s Holy Spirit living in us is all we need to know and do what is right.  Jesus knew we would need a Helper.  Listen to Him.  He is always with us, helping us to mature in our faith.  Obey His direction. 

Lord,

Thank you for your Holy Spirit who convicts, challenges, comforts, teaches, guides, and encourages us in our walk with you.  Without you, we fail miserably trying to be “good”.  We need you every hour.  Thank you for watching over us.  We depend on you and trust what you say.  You are indeed the Good Shepherd to follow.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

Can I just begin today’s thoughts with how amazing God is and how compassionate His thoughts are toward us?  We are all in various places of our growing relationships with God from being very lost and don’t care what God thinks to caring deeply about knowing Him more with pleasing God in all we do.  No matter where we are our lives, God loves us. God loves all He has created.  God wants the very best for each one of us.  God sent His best to rescue us.

Are you in pain from attacks of words and attitudes from those you love that tore your heart into pieces?  God mends and rebuilds broken hearts.  God can be trusted.

Are you wondering where God is when you are lost and in trouble?  God comes to those who honestly seek Him.  He stands ready to take you through the troubles and even provides the peace you need in the middle of the greatest storm.

Is your life in shambles and you feel so overwhelmed you don’t know what to do first to rebuild the mess?  God stands ready with wisdom beyond our human selves along with the plan needed to begin again with Him. God restores order in our lives like no one else. Just ask Him, He is faithful and just to give it, says James, without pointing out all the ways you have failed! 

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.”  James 1:5

So, what are you waiting for and how should you begin?  If you don’t know what to pray, pray the sincere prayer of David with a humbled, ready heart to receive all that God wants to give.  David prayed:

God, make a fresh start in me,
    shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
    or fail to breathe holiness in me.
Bring me back from gray exile,
    put a fresh wind in my sails!

Psalm 51, MSG

God has the power to make it rain in the dessert of our dismayed and disillusioned lives. 

Zechariah 10, The Message

God’s Work of Rebuilding

Pray to God for rain—it’s time for the spring rain—
    to God, the rainmaker,
Spring thunderstorm maker,
    maker of grain and barley.

^2-3 “Store-bought gods babble gibberish.
    Religious experts spout rubbish.
They pontificate hot air.
    Their prescriptions are nothing but smoke.
And so the people wander like lost sheep,
    poor lost sheep without a shepherd.
I’m furious with the so-called shepherds.
    They’re worse than billy goats, and I’ll treat them like goats.”

* * *

^3-5 God-of-the-Angel-Armies will step in
    and take care of his flock, the people of Judah.
He’ll revive their spirits,
    make them proud to be on God’s side.
God will use them in his work of rebuilding,
    use them as foundations and pillars,
Use them as tools and instruments,
    use them to oversee his work.
They’ll be a workforce to be proud of, working as one,
    their heads held high, striding through swamps and mud,
Courageous and vigorous because God is with them,
    undeterred by the world’s thugs.

* * *

^6-12 “I’ll put muscle in the people of Judah;
    I’ll save the people of Joseph.
I know their pain and will make them good as new.
    They’ll get a fresh start, as if nothing had ever happened.
And why? Because I am their very own God,
    I’ll do what needs to be done for them.
The people of Ephraim will be famous,
    their lives brimming with joy.
Their children will get in on it, too—
    oh, let them feel blessed by God!
I’ll whistle and they’ll all come running.
    I’ve set them free—oh, how they’ll flourish!
Even though I scattered them to the far corners of earth,
    they’ll remember me in the faraway places.
They’ll keep the story alive in their children,
    and they will come back.
I’ll bring them back from the Egyptian west
    and round them up from the Assyrian east.
I’ll bring them back to sweet Gilead,
    back to leafy Lebanon.
Every square foot of land
    will be marked by homecoming.
They’ll sail through troubled seas, brush aside brash ocean waves.
    Roaring rivers will turn to a trickle.
Gaudy Assyria will be stripped bare,
    bully Egypt exposed as a fraud.
But my people—oh, I’ll make them strong, God-strong!
    and they’ll live my way.” God says so!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

• God is sovereign (everywhere all the time and in control) but does not step into our lives unless we ask Him.  So, ASK HIM!
• God seeks those whose hearts are committed to Him and longs to bless us with His best—His growing character in us.  (See 2 Chronicles 16:9; Galatians 5)
• God rebuilds and makes us stronger than we were before we were reduced to rubble.  God puts the muscle into our resolve to follow Him!
• God restores what was broken and renews us just as if nothing had ever happened. “Therefore, since we have been made right in God’s sight by faith, we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.” Romans 5:1

But, how does believing in Jesus who saved us change our lives? 

