Bad news - Good news

Last time we looked at two of the minor Prophets and at the messages they brought to the people of long ago and how that message is still relevant today.

Today we tackle two more Zephaniah and Haggai.

Ever felt like things are way out of control?? The world and those in it are spiralling, so it seems, head first downwards - and sadly it seems are we!

The lines between right and wrong are pretty blurred - leaders can be corrupted - we become discouraged.

It seems we so easily fall into sin and our faith at times not only seems small but minuscule!!

This was the very type of situation that Zephaniah the prophet found himself - stuck in the reign of two evil kings Manasseh and Amon, He found himself at last with a King that feared the Lord.

King Josiah was a well intentioned and godly guy - but with all his reforms most of the leaders in the city were corrupt and idolatry was widespread.

Zephaniah wrote to the people warning them of the impending judgement of their sins - sound familiar?

He had bad news and good news.

Bad news:- If we don't turn away from our sins we can expect nothing from God - We can be justly terrified to meet Him.

Good news:- Turn from our sins - confess them to God - accept Jesus' sacrifice for us on Calvary. God is Just and Holy - No sin will go unpunished - either at the cross or at the throne of God!

Yep, that age-old message to repent and turn from our sins is still so so relevant today.

We have to come to the cross of Jesus - There is room there for everyone - not matter what you have done, where you have been or who you have been with!

We need to ask forgiveness and claim the promise of God that who ever comes to Him he will not throw away.

The spectre of sin remains but it it has absolutely no dominion over us it is like a broken-backed snake - still dangerous but a fallen foe unable to defeat us.

How precious is the blood of Jesus to us - He rose again to ensure our salvation - he stands between us and the Father's wrath.

Pretty awesome even stunning. It blows me away when I think of the cross and what Jesus did for me.

It astounds me and bewilders me sometimes that He gave everything - and for me! -Me who was so far buried in a pile of garbage when He found me and yet He loves me anyway.

So Zephaniah's message - bad news then good news is still around today - when you think of the evil in the world today, it's so easy to become discouraged.

But the good news is that God knows our troubles - He died for you, His love is never ending - His grace is staggering and His mercies never fail.

Come back to Him today.

Haggai with his message of counting the cost is amazing.

Haggai was sent by the Persian King to rebuild the temple - and he did what the Lord commanded.

Interestingly though -opposition to the rebuilding stopped the work BUT it certainly didn't detract from the important work that Haggai was sent to do.

He was willing to go!!

How are you at doing what God commands? Haggai's willingness to go is a challenging reminder to us that we must take inventory of our lives and order our priorities to reflect what Gods want us to do.

What does the way you spend your time reveal about your priorities?

Remember God is not some co-pilot - or backup in case we can't handle things on our own.

God is the pilot - the one in the drivers seat.

We don't have to stress and strive to do things - God is there to protect, shelter and ward off anything this old world throws at us.

Don't ever feel discouraged and complacent in your spiritual life - Don't get into the spiritual doldrums.

Meet the problems head on - Give God the Glory in everything. When things seemingly get out of control - we can say with those who have gone  before - Our God is able - He will meet our needs - He will never let us go - Keep our eyes focused on Him.

What goes around comes around!

Phew!! - just been reading all the books of the minor prophets in the Old Testament - some of it is pretty hard going I'm telