Neglect In Building God's Kingdom?

To Build or Not To Build

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”    (Haggai 1: 3-5).

I have found that the Christian walk is filled with hills and valleys. There are those of us who pitch a tent after a valley event and never bother to head back up the hill. Our priorities become skewed and we lose the focus, settling for “status quo and the lazy lethargic attitude”. This is what happened to the first set of returnees. The Israelites had been exiled for over 70 years and were now in their land, having been given the challenge to return home and rebuild God’s temple (Ezra 1). After the hostility, dashed hopes - “With what are we going to rebuild? This is a huge effort! We have to fix our own living conditions too..” They took the focus off the rebuilding effort and pitched a tent in the valley of ease and contentment. They began to focus on their stuff – caught up with daily living (work, work, home, kids, fun, work, work, home kids, husband, wife, relationships).

For the past two years I feel like I have lived in this valley of church people, my brothers and sisters. They are very sincere about their faith, and are committed, but there’s so much to be desired in building God’s kingdom. I used to drive by one church on a hill overlooking the beach and wished “God, I’d like to meet the Pastor”. The church always seemed to be closed. Nothing happening and the community is dying. One day, I voiced the question to the operator of the only laundromat in the town (our washer and dryer was broken). He said “I am the Pastor”. I asked him if the church was closed down.. He said “No, but we could use the help!”. Dream come true. I jumped on the opportunity till it was time to move. A broken washer caused me to go out into the community - Sometimes discomfort is what is needed for you to move out.

Later on, the Pastor (love and respect him over the short period we worked together) would joke that I thought his church was closed down. I really did think it was. We agreed to start Tuesday night Bible studies and it was such a blessing. I really believe that teaching and preaching +evangelizing and prayer draws people. One of the things Pastors and leaders ought to do is to be faithful to the calling – preach and teach the word. Make this a priority to feed the people a steady diet and find ways to engage the community. Take the people back to the word, use the Bible – as in “use the Bible”; wear it out if you have to, but “use it”, not just read a passage. God’s word is life. It affects lives and bring changes:

God's Word is Living and Active

11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 12For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart               (Hebrews 4:11-12).

We do not have to build a temple these days, but we still have a target audience of living temples in which God wishes to dwell. Our business is converting people – people become God’s temple. Let’s not get comfortable and focus on building only those things which will perish. God still wishes for us to complete His building projects. I can tell you that God ensured they were frustrated. He ensured they were dissatisfied. Consider God’s approach to spiritual neglect:

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” (Haggai 1: 6). “Bags with holes…hmmm. I know what that feels like after working like a slave and not having enough at the end of the week. Someone said “It feels like there’s more month than money”. It was not until the people returned to God, and a change in priority that they began to see blessings (Haggai 1:13; Matthew 6:33). Let’s not get bogged down in our own interests. Trust God for the future, but make him a priority.

Written by Kevin A. Hall    (01.18.18)

GoogleImage.