• When we say “yes, forgive me, dear Jesus,” we are “born again” as children of God. Instead of being in rebellion against God, we are brought (adopted) into His family, through Christ, with what God has always desired for us — our salvation from sin.  Bonus:  We no longer need to fear death or anything bad that will happen to us, because we have eternal life with God in Heaven. This changes our entire perspective on life: instead of worrying about the concerns of the world which will not last, we can focus on matters of eternal significance—faith, hope, and love of God and with each other in the neighborhoods of our existent on earth.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

How do we live this new life in Jesus every single day? 

God’s Word teaches us how to live…See Galatians 4:1-5 and 5:21-25, Ephesians 2:8-10, Romans 12

• It is not about simply following rules—we cannot live the way God wants us to on our own; we need His grace every moment and need to be continually reformed and renewed spiritually by Him. (Romans 12:1-2) This is called “relationship building” with God.  We allow His Holy Spirit who comes to live in us to guide us but we must listen and obey those whispers of what is right. We begin to develop a discipline or habit to listen for God that enables us to avoid the pitfalls of falling back into our “old life” habits. 
• Obedience to God’s will is declaring our deep love for God as we become accustom to our new life in Jesus.
• New life living begins by serving like Jesus.  Begin new habits of compassion. Begin with the little things that positively touch others’ lives and makes them smile. Open a door for someone, be kind when others want to be mean, smile, give generously, look into the eyes of those serving you and acknowledge them, and so on it goes as this new life takes precedence over the old life.  Jesus first, others second, yourself last is the new way of thinking.

But Susan, stuff happens!  I know but grace wins when we let the Holy Spirit guide us in challenging times…

• Our friend broke his promises? Your boss didn’t keep her word? I’m sorry, but before you take action, answer this question: How did God react when you broke your promises to him?
• You’ve been lied to? It hurts to be deceived. But before you double your fists, think: How did God respond when you lied to him?
• You’ve been neglected? Forgotten? Left behind? Rejection hurts. But before you get even, get honest with yourself. Have you ever neglected God? Have you always been attentive to his will? None of us have. How did he react when you neglected him?
• The key to forgiving others is to quit focusing on what they did to you and start focusing on what God did for you.  We live in a broken world who has a broken prince of darkness who wants to pull us from our new life so we can be miserable with him.  But he can only do what we allow him to do.  “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world” must be our battle cry against the enemy.

Know that the real enemy is Satan, the fallen angel, who battles God for our attention.  Our best defense is God’s offense of being who evil hates—a beloved child of God who calls out to the Father on our knees, in Jesus Name, regularly, for all of life’s stuff.

Lord,

Whew, all the thoughts you gave us this morning renews our minds, feeds our souls as you cleanse our hearts!  What joy you give as you rebuild and restore us daily!  Thank you, Lord.  I trust you with all my life for you are Life!  Your mercies are, indeed, new each morning! 

In Jesus Name, Amen

“Free at last, Free at last, Thank God almighty we are free at last.”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

There will be a day when all nations of God’s created humans will have their eyes on Him, wondering what is happening around them.  They will stop in their work and look up with amazement.  They will gather their family who are left on earth.  They will lay down their weapons of mass destruction of all kinds to see what God will do next. 

No matter what is happening that day, when we least expect it, expect it.  ALL will see God through Jesus Christ His Son. The King is coming—again!   Unbelievers will be fearfully caught off guard but all will know it is God at work.  All the prophets proclaimed the news of His coming to earth as a baby, growing up “in stature and wisdom” as Son of Man and Son of God.  God’s spoke-persons, like Zechariah, told the world centuries before it happened that Jesus, the Messiah, would come to save the world (all people) by taking our deserved punishment for our own sins.  And THAT happened!  We read and are amazed at the details of Jesus riding through the streets on the back of a young colt donkey!

