So when I read Ezra 3 this morning and noticed that Zerubbabel and Joshua are preparing to rebuild the temple, I took note of how they began the task. If it had been me, I might have rushed into Jerusalem, blueprints in hand, and began appointing foremen for the task and ordering materials, but this is not how these two men of God began. Ezra 3:2 says,

“Then arose Joshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings morning and evening.”

As I read that, I somewhat laughed at myself knowing that I probably would have begun this project in a more direct and quick approach, but seven months before the plans are even made for the actual temple, before the workers are organized, materials are ordered, and the beginning of the foundation is laid, the altar is built for prayer. How often, we rush into our daily work without thinking to build the altar to God in the morning. These men realized some things that I think we forget.

The Bible says that they were fearful of the people of the land, and with good reason, since the people of the land would soon cause the work to cease for a little while; but Joshua and Zerubbabel knew that they needed God’s protection for the work ahead of them. How I wish that I could remember daily that I am in a spiritual fight every day with the great nemesis of mankind, the devil, seeking to devour me, and Christ standing by to aid me in the fight. Would this knowledge not drive us to our knees before we run rough-shod over the day of activities?

And then Joshua and Zerubbabel knew that they needed, not only the protection of God, but also the provision of God for the work. This was an impossible task in their own strength, but by God’s help they could accomplish the task. This was the message that God gave to Zechariah for these two men in Zechariah 4:6, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts.” Knowing that we need God’s protection and provision should cause us to “build the altar of prayer and worship” each morning before entering our God-given tasks.

“Build the altar of Prayer” before you get started with your work today.

I, as well as many other Christians I think, need better reasons for giving other than “The preacher said to give” or “My Daddy and Momma always gave something, so I’m going to give.” Paul provides us with that added incentive for giving in 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. He says first of all to the “cheerful giver” that:

1. God will reward the giving.

We have to be careful with this one; this is where much of the “Prosperity Gospel” has fueled its fire – from these verses. But it is clear from phrases like “He that sows sparingly will reap sparingly and He that sows bountifully will reap bountifully” in this passage that God does reward the man that gives to kingdom work. And conversely, God also does not bless the man that does not give. Paul reminds the giver that it is God that supplies all things to all men (vs. 10), and therefore it would be no problem for God to bless the giver in whatever way He (God) deems best. This reason for giving almost seems selfish, if it were not Paul the Apostle giving it. The Scriptures make it clear, that we can expect reward for our labors and giving, and it is not selfish to strive for the prize. But this is not the only reason Paul provides us for giving.

2. Our giving is a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.

Paul writes to the Corinthians, “For the ministry of this service (the offering that he is collecting for the Jerusalem saints) is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.” How great are the designs of our heavenly Father! Notice all of the groups and individuals that He cares for in this cycle. The saints in Jerusalem receive the financial aid, the saints that give receive the blessings from God, and God receives the glory. Praise Him for His glorious design in giving. And on top of the blessings we receive in giving, the greatest is that we say “Thank You, Jesus!” by our giving to His (Jesus’) kingdom ministry. Paul closes by reminding us, “Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift!”

This is the gift of His Son, given freely to all mankind, to you dear reader, so that you might be made the rightousness of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:21). He was given a ransom for men to ransom them from their sin, from their slavery, and from their condemnation. Not only could we never outgive such a gift (this is not the reason for Paul’s writing this), we can never say “Thank You, God” enough. Therefore, I continue to give to the Lord’s work. Because I have to? Because if I don’t He will stike me with some illness, brake my automobile, or malfunction my refrigerator? (Side note: I actually have heard preachers say before, “God will get His money some way if you won’t give it” in reference to all of these bad things happening, and I thought, “How’s that going to give God His money?” The thoughts of an immature teen.) I think that I would like to give to the kingdom because it’s the best thing in the world that I can do with my resources right now. It blesses others, it blesses me, and it blesses my Father in heaven that has given me the inexpressible gift of His Son!

