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:
I’m sure that you know people who don’t believe in, love or worship God. My first thought when I encounter such people, and I do so every day, isn’t how God will use them to accomplish his purposes he...
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...
There once was a boy who arrived at Sunday School a few minutes late. His teacher inquired if something was wrong since this boy was always punctual. He thought something bad may have happened to caus...
Faith is a funny thing. We're called to have it as a Christian, but we sometimes exhibit more by the way we root for certain sports teams. This is especially true with Chicago Cubs fans.
Saturday I read a book about leadership. It was a great read and made me realize we are all lead by something or someone. At the same time, we are all leading/influencing someone else, whether we know...
How many who read this actually play Scrabble? I love to play it, but rarely do I find someone who shares my enthusiasm about it. A couple of the rules in Scrabble are that you cannot use the dictiona...
I used to have a friend (I mean cat) named Spunky. He was my best friend for so many years. At the time he died, he had lived with me for over half my life. Spunky loved me no matter what. If I left h...
I often ride an exercise bike. While I do so, I spend time talking to God, reading the Bible, or I drift back to the Wild West by reading a western from Louis L’Amour. Well, today I had a very simple ...
