This free church bulletin article was written by Brian Humek from Irving, TX. You are free to use this in church bulletins, church emails and on church websites. No credit needs to be given. Simply clicking one of the books on our suggested reading list will help more free content to be placed on this site. Donate your own bulletin article here.
Bible Passage: Haggai 1:1-13
The prophet Haggai had a message for God’s people. After being freed from captivity, they were to go back to Israel and build a temple. They laid the foundation of the temple but that was it. Over a period of sixteen years, God’s people had built their nice houses but left the house of the Lord not even half built.
When they first came back from captivity, the Israelites were gung ho for the Lord. “Yeah, let’s get his house built,” they said. They worked full speed ahead when they were just released from captivity. Then after a while, the daily worries of life and concern for themselves overtook their enthusiasm for the Lord. They had laid the foundation of the Lord’s temple but then they became ho hum. They were gung ho then ho hum.
I think that is the way life is for many Christians. We are gung ho for the Lord after we’re baptized into Christ and we receive the Holy Spirit. We may stay gung ho for a year or two or three, maybe longer. Then the worries of life, and concern for ourselves, our comfort, and our desires seem to overtake that gung ho spirit we had at the beginning of our Christian walk. We then become ho hum Christians.
The book of Haggai is short, but within its pages, Haggai uses the term, “Consider your ways,” four times. Let us consider our ways as we progress through a new year. Let us consider where our priorities in life may be. May our priorities be on Jesus instead of ourselves. May our priorities be on living for others instead of ourselves. Jesus certainly lived for others. More importantly, he died for others. Then after three days he began living for others once more and he’s still living for others today. Let us follow the example of Jesus. It’s hard to do on some days (okay, make that most days) but it is well worth the effort.
—> Support our free church content ministry by purchasing the 5 Star rated Leave it to God on Amazon today.
Related posts:
My wife and I used to travel to Newman, IL every year on Memorial Day weekend to visit my Aunt Ellene. She called Memorial Day by its original name, Decoration Day. When she could still get around, it...
Once upon a time I met a pagan woman. The odd thing about this woman was how she would say grace before her meals. I still have no idea who she was thanking. The point I took from our chance meeting i...
In a world where terrorist bombings, stabbings, shootings happen almost weekly, we need hope. In a world where we don't know whether or not we'll keep our job through the end of the month, we need hop...
One day in the mountains, a man went for a peaceful walk or so he thought. Unknown to him, a mountain lion was prowling around waiting to devour him. The man was attacked. He survived and is now a lot...
Sometimes life gets tough. I mean real tough. Habakkuk tough. That kinda translates to "almost wanting to give it all up" tough. What are you going to do? What did Habakkuk do?
Husbands or males in general, have a bad reputation. There’s something that we usually do that gives us that reputation. O.k., maybe there’s more than just one thing that gives us that bad reputation,...
I hate to admit it, but I waited for years to have a girl fall in love with me. I always had bad experiences with girls. In 5th grade Andrea really acted as if she liked me. We were going on a field t...
Life is made up of stories, some small, some big, others true and a few that aren’t so true. It all depends on the storyteller’s point of view. Christina Crawford told a horrendous story about her mov...