The prophets also told of Jesus’ return to earth a second time to put an end to warring with our clear and present dangerous enemy, Satan, the fallen angel, who still skirmishes with us in a battle for our souls already won by Jesus the first time. John, Jesus “beloved disciple”, was given further “revelation” to how it will all come together under God’s careful eyes.  So, don’t fall for the one who wants to destroy us.  Fall at the feet of the One and Only who saved us and set us free to live life abundantly with Him—forever!

“God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”  Philippians 2:9-11 NKJV

God speaks and His creation responds.  Believe and be saved for eternity.

Zechariah 9, The Message

The Whole World Has Its Eyes on God

^1-6 War Bulletin:

God’s Message challenges the country of Hadrach.
    It will settle on Damascus.
The whole world has its eyes on God.
    Israel isn’t the only one.
That includes Hamath at the border,
    and Tyre and Sidon, clever as they think they are.
Tyre has put together quite a kingdom for herself;
    she has stacked up silver like cordwood,
    piled gold high as haystacks.
But God will certainly bankrupt her;
    he will dump all that wealth into the ocean
    and burn up what’s left in a big fire.
Ashkelon will see it and panic,
    Gaza will wring its hands,
    Ekron will face a dead end.
Gaza’s king will die.
    Ashkelon will be emptied out,
    And a villain will take over in Ashdod.

^6-8 “I’ll take proud Philistia down a peg:
    I’ll make him spit out his bloody spoils
    and abandon his vile ways.”
What’s left will be all God’s—a core of survivors,
    a family brought together in Judah—
But enemies like Ekron will go the way of the Jebusites,
    into the dustbin of history.
“I will set up camp in my home country
    and defend it against invaders.
Nobody is going to hurt my people ever again.
    I’m keeping my eye on them.

A Humble King Riding a Donkey

^9-10 “Shout and cheer, Daughter Zion!
    Raise your voice, Daughter Jerusalem!
Your king is coming!
    a good king who makes all things right,
    a humble king riding a donkey,
    a mere colt of a donkey.
I’ve had it with war—no more chariots in Ephraim,
    no more war horses in Jerusalem,
    no more swords and spears, bows and arrows.

He will offer peace to the nations,
    a peaceful rule worldwide,
    from the four winds to the seven seas.

^11-13 “And you, because of my blood covenant with you,
    I’ll release your prisoners from their hopeless cells.
Come home, hope-filled prisoners!
    This very day I’m declaring a double bonus—
    everything you lost returned twice-over!
Judah is now my weapon, the bow I’ll pull,
    setting Ephraim as an arrow to the string.
I’ll wake up your sons, O Zion,
    to counter your sons, O Greece.
From now on
    people are my swords.”

^14-17 Then God will come into view,
    his arrows flashing like lightning!
Master God will blast his trumpet
    and set out in a whirlwind.
God-of-the-Angel-Armies will protect them—
    all-out war,
The war to end all wars,
    no holds barred.
Their God will save the day. He’ll rescue them.
    They’ll become like sheep, gentle and soft,
Or like gemstones in a crown,
    catching all the colors of the sun.
Then how they’ll shine! shimmer! glow!
    the young men robust, the young women lovely!

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

We must daily answer the question every person must face as they choose who they will follow:

Do I really believe that what God says and does really real?  The answer will be shown in our behaviors that flow from our hearts.  God sees our hearts, so be honest.

Believe and live for Jesus; be saved forever.  Repent of sins and those sins are gone forever.  We are not perfect but perfectly forgiven.  As we grow in relationship with God, through daily, intentional communication that includes talking to God about everything and then pausing to listen to His direction, we find our thinking and behaving begin to change.  What we thought we wanted before Jesus no longer matters.  What we want now is more of God.  Our focus on God makes everything else grow dim in the background of real life with God.  Yes, Jesus changes everything!

Don’t miss the gift of grace!  Zechariah prophesied that the key to Israel’s future was the coming Messiah, whose gentle leadership would triumph through suffering.  In a couple of days, we will read in Zechariah 12:10 of a future outpouring of the Holy Spirit as repentant people seek his grace.  (See the book of Acts…After Jesus returned to heaven the first time.)  Where the grace of God is missed, bitterness is born. But where the grace of God is embraced, forgiveness flourishes.

