Haggai 1, 2 [The Message]

The Mosaic Law had strict rules about how to avoid defilement. The people misunderstood the value of purity and constantly longed for the pleasures of sin which kept them defiled. It was a defeated lifestyle requiring constant sacrifice for sin to become clean. Jesus came to change all that.

IF we confess our sins, HE is faithful and just to FORGIVE US our sins and CLEANSE US from all unrighteousness (defilement.) [1 Jn 1:9]

Shall we continue in sin that grace (needs to) keep abounding? God forbid! [Rom 6]

PRAYER: Lord, shower us with your grace so that we man make quality decisions to AVOID the things that defile us.

Haggai [The Message]

God has spoken through donkeys, thunder, handwriting on stone tablets, and in dreams, but He prefers to speak through men/women.

For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. [2 Pet 1:21]

There is an inner “bearing witness” in the heart of the hearers that says, “Hey, that’s God speaking to me.”

Please listen to this choral arrangement of “In the Garden.” The discipline and poise of everyone is refreshing to behold. They are doing their best to let primarily the message get through.

Zephaniah 2 [The Message]

What do we actually seek?

• The fisherman seeks that BIG ONE
• A man seeks a wife
• The robin seeks a worm
• The prospector seeks gold
• The thirsty seek water to drink
• Teenage boys seek to fill their belly
• Political candidates seek to win an election
• And on and on …

Scripture says “SEEK ye the LORD while He may be found.” [Is.55:6]

Zephaniah 1 [The Message]

It’s coming! God’s judgement day when He holds court on everything and deals out His wrath upon those who mocked His ways and thought they knew better.

Weeping. gnashing of teeth and bloodshed. The bottom will drop out of everything people trusted in. Destruction everywhere. Everything torn down. God predicted that He would shake everything that could be shaken.

When we accept Christ, we can be forgiven of all sin and allow God to refine and shake out of our lives everything that offends Him. Go ahead and let Him do it. It’s a refiner’s fire that burns, but better NOW than LATER.

Habakkuk [The Message]

Debauchery: excessive indulgence in sensual pleasure.

This prophet takes up the task of predicting the fall of those who seek their own gain at the expense of everyone else. He says, “You’ve engineered the ruin of your own house.  In ruining others you’ve ruined yourself. You’ve undermined your foundations, rotted out your own soul. [Hab. 2:10]

Moses declared, “The pleasure of sin only lasts for a season.” Temporary fulfillment and pleasure can have eternally dreadful consequences if a person doesn’t find Christ.

It’s sad to watch a debauched person go down by their own doing. Pray for them. Look for chances to show them the love of Jesus. HE LOVES THEM.

Nahum [The Message]

The 12 Minor Prophets are just smaller books than Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. They contain some of the most specific and powerful prophecies of Christ and His coming Kingdom.

Nahum wrote about 150 years AFTER Jonah’s revival. He wrote a severe rebuke to the great city of Nineveh which had obviously backslidden since Jonah. It was a call to repentance. People change. God doesn’t. Nevertheless, God through Christ’s merciful offering of His Life to cleanse our sin keeps reaching out to us to redeem us and give us His Love.

This is a powerful excerpt from the Musical, “His Love Reaching,” which our Hope Temple choir and orchestra performed in Findlay, Ohio in 1975. Great song after the narration section.

Micah 7 [The Message]

The prophet cries out to God to bring His People back to their homeland where He will Shepherd them and prosper them once again. This applies, in my opinion, to not only the Jews but to the Church. He states, “God is on my side.” Yes! We can live in this confidence that regardless of the hardships we endure in our culture, God has glorious and great days ahead for us.

If we only listen to the evening news, we can become way too downcast. READ THE WORD instead! We get our news and opinions from what God has said … not CNN or Fax News.

Micah 6 [The Message]

Jesus said, “A wise man built his house upon the rock.” Also, man should not live on bread alone but on every Word that proceedeth from the mouth of God.

Here’s one to live in…

The Lord God has told us what is right and what he demands: “See that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern, and humbly obey your God.” [Micah 6:8 CEV]

Micah 1-5 [The Message]

After indicting false or deceitful messages being proclaimed by misguided preachers, Micah describes the coming Kingdom of King Jesus and His birth. Here is one of the clearest pictures of Christ’s reign in contrast to the self-serving messages of leaders who are merely after a following.

Preach the Word!

Jonah 4 [The Message]

Because of His great mercy, God relented on His intention to destroy Ninevah. It actually made Jonah mad that God would double back on the message Jonah had preached … doom and destruction. Jonah could very well have had a legalistic bent.

Legalists are very inflexible. It’s the way they interpret it and that’s it. “By the book.” Very little ability to bend or allow for forgiveness. For instance, if you don’t use the Bible version that they endorse, you are WRONG. Won’t they be surprised when people other than their church members get into Heaven.

All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: [2 Tim. 3:16]