Missions Paul

We need that Word at just the right time.

They had returned from exile in 538BC.
They began work on the Temple 2 years later.
The work on the temple stopped 2 years after this.
For the following 14 years there was no work on the temple.

Haggai’s second message (2:1) to them came in October 520 only 2 months after his first message.
When the past seems better you need a Word for the NOW that says:
1. Get to work and
2. God is with you.

Haggai’s third message to them came in December 520 again 2 months after his second message. (2:10)
When we failed the lessons in the past we need lessons in the NOW that says:
3. Get your heart right and
4. God will bless you.

Haggai’s fourth message came to them in the same month as his rid message (2:20)
When the past teaches us that we are insignificant then we need a new Word that points us to Jesus:
5. So get your eyes on Him the servant King, the chosen One and who wears the signet ring of authority.

These 5 things meant the temple was finished 4 years later in 516BC. The Word did it and it still does.

Motivational Leadership

This is how GOD got Zerubbabel, Joshua, and all the people moving—got them working on the Temple of GOD (Haggai 1:14 MSG)

Haggai 1

1. A leader willing for God to speak through the, v1
2. A leader challenges procrastination in light of the big dream, v2
– they knew they should build
– they knew they had been given the permission from Cyrus, 18 yrs ago
– they just didn’t believe they could do it
3. A leader challenges complacency, v3
4. A leader exposes the reality of the present in comparison with the ruin of the future, v4
5. A leader knows how, v8
6. A leader explains why, v9-11
7. A leader is listened to, v12
8. A leader communicates the promises of God, v13
9. A leader can stir up/motivate, v14

Pray for your leader today as they motivate others.
Commit to being that leader yourself.

On a recent flight I watched a mother sing into the ear of her baby.
She sang to comfort the baby with her presence.
She sang to let the baby know he was safe.
She sang to let him know he was the apple of her eye
She sang in love for him.
She sang out of sheer joy.

Zephaniah 3:17
Today to the redeemed God is singing over you.
Amazing thought!

Zephaniah 2

So let’s seek only Him. With everything and all that we are. Don’t put Him first make Him all.
So let’s seek what is right. Not for ourselves but for others. Seek justice for the oppressed.
So let’s seek reality. Instead of fantasising how good we are. Choose the decisions and thoughts that are less about you and more about others.
That’s 3 things to seek.
If we do then “perhaps” things will get better.

Zephaniah 1 v7

The Lord has prepared a sacrifice
Is it you?

Habakkuk 3
1-2, 17-19

Does your God change according to your circumstance?
What kind of God do we worship when it’s a bad day?
When it all goes well, do you sing more?

Shigionoth

“Wild passionate song with rapid changes of rhythm, sing in a spirit of victory and excitement”.

When do we sing the shigionoth? = v17
When blessings have gone, crops fail, cattle are no more. The fig tree being Israel is gone, judged, over. It doesn’t get any worse than this.

23rd June 1978 – 830pm it didn’t get any worse for our Elim missionaries at the Emmanuel Mission School in Katerere, Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
Terrorists came over the hills from Mozambique and headed for our missions station. The missionaries had just finished their evening meal when they captured and led them to the school field. What they did to our missionaries was unthinkable. So much so that the bishop of the Church in Rhodesia and South Africa said the next morning when he visited, ” we saw no humanity there”.

In 1953 our Queen mother visited the station known as the Eagle School. All the white colonial children waved union flags. But when the Liberation War escalated they moved out and Elim Missions moved in and brought all the African pils to this place which they believed we safer.

But on this night there was desolation.
An orgy of carnage, mutilated bodies of 13 missionaries, one had to tried to flee through the bush but died later. What they did to the missionaries is unspeakable.
Later the terrorists were caught or came forward to confess, some sought forgiveness.
They gave their accounts of what transpired that night.
The missionaries had been singing hymns as they were violated and killed.
They sang in surrender to Christ and to comfort their children.
Local Africans said later that on some dark nights when the wind blows through the trees the sound of hymns in the midst of cries of fear and pain can be still heard drifting across the sports field at the school.

It was their shigionoth.

Habakkuk 2

We cannot speak what we haven’t first seen.
We cannot make known what we do not know.
We cannot make an impression if we do not leave something behind.
We cannot make things clear if we are complicated.
We cannot go without the message within us.

Habakkuk 1

It’s okay to question God if you are first carrying the burden of God. This was not simply a prophecy but this was a heavy message weighing on him.
Will we still carry burdens that are not for our personal well-being? A burden for others?

It’s okay to question God if you have been praying. Surrounded by violence and evil and facing up to the injustices are you calling on God to help. Many look but are you crying out?

It’s okay to question God if you will keep watching the world. God moves through the nations and He invites us to stand alert and see what He does.

The point is that many question God but not many are bothered to do what they can. Those that can and do rightly question God.

Nahum 3

Assyria thought they were invincible. They believed that no one, not even God, could break them.
And then we have that verse that all the women who have read it today will be shouting with complaint!
“Look at your troops – they are all women!” v13.
Now don’t worry, God is not against women!
The point is, you’re not who you think you are.
You are not this crack-force, hardened, unbeatable task force.
Often we want to encourage those who don’t think they are able to the task. However, we also need to speak to those over-achievers. Those who think they can but who cannot. Those who appear to be but who are fake. Those who think of themselves too highly.
Pride is the killer in life, nothing else.

Nahum 2

The Lord will restore the splendour v2

I must share this story…

Matt Chandler in his book ‘The explicit gospel’ writes about a time he and a couple of his friends invited a young woman named Kim to a gospel concert. Chandler writes:
The preacher took the stage, and disaster ensued …. He gave a lot of statistics about STDs. There was a lot of, “You don’t want syphilis, do you?” …. His big illustration was to take out a single red rose. He smelled the rose dramatically … caressed its petals, and talked about how beautiful this rose was and how it had been fresh cut that day. [Then] he threw the rose out into the crowd, and he encouraged everyone to pass it around. As he neared the end of his message, he asked for the rose back …. [But by now] it was broken and drooping, and the petals were falling off. He held up this now-ugly rose for all to see, and his big finish was this: “Now who in the world would want this?” His word and his tone were merciless. His essential message, which was supposed to represent Jesus’ message to a world of sinners, was this: “Hey, don’t be a dirty rose.”
Matt didn’t hear from Kim for a few weeks, until one day her mother called Matt to inform him that Kim had been in an accident. Matt immediately went to visit her.
In the middle of our conversation, seemingly out of nowhere, she asked me, “Do you think I’m a dirty rose?” My heart sank inside of me, and I began to explain to her the whole weight of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that Jesus wants the rose. It’s Jesus’ desire to save, redeem, and restore the dirty rose.”

How many people feel just the same way today? Let us all commit to speak the restoring message of Christ.