The Gift of Peace.  Peace can be had right now.  Jesus left us with a Helper, His Holy Spirit, to guide, correct, convict, encourage, comfort, and point the way to real life with Jesus in ways that please God who loves us and wants the best for us.  Along with the Helper, Jesus left another gift—His peace for which I am personally grateful.  When trouble comes or the enemy tries to rob me of peace, Jesus restores the joy and peace of His salvation at work in me every time.  Because “greater is He that is in me than he (satan) that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4)

“I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” –Jesus (John 14:27)

And I’m singing…

Because He lives
I can face tomorrow
Because He lives
All fear is gone
Because I know
He holds the future
And life is worth the living
Just because He lives!

The longer we walk in the garden of grace, the more likely we are to smell like flowers, the fruits of His character beginning to bloom within us. The more we immerse ourselves in His grace, the more likely we are to give grace to others. Could this be the clue for coping with anger? Could it be the secret is not in demanding payment but in pondering the payment of your Savior?  I’m very sure the answer is yes.  Say yes to Jesus!  He changes everything!

Lord,

Thank you for saving my soul, not giving up on me, and making me whole and holy each day—things I cannot do for myself.  Cleanse my heart, change my mind, refresh and feed my soul while restoring the joy and peace of your salvation at work within me by your power.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

“Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”  1 Corinthians 3:16

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will.”  Romans 12:1-2

We had a dear friend who worked as a civilian on the Air Force base that employed most of our friends’ dads, including our own.  So, we heard a lot of stories about how work on the base was unfair at times.  As a computer tech, our friend was assigned to trouble shoot and solve tech problems.  His complaint was about the changing security rules depending on the supervisor you had to deal with in order to get in to do his work.  “Tell me the rules and I’ll play your game so I can do my work,” was his mantra of frustration, but the rules continued to change depending on who you talked to.

Our dads told us often of people who didn’t have enough talent or energy (lazy) to do the day-to-day work being advanced from the work pool into a supervisory position with more pay only because they couldn’t or wouldn’t do the daily work that needed to be done.  Unfair?  Surely, but that didn’t stop our dads who loved God and worked hard regardless of what was going on around them.  They were men of integrity who worked to please God first with their lives.   They were also men who were the “go to” for younger men and women in training.

So, where am I going with this and what does it have to do with the message of God to His people?  God tells us through Zechariah that as the Temple is rebuilt so must our lives be rebuilt, following the renewed thinking of what God wants for us with how He wants us to live our daily lives.  We make life hard with our disobedience.  God makes life simple. Our bodies which include our hearts, minds and souls are Temples where He wants to come to live. 

Have we cleaned house lately, making God’s temple, our lives, a great place to live?

Zechariah 8, The Message

Rebuilding the Temple

8 ^1-2 And then these Messages from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“I am zealous for Zion—I care!
    I’m angry about Zion—I’m involved!”

* * *

God’s Message:

³ “I’ve come back to Zion,
    I’ve moved back to Jerusalem.
Jerusalem’s new names will be Truth City,
    and Mountain of God-of-the-Angel-Armies,
    and Mount Holiness.”

* * *

^4-5 A Message from God–of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Old men and old women will come back to Jerusalem, sit on benches on the streets and spin tales, move around safely with their canes—a good city to grow old in. And boys and girls will fill the public parks, laughing and playing—a good city to grow up in.”

* * *

⁶ A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Do the problems of returning and rebuilding by just a few survivors seem too much? But is anything too much for me? Not if I have my say.”

* * *

^7-8 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“I’ll collect my people from countries to the east and countries to the west. I’ll bring them back and move them into Jerusalem. They’ll be my people and I’ll be their God. I’ll stick with them and do right by them.”

* * *

^9-10 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“Get a grip on things. Hold tight, you who are listening to what I say through the preaching of the prophets. The Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies has been reestablished. The Temple is being rebuilt. We’ve come through a hard time: You worked for a pittance and were lucky to get that; the streets were dangerous; you could never let down your guard; I had turned the world into an armed camp.

^11-12 “But things have changed. I’m taking the side of my core of surviving people:

    Sowing and harvesting will resume,
    Vines will grow grapes,
    Gardens will flourish,
    Dew and rain will make everything green.

