The Open Word (Audio)

How has your Christian walk been going? Have you seen great fruit or is it more like a drought? If you’re experiencing dryness in your relationship with the Lord, maybe it’s because you’ve been trying to offer up to the Lord defiled offerings. Are you living in blatant disobedience? Don’t be one thing throughout the week and then act like someone completely different on Sunday. God cannot bless hypocrisy. God desires worship that is in spirit and truth.

Are you forward looking or living in the lime light? Some of us can find ourselves remembering the days where God had moved through us in pretty amazing ways, either though evangelism or time in His word. Sometimes it just feels like God is speaking right to you and right through you. Then there are times where you might not even feel His presence at all. Pastor David exhorts us today not to live looking backwards but to be anticipating God to do even greater things in you, if you let Him.

How much time are you spending on your career? How about your hobbies? How much time do you spend in front of your television? How much time do you spend furthering God’s Kingdom? In His word? In prayer? Little convicting, huh? As we begin our study in Haggai, we learn that once again the nation of Israel, despite all of God’s mercies, are putting other things as priorities above God. But God won’t bless that kind of behavior. The only way for us to live a full life is to keep God first.

Have you ever tried to comprehend the mercy of God? It can completely boggle your mind when you try to think about it. The Bible tells us that God is so merciful that He wishes that none would perish and all would come to repentance. But sadly, we know that not everyone will accept God’s free gift of mercy. Even still, God will take all those who do accept His free gift and will bring restoration, not only spiritually but one day physically in the Millennial Kingdom.

It sometimes seems like as Christians we are hard of hearing. If you have been a Christian for any length of time then you know God’s word is always faithful. But instead of knowing this truth we live as if God is some sort of liar. The people of Judah were playing the same game with God. God was promising to bring judgment on them and had already punished all the nations around them. So, did Judah listen and clean up their act? No. But the real question is, are you going to listen?

As we continue through our series in the Minor Prophets, we come to the book of Zephaniah. The Minor Prophets are a collection of small but very powerful prophetic books in the Old Testament. There are 12 different authors with varying backgrounds. Some were in a lineage of prophets, others were just fruit pickers and shepherds. Zephaniah was royalty. But what is truly amazing is that it didn’t matter where these men came from, God used them all and He wants to use you too.

God’s knows those who are His children. The Bible tells us that He even has the hairs on our head numbered. The Bible also talks about a Day of Wrath that’s coming on the whole earth, so, what does that mean for us? Just like God protected Noah and his family from the flood. Just like God protected the nation of Israel from the plagues in Egypt. God will protect us from the wrath to come. God has always been able to shield and protect his chosen remnant. He will do it again through the rapture.

What is our responsibility towards others as Christians? Can we just leave people alone and be morally neutral? No, Christ does not leave us room for that. Christians are called to actively treat others the way they would want to be treated. As we continue our study in Obadiah we see that this is a principle that God teaches throughout His Word. But it also works the other way. You will reap what you sow and just like Edom sowed wickedness against Judah, that’s exactly what they would reap.

We’ve all heard people say, “Pride goes before a fall”. And the book of Proverbs agrees when it says “Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall”. So, if pride is so destructive, you would think more people would run from it. The trouble is that pride is not only destructive but it’s deceiving. That’s exactly where the nation of Edom was during the time of the book of Obadiah. Edom was blinded by pride and they couldn’t even see that they were going to be destroyed.

Sometimes this world just looks like its going straight down the drain. Wars, diseases, murders, atrocities. It all seems very bleak. It was pretty bleak in the time of the prophet Joel too, but Joel had an unwelcome message. “It’s going to get worse.” We live in something called “The Last Days” but there is a day coming, “The Day of The Lord” which will make all these hardships pale in comparison. Thankfully for the Christian God’s mercy will shield us from that day, but how about those around you?