With Christ at our center we are the living temples of Holy Spirit and carry Him within us wherever we go. God’s messages were often words of encouragement and hope for His people. This was a precursor to the coming of Jesus Christ and His Spirit which will inhabit those who believe in Him. Haggai prophesied of the coming of Christ and the temple made without hands.
John 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!
Jesus knew everything that He would go through. He willingly suffered for His creation. All things were created through Him
Jesus went through the agony of his human death on the Cross even though He could have called a thousand angels to defend Him. He called out to the Father that if possible this cup of suffering could be taken from Him but He ended with thy will be done. There was no other way man could be saved. Jesus was one person of the triune Godhead, the Creator, but He learned obedience by the things that He suffered as a man. Being made perfect, a complete, all man-all God, who could save us He became the author of eternal salvation to all who believe.
Godly fear is the beginning of wisdom and in our salvation we are changed. We become a new person with new desires and detest the things we thought previously were right in our eyes.
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
In our salvation we are given the word of reconciliation and we are now ambassadors for Christ. For God has made Christ to be sin for us that we might be saved. He who knew no sin became sin that we may be made the righteousness of God. We can now spread the Good News of this reconciliation to all who will listen.
Philippians 2:5 5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross
Without His death for our sins the gift of salvation could never have been offered. In His resurrection He overcame death, the last stronghold, that kept us from eternal life with Him.
Even though speech is a common and necessary part of our lives, we need to apply care and caution in trapping our tongues. Chances are that many of our hearts have been pricked by careless words that lunged from someone's mouth, perhaps without them even thinking much about it.
…what if we decide to use our tongues as instruments of His healing too? What if we intentionally acknowledge our gratitude or admiration of those around us, applying a salve of hope or encouragement?
Let's ask the Holy Spirit to make our words into a life-giving spring, sprinkling blessings upon the hearts of all those we speak to. May our conversations be medicine poured over the poison of sharp and piercing speech. when God the Son clothed Himself in humanity, He was called "the Word" in John 1:1. The Word who spoke creation into existence willingly became a fragile human creature, emptying Himself to become like us (Philippians 2:7). And because Jesus is the Word, our words allow us to reflect Him to the world. Our speech is designed to bring life and to display the glory of Christ, both in His majesty and in His humility. First5
In her extraordinary book The Drama of the Gifted Child, Alice Miller writes, "What would have happened if I had appeared before you, bad, ugly, angry, jealous, lazy, dirty, smelly? Where would your love have been then? And I was all these things as well. Does this mean that it was not really me whom you loved, but only what I pretended to be? The well-behaved, reliable, empathic, understanding, and convenient child, who in fact was never a child at all?”
I revisit William Sloane Coffin’s affirmation habitually. Because we live in a world where it is easy to forget. “God's love doesn't seek value, it creates value. It is not because we have value that we are loved, but because we are loved that we have value. Our value is a gift, not an achievement.”
Grace is the embrace that tells us someone knows us, and sees us, and is willing to open their arms wide no matter what.
Grace is the embrace that does not waiver or diminish.
Grace does not depend upon our response, performance, attitude, faith or checkered past.
Grace just is.
Sabbath Moments
Someday we will all stand before God. All of us will have to give an account for our lives. And were it not for the grace of Christ, I would find this to be a terrifying thought. Yet, according to Scripture, Jesus came to “take away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). On the day when I appear before the judgment seat of God, when my list of sins is produced, I will gesture toward Christ and say, “He took it.” Let him take yours. Max Lucado
Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, along with the people of God, responded quickly to the message of Haggai (1:12). Three weeks after Haggai gave his first message, they began their work on the temple (520 b.c.). Anticipating a positive response, Haggai came with another message. This was a simple one, but it had profound implications: Haggai assured them that the Lord was with them (1:13). This was the same message that Moses had brought to the Israelites in Egypt (Exodus 3:8). Indeed this would be the name of the coming Messiah—Immanuel, God with us (Isaiah 7:14).
When the people chose to make God the center of their lives, the Lord could Himself remain in their midst even without a physical building.The NKJV Study Bible
Haggai 1:12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, with all the remnant of the people, obeyed the voice of the Lord their God, and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent him; and the people feared the presence of the Lord. The New King James Version
The remnant of the people were literally those who had made the trek back to Judah from their place of captivity in Babylon; it also refers to those within a larger population who are faithful to the Lord. The NKJV Study Bible
Haggai’s message inspires the correct response: Zerubbabel, Joshua, and the rest of the people restart their work on the temple. The project resumes on the 24th day of the sixth month, several weeks after the oracle of Haggai 1:1–11 (dated to the first day of the sixth month). Faithlife Study Bible
Haggai 13 Then Haggai, the Lord’s messenger, spoke the Lord’s message to the people, saying, “I am with you, says the Lord.”
Here the Hebrew phrase malakh yhwh refers to the prophet as God’s messenger, but the old testament often uses this phrase to refer to the angel of Yahweh. The word denoting “messenger” (malakh) is common for human messengers speaking on behalf of their masters but it is rarely used to refer to the prophets as human messengers speaking for God. A prophet and a messenger had essentially the same role. Both spoke on behalf of one greater than themselves. Faithlife Study Bible
God’s promise to Moses was, “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). God’s promise to the people of Judah was that the name of the Coming One would be Immanuel, meaning “God is with us” (Isaiah 7:14). Here God repeated the same message of comfort and encouragement. The NKJV Study Bible
Haggai 1:1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, saying,
Ezra 5:2 So Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Jeshua the son of Jozadak rose up and began to build the house of God which is in Jerusalem; and the prophets of God were with them, helping them.
Isaiah 44:26
Who confirms the word of His servant,
And performs the counsel of His messengers;
Who says to Jerusalem, ‘You shall be inhabited,
’To the cities of Judah, ‘You shall be built,
’And I will raise up her waste places;
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