Paul writes a different scenario in 1 Corinthians 4:7 saying,
” But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. “
This treasure, if it is a physical treasure, would appear out of place in clay pots. But this is not a physical treasure, it is a spiritual one, and Paul is describing us, the Christians, as these clay pots. How fitting, since from dust we came and unto dust we will return someday. But this clay pots bring God glory, because they are filled with a treasure – the treasure of the Gospel. In other words, all of the worth of the Christian is bound up in the Gospel in our lives. We are nothing on our – clay pots – but with the Gospel, with Christ, we are treasure bearers. Why such a mean and meager house, for such a great treasure as the Gospel?

Paul writes this is for the glory of God. It shows that all power, all worth, all glory, belongs to God and never belongs to the individual Christian, the jars of clay. May we not try to steal the rightful glory of the treasure, may we esteem the worth of the treasure valuable, and may we share the wealth of the treasure with others.

So, because of the judgment of God following the ark everywhere that it went, the Philistines devised a plan to send the ark back to Israel. Once back in Israel’s hands, the ark stayed at Beth-Shemesh for a while, until the Lord smote the men of Beth-shemesh for looking into the ark. The men of Beth-shemesh begged for the men of Kiriath-jearim to come and fetch the ark to their city, and having done this, the ark had rest in the latter city for around twenty years.

So what lesson do I learn from this? Jesus said that there would be those that stood before Him in the final day saying, “Lord, Lord, have we not done these things in Your name.” And Jesus responds to these telling them to depart to everlasting judgment. It is no wonder that the Philistines were judged of God, because, not only were they wicked, but they also were not God’s chosen people. But the Israelites that died at Beth-shemesh prove that God is not respecter of persons. He demands that you not be His child only in name, like Christian or church member, but that you be His child by heart repentance, change and consecration. There will be many that stand before God in the final day, thinking, perhaps like the men of Beth-shemesh, that they are safe from God’s wrath only to find that they are not one of the true children; this person is a child of rebellion with a good facade covering the fact.

I pray that you are a true child. I pray that your encounter with Jesus is genuine and heart and life changing. Please do not rest in your church membership or the title Christian. And how will we know?

“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God….” Romans 8:14-16

When you catch a whiff of a sweet-smelling, thrilling fragrance, it makes you happy that you are in the right place for that experience. Whether it is the fragrance of a flower, or your wife’s perfume, or, even to me, an old book, we all enjoy a nice smell; but what about bad smells. I can tell you all about these. I played sports in high school, lived four years in a college residence hall room, and now have four children five and younger; not to mention, I’ve had to put up with myself for 32 years!

You can imagine the difference between the sweet smells of the flower and the not-so-sweet smells of a high school football locker room. Your nose probably just made some sort of movement toward the latter part of that previous sentence. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 2:14-15,

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish….”

God is always causing us to triumph? What a wonderful truth to take away from your reading this morning; we cannot be overcome in Christ! But Paul goes on to say that in our triumphs for Christ, we are spreading His (Christ’s) fragrance to all of the world. Both the saved and lost smell the aroma of the Sweet Rose of Sharon when we are living for Him in this world and triumphing in Him. And they are not the only ones – we are also a sweet savor unto the Father in heaven, when we are living in the Son.

So my question of challenge for my own life is what type of fragrance is Christ in my life. It is true that Paul says that there will be two responses to Christ in our lives: to some He will be the fragrance of death to death and to some of life to life. I have to re-evaluate the fragrance of my life, when everyone seems to be grabbing spiritual noses as they come into contact with my Christianity. Is the fragrance of Christ permeating your spheres of influence in an unadulterated, sweet-smelling savor that is wholly Jesus Christ? Or have you been soured by the dampness of continual bitterness, ill-odored by some sin that you have kept near, or become abhorrently smelly from a lack of applying the deodorant of Christian joy and love each day?

May our lives emanate the sweet savor of our sweet Savior today. There will be some to which it will be the savor of life unto life, and they will, like a flower in the spring, come to life in Christ and begin to bear the fragrance of Christ themselves – spiritual pollination.

The threatening attack of Sennacherib on Jerusalem recorded in the book of Isaiah and other books of Scripture, have always fascinated me simply for the mere show of God’s power, but I did see something new in the threatening message sent by Sennacherib to Hezekiah. The Rabshakeh, a high ranking military official and servant of Sennacherib, says in Isaiah 36:5,

” I say, sayest thou, (but they are but vain words) I have counsel and strength for war: now on whom dost thou trust, that thou rebellest against me?”

The ESV translates this verse saying, “Do you think that mere words are strategy and power for war? In whom do you now trust, that you have rebelled against me?”

In other words, it even appears to the enemy that Jerusalem’s physical powers and defenses are weak, and they appear to be trusting only in words. Rabshakeh asks, “What type of war strategy is this, that you would base your strategy off of words?” Was this merely Hezekiah’s war propaganda that Jerusalem was trusting? If so, this would have been a horrible strategy.

But they were not trusting the word of Hezekiah, nor any of the other people of Jerusalem; they were trusting the Word of the God of heaven and of earth. They knew that God had said that He would protect His city, and Isaiah the prophet had declared to Hezekiah God’s intention to protect the city. This was their trust.

As I pondered this passage once again, the question that gripped me was, “Would I trust the Word of the Lord, and that alone, in the face of battle and certain death?” I wonder if Isaiah had any doubts; it is clear that Hezekiah did. I’m sure the people may have thought, “I hope the King and Isaiah have this right!” And we have all been there before – “I hope God’s got this one right.” When we stand on the brink of the battle and stare out over the strong enemy, the ridiculously, large giant, will we trust solely in the Word of the Lord? Do His words alone stand as our battle strategy, and do we have the trust to accept that strategy. This may seem crazy in the enemies’ eyes, in the world’s eyes, but as we, His people know, this is the strategy for victory. Americans have known this strategy through many wars, and have declared “In God We Trust.” May it be true in our battles today and for a lifetime.

It would be very easy to say, “Well that’s fine and good for Israel, but it doesn’t affect the rest of us.” But wait, the passage says the redeemed of the Lord. It means those that God has ransomed, and Jesus said that He came to give His life a ransom for sinners. Well, I fall into that category – “sinner.” That means that I am a part of the redeemed of the Lord, and therefore, I will be a part of this parade “when the Saints come marching in.”

But a final thought of challenge as well. What is the road name that they enter on? The answer is in verse 8 – the highway called “the Way of Holiness.” Well it will definitely not be by my works of holiness that I enter the Kingdom, but by the perfect, holy life and work of Christ. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.” I will enter by the highway of holiness; why not walk in it now? I am redeemed now just as I will be in that day (perhaps not the redeemed body yet). So why do I so often rob myself of the obvious joy that comes in walking the “King’s Highway” into the kingdom.

With the Spirit’s help and grace, may we journey on this highway of holiness, praising and singing Christ’s praises, and experiencing a foretaste of the our everlasting joy.

Isaiah 1:12-13
“When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations – I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.”

I was visiting with a fellow pastor friend a couple of years ago when a woman came in with her young son inquiring about some financial assistance from the church. I immediately recognized the woman, and especially her son, because she had visited Highland for the same reason a few weeks prior and the boy nearly knocked my glass office door out with a stick he had found outside.

While my friend discussed the woman’s needs, primarily her spiritual needs, with her, the boy wondered out of the office. I followed for I knew his tendencies, and sure enough, I found him at the front of the auditorium holding the electric bass guitar that had been left there on a stand. I immediately retrieved the guitar, returned it to the stand, and picked the young boy up. He was about six to seven years old, so what happened next took me by shock. As I picked up the boy, I got a faint smell of urine, and realized the boy had urinated all over himself. I immediately did what every adult has been trained to do in such emergencies, I sent him outside. I returned to the church office breathing a sigh of relief that I was rid of the little angel, but then a few minutes later, he burst through the door again and ran straight into the sanctuary of the building. I hopped up and went into pursuit mode again, but this time, my stomached dropped when I rounded the corner. “Little man had found and obviously enjoyed a pile of mud outside (where I had sent him mind you), and he brought it back in to share with the church sanctuary. He had tracked mud all the way up the center isle of the auditorium before I could chase him down and put him back out of the building. What a mess.

I get the same picture in my mind when I read Isaiah 1 and hear God ask Israel, “Who has required of you the trampling of my courts?” Israel had defiled the courts of God with their idolatry, immorality, and general iniquity for so long, that they were about to be called into judgment, but God grants them a message of repentance and forgiveness once more through Isaiah. “Come let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet they shall be white as snow….”

Notice the places that Israel was desecrating the courts of God. The New Moons, perhaps special assemblies, Sabbaths, maybe regular weekly worship, and the calling of convocations, simple prayers. Bring these into today’s Religious circles and you could call them holiday gatherings, Sunday worship services, and private prayer times. How many times do we come to these with idolatrous, proud, boastful, selfish hearts with no real thought for the glory of God. I know for me it is very easy to approach all three of these with “me” on my mind. What will I accomplish, gain, or show in these times. The true thoughts should be, “God what are you wanting to do in me, to me, and with me.”

May we not trample the courts of heaven with the mud of the world. May we reason with God, as Paul with Felix in Acts 24 “about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, and may we repent having our sins which were once as scarlet cleansed in the fountain of Christ’s blood. This is the purpose of Christ’s death – that He might present us faultless to the Father (Ephesians 5:27). Let us live accordingly with clean feet.

12

I was riding down the rode this morning on my way home when I saw a burgundy cloth recliner sitting by the side of the road. I thought to myself, “Now that’s strange!” There were only two reasons that I could feasibly think that someone had sat a burgundy cloth recliner right beside the road in front of their house. Number one – maybe they enjoyed watching traffic pass by on the road, and so they wanted to enjoy this past-time in comfort. How wonderful to sit in your recliner on the side of the road and wave to everyone in Blue Ridge as they pass.

The second option that I deduced, was that perhaps the people that lived in the home wanted to give the recliner away. However there was no sign saying this, and judging from the looks of the recliner and due to the fact that it was pouring rain on the recliner as I passed by, I think I would have believed the first before the second option.

No, in reality, I assume that these people had placed the recliner on the side of the road to give away freely to someone or for the trash man to pick up. But the thought went through my mind, “Why would anyone want that recliner, especially after it has been soaked by rain, in their house?” Perhaps there will be a taker.

Just as much as it amazes me what some people will put in their houses (I am not speaking down, because Nicole has turned down a number of my interior decorating ideas in the past), I am amazed what we feel like we, Christians, can bring into the presence of God. We are told in Hebrews 4 that we can come before God’s throne of mercy to find grace and mercy to help in times of need, and I am so thankful that we have this access that Paul writes about over and over. It is the access that Christ spoke of when He said in John 14:6, “…no man cometh to the Father but by me.” We, His children, have this access to the Father.

But the Psalmist declares in Psalm 93:5, “Thy testimonies are very sure; holiness becometh thine house, O Lord, for ever.”

After the Psalmist makes me feel very small in the presence of God by declaring the majesty and strength of the Lord in verse 1, the eternalness of the Lord in verse 2, the preeminence (His being above all else) of the Lord in verses 3-4, he then goes on to tell me what should be in the house of the Lord – holiness!

Is it not amazing how we try to drag the sin-soaked and sin-stained sofas of our hearts into the presence of God with little remorse or repentance. It will not work, my friend. I cannot impose my interior decorating on the abode of God; He will not trade holiness for sin.

So how should I come? An empty vessel cleansed of sin by the blood of Christ and ready to be used in the service of the God of All. He will put me where He will, use me for that which I should be used, and in the end decorate His courts with another ornament of grace. Peter writes in his second letter,

“The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt away with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation (lifestyle) and godliness, Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God….”

What does the interior decorating scheme of God demand? Holiness! How can we come into His presence? With a clean heart and clean hands, purged by the blood of the perfect Son of God shed at Calvary. Be holy, for He is holy.