Maranatha Grace Church

This book challenges us to put God's business before our own business. This is the smart thing to do. When we put God's interest first, eveything else falls into place.
 

Hello:

Book of Haggai Challenge – Day 11 Haggai 1 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

⁷ Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Consider your ways! ⁸ Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the Lord. ⁹ “You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the Lord of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. ¹¹ For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”(Haggai 1:7-11)

It is sad when the people of the Lord sabotage their own prosperity. By neglecting the house of the Lord and concentrating only on their houses, the people of Israel had placed themselves on a collision course against the Lord. They planted and the Lord uprooted. Any wealth acquires outside of the plan of God will only bring heartache and turmoil.

The blessing of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it. (Proverbs 10:22)

May the Lord richly bless you!

Hello:

Book of Haggai Challenge – Day 12 Haggai 2 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)

¹⁵ ‘And now, carefully consider from this day forward: from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord— ¹⁶ since those days, when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty. ¹⁷ I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸ ‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid—consider it: ¹⁹ Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.’” (Haggai 2:15-19)

Verse 15, in current English, could be rendered as the following, “Make my word, from this day I will bless you.” The people were about to receive great blessings from the Lord because of their obedience. In that specific case they put God’s interest before their own interest. They decided to finish the construction of the building of the Lord before doing anything else, they positioned themselves to receive great blessings.  

When we accept Christ as our personal savior, we make a great act of obedience. We ae no longer under the curse of the law, we are no longer under the slavery of sin; the promise of blessings is all ours. The Lord God tells us that “From this I da I will bless you (v. 19).”

^“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”^[a]), ¹⁴ that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13-14)

May the Lord richly bless you!