Committed to Restoration

Is it time for you, yourselves, to dwell in your paneled houses, and this house lie in ruins? Haggai 1:4

Looking at the first chapter of Haggai we can learn a spiritual principle, and that is that God requires His people put His house as a higher priority than their own house. If His house is in ruins then they better see to it that it is restored before they pay attention to their own house and their own comforts.

And Haggai describes that when God’s people don’t care about the glory of the Lord being restored in His Church then God withdraws His blessing, the rain ceases, and all their efforts are frustrated, and they never have true contentment.

I wonder if, in today’s context, there’s barely anyone left who cares for the restoration of the Church and is committed to restoration?

Remember that the house of God is the body of Christ, His Bride, it is not a building or a traditional program or an organization.

Restoring the house of God, then, is about restoring people back to their first love for Jesus and for each other, and repenting from sin, and heeding the words of God given thru the Apostles in the New Testament.

Still applies today

Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them who so walk, since you have us for an example. Philippians 3:17

Speak, and don’t keep silent

Then spoke the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not your peace: For I am with you, and no man shall set on you to hurt you: for I have many people in this city. And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. Acts 18:9-11

Those walking with Jesus need to teach His teaching and commands, and not keep silent, for this is what the Head of the Church commands us, just as He commanded Paul all those years ago.

It was no volcano

…And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them by a catastrophe, making them an example unto those that later should live ungodly… 2 Peter 2:6

And the ashes are still there. The whole place is ash.

And Peter records here that God wants Sodom to be an example or a warning to the world of God’s righteous judgment.

(BTW, i don’t agree with all the assumptions made about the formations on the video)

How God gives power to the weak

He gives power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40:29-31

He gives power to the weak when they wait upon Him.

Waiting on Him is a question of honor. You don’t mind waiting for those you honor.

When you truly honor the LORD then you don’t mind waiting for Him.

Waiting also implies friendship, fellowship and communion.

The friend of God will be made strong.

If we will honor Him, He will renew our strength, and we, even though we are weak, will be made strong.

It’s also worth remembering that God desires to have fellowship with us.

The way of the transgressor is hard

If you think obedience to Jesus is hard, then you haven’t experienced how hard disobedience is.

Times have changed

Faithful

If you have found Him faithful who promised, then be faithful to Him.

The essence of faith is trust

The essence of faith is trust.

Having church without the gifts?

If all the members of a local church are truly filled with the Holy Spirit then it makes all the difference in the world, for then the body of Christ functions together with the gifts of the Spirit, for building up, as she was always supposed to. Christians not filled with the Spirit cannot function in the gifts of the Spirit.

Consider from whom the words come

When you read words on a page consider they came from a person, and you might like to even consider the person, especially when it comes to reading the Bible.

God doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion of Him

God doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion of Him.

Furnace of Fire

The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matt. 13:41-42

So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Matt. 13:49-50

Why so much anguish? Cos their suffering is real. The reason they will be wailing and grinding their teeth is bcos they will be cast into a real furnace of fire. Their reaction is no different than that of any person on earth if they were caught hold of and cast into a furnace of fire.

Pope worshiping Lucifer?

Mariam released

Mariam (in Sudan) has been released, praise God!

Families and houses

To those who think that the building in which church meetings are held has any virtue or spiritual significance in itself, think about the fact that a church, an assembly, is a spiritual family. Now, compare this to a natural family. In a natural family, it is the people which comprise the family. Which house they are living in, at any given point in time, is irrelevant to their identity and function and life as a family.

What if a family moves from a luxurious house to a simple shack, would you say they are not a “real family” anymore simply bcos of where they are living?

Now, translate this exactly into a church family – the place where they meet has nothing to do with their identity or function as a church.

This is simple enough. But if Christians have pride, then they are willfully blind to the most simple truths.

Artificial means always results in artificial people

In a church setting, where men control the meeting and control people what is happening is that an artificial spiritual environment is being formed. It is an artificial means of functioning as an assembly, therefore, artificial means result in artificial fruit, a fake spiritual environment.

It may, by external appearances, appear to be prim and proper and orderly, and may appear to “get results” in the short term, but in the long term it is building a Christian cemetery.

Using artificial means always results in artificial people. A superficial approach to God’s word results in superficial people.

Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: for by faith you stand. 2 Cor. 1:24

The elders who are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for dishonest gain, but of a ready mind; Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being examples to the flock. 1 Peter 5:1-3

The present state of affairs

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-shmuley-boteach/obamas-fiddles-while-the-_b_5508620.html

This article demonstrates more than ever that the chaotic state of affairs in the world is unmanageable by any government or institution, and that violence and injustice is an intractable problem – one which no religion can manage or cure. America cannot function as the world’s policeman, and does the world want bloodthirsty jihadists to be the new moral police of the world? Out of this moral vacuum of human depravity, chaos and evil, will emerge a man (the antichrist) who will be seen as the answer and will temporarily rule the world.

Hierarchy and credibility

If a hierarchical religious system is not from Jesus Christ – not what He builds, then this means that those who have sought after hierarchical positions have no credibility.

The very nature of religious hierarchy means that the wrong people are attracted to positions of power: it will attract ambitious people who are willing to compromise the truth to get what they want.

And i don’t just mean traditional hierarchical structures, but also hierarchies like that inherent in the Christian media industry, where only those who aggressively promote themselves can work their way to the top, and yet while being ignorant that self-promotion and compromise is ungodly.

Your Father

When you feel that you can’t pray that’s a perfect time to talk to your Father.