^12-13 “My core survivors will get everything they need—and more. You’ve gotten a reputation as a bad-news people, you people of Judah and Israel, but I’m coming to save you. From now on, you’re the good-news people. Don’t be afraid. Keep a firm grip on what I’m doing.”

Keep Your Lives Simple and Honest

^14-17 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“In the same way that I decided to punish you when your ancestors made me angry, and didn’t pull my punches, at this time I’ve decided to bless Jerusalem and the country of Judah. Don’t be afraid. And now here’s what I want you to do: Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts. Don’t cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don’t do or say what isn’t so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest.” Decree of God.

* * *

^18-19 Again I received a Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“The days of mourning set for the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will be turned into days of feasting for Judah—celebration and holiday. Embrace truth! Love peace!”

* * *

^20-21 A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“People and their leaders will come from all over to see what’s going on. The leaders will confer with one another: ‘Shouldn’t we try to get in on this? Get in on God’s blessings? Pray to God-of-the-Angel-Armies? What’s keeping us? Let’s go!’

²² “Lots of people, powerful nations—they’ll come to Jerusalem looking for what they can get from God-of-the-Angel-Armies, looking to get a blessing from God.”

* * *

²³ A Message from God-of-the-Angel-Armies:

“At that time, ten men speaking a variety of languages will grab the sleeve of one Jew, hold tight, and say, ‘Let us go with you. We’ve heard that God is with you.’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God cares enough about us to confront how we live so we can rebuild our temples, our lives, His holy residence of His presence, so that what we do is pleasing to Him, declaring His glory! 

God is Truth.  Jesus came as the Person of Truth.  When we accept, believe, and repent of our sins to Jesus, we become Truth tellers!  “Tell the truth, the whole truth, when you speak. Do the right thing by one another, both personally and in your courts. Don’t cook up plans to take unfair advantage of others. Don’t do or say what isn’t so. I hate all that stuff. Keep your lives simple and honest.”—God

When we tell the Truth, the whole Truth of the Good News of God love, mercy and grace while lifting the Name of Jesus as Savior and Lord of our lives, something happens!  People, broken and betrayed by the world, desperate for Truth, are drawn to us!  Simply speaking, they are drawn to God in us!

And I love these words, “From now on, you’re the good-news people. Don’t be afraid. Keep a firm grip on what I’m doing.” 

How? Read God’s Words, ask for wisdom, seek God first in the morning before other thoughts overwhelm your day, present ourselves to God as an offering with no strings attached, willing and ready to obey what God says.  This is the temple in which God likes to reside and abide.

“Embrace Truth; Love peace!”

Lord,

I pray for Your Holy Spirit to help me clean my own temple.  Cleanse my heart, renew and transform my mind, refresh and feed my soul while restoring the joy of your salvation at work by you in me.  Thank you, Lord.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen

I was a happy first grade teacher who worked hard at her profession, helped Randy as he pastored the church we grew up in together, while raising three kids to adulthood.  Then God called us out and told us to move from where we were to a place where we would learn and grow even more.  We didn’t ask God to move us.  We didn’t ask God to give us the work that was waiting for us.  Instead, God led Randy to move a thousand miles from home with his family, go seminary, and pastor a church in the country that needed what God would provide through Randy.  God assured us that he would provide for our immediate needs.  And He did.

God told me I would no longer teach first graders.  Instead, I would work for our denominational office as a leader who would train others to lead and teach.  God promised, “I will tell you what to do and how to do it”.  That is basically what happened with many more details in the move.  But the most important thing to remember as we look back at these momentous callings in our lives of moving from family and the familiar was God said go, so we went.  We love God with all our hearts, minds, and souls.  We have never had any regrets of hearing God and obeying His direction.

Over the years of learning our new work in news places, we had many challenges by people whose hearts’ desires were to hang on to traditions while putting most of their thoughts into the building, honoring religious habits more than ministry to people—ALL kinds of people.  They wished that “those people” God was sending to us were more like them.  These are just some of the attitudes that break our Lord’s heart.

Also, as one of few women in ministry in a denomination who said that God-called and trained women were welcomed to do ministry but their behaviors didn’t really show this belief was a great challenge as I followed God’s will in the midst of adversity.  I prayed for God to lead me through this challenge with wisdom for my own behavior as I simply obeyed what He told me to think, say and do for His glory. 

We also combatted those who said, “You moved from local ministry up to the big leagues, congratulations.  I hope to “move up” in leadership, too.”  These were probably the most disappointing words to us. 

Religion versus relationship with God.  Therefore, religion can get in the way of loving relationships with God and each other easily as humans.  Zechariah, speaking for God, tells religious leaders of their folly in religious acts versus building relationships first with God who provides all we need and then loving people like God loves people—unconditionally, nothing held back, full of love, mercy, and grace!

So, ministry is not about our fleeting feelings, or temporary emotions but in saying yes to God, no matter what that looks like to the world.  Ministry is not something you do to feel good, to show others how good you are, or to manipulate others to support you in your own dreams of power and influence.  Ministry is not something you do because (in your mind) nobody else will do it so you step in.  Ministry in done in God’s time and place and not our own.

Ministry is obedience to God first and always.  Ministry is going where God is already at work and who is calling out to you to come and join Him in that work so you will grow in relationship with Him.  Ministry is not a man-made business of “rank and file” or positions of honor. Rather ministry is daily giving all we have back to the One who gave all He had to save us from all our sins. (See Romans 12) Ministry is an intimate, loving relationship that grows in gratitude for the One who saved us.  Because of our gratefulness to the Father, we listen for His Voice and do what He says.  Because of God’s love growing in us, we extend this same kind of love to the people around us and to those God places in every season of our lives.

Ministry is praying to God for direction before doing anything of significance in His Kingdom work—just like Jesus did when He walked this earth.  Ministry with God and for God is with and for people.  Ministry is helping people find and follow Jesus.  “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16 

Be like Jesus.  Imitate what Jesus did and how He did it.  Have the mind and attitude of Jesus. –Philippians 2

Zechariah 7, The Message

“You’re Interested in Religion, I’m Interested in People”

On the fourth day of the ninth month, in the fourth year of the reign of King Darius, God’s Message again came to Zechariah.

^2-3 The town of Bethel had sent a delegation headed by Sarezer and Regem-Melech to pray for God’s blessing and to confer with the priests of the Temple of God-of-the-Angel-Armies, and also with the prophets. They posed this question: “Should we plan for a day of mourning and abstinence next August, the seventieth anniversary of Jerusalem’s fall, as we have been doing all these years?”

^4-6 God-of-the-Angel-Armies gave me this Message for them, for all the people and for the priests: “When you held days of fasting every fifth and seventh month all these seventy years, were you doing it for me? And when you held feasts, was that for me? Hardly. You’re interested in religion; I’m interested in people.

^7-10 “There’s nothing new to say on the subject. Don’t you still have the message of the earlier prophets from the time when Jerusalem was still a thriving, bustling city and the outlying countryside, the Negev and Shephelah, was populated? [This is the message that God gave Zechariah.] Well, the message hasn’t changed. God-of-the-Angel-Armies said then and says now:

    “‘Treat one another justly.
    Love your neighbors.
    Be compassionate with each other.
    Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor.
    Don’t plot and scheme against one another—that’s evil.’

^11-13 “But did your ancestors listen? No, they set their jaws in defiance. They shut their ears. They steeled themselves against God’s revelation and the Spirit-filled sermons preached by the earlier prophets by order of God-of-the-Angel-Armies. And God became angry, really angry, because he told them everything plainly and they wouldn’t listen to a word he said.

^13-14 “So [this is what God-of-the-Angel-Armies said] if they won’t listen to me, I won’t listen to them. I scattered them to the four winds. They ended up strangers wherever they were. Their ‘promised land’ became a vacant lot—weeds and tin cans and thistles. Not a sign of life. They turned a dreamland into a wasteland.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

“Well, the message hasn’t changed. God-of-the-Angel-Armies said then and says now:

    Treat one another justly.
    Love your neighbors.
    Be compassionate with each other.
    Don’t take advantage of widows, orphans, visitors, and the poor.
    Don’t plot and scheme against one another—that’s evil.’”

Love God.  Love People. 

In Jesus Name, For His Glory, Amen