November 5, 2012
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Election Eve: "Consider your ways ... that I may take pleasure ... & ... be glorified"
I Corinthians 3:16 Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?
Ephesians 2:17 And he [Jesus Christ] came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. 19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Haggai 1:1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the LORD.” 3 Then the word of the LORD came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.
7 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD. 9 You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you have withheld the dew, and the earth has withheld its produce. 11 And I have called for a drought on the land and the hills, on the grain, the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on man and beast, and on all their labors.”
Are you so preoccupied and absorbed with the earthly, that you give little to no thought, energy or resources to the spiritual?Have you been busying yourself in regard to the White House to the neglect of the LORD's house?
Are you more zealous about the politics and government of the United States than the kingdom and government of the Lord Jesus Christ?
Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways...
build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.Colossians 1:9-10
And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you,
asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.
Related:
The Dangerous Tendency of Delay (Andrew Fuller)
Then Abigail made haste (complacency & devotion)
occupy ~ do you seek your own – or the things of Christ? does His Spirit occupy?
"the infinite significance of the eternal Kingdom"
So shall He sprinkle MANY nations (Isaiah 52:13)
Kingdom Day of Prayer
Who will always be?
The day after the election: Jesus is still the Center of the universe
Inauguration Day: Praying for President Obama
For Your Ears/Election 2008: Don't forget the One on Whose shoulders the government rests
"the inviolable steadiness of God's government" (Matthew Henry on Ecc. 3:14-15)
the only true way of peace (Postcards from God in England)
His Kingdom is unshakable even when we're being shaken
day of prayer, earthly governments & security ("For who is God, but the LORD?")Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Work found at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lightning_strike_near_Capitol_building.jpg / Public Domain
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Comments (2)
wonderful post--thanks--karen
@lifeontheWink - You're welcome! I've been reading and reading the book of Haggai since I'll be studying though it with a couple friends. Reading it again yesterday, I saw these verses so applicable to this election season, i.e. - how tempted we are to forget that we're citizens of heaven first and foremost; when we do that we end up setting our affections on the earth (instead of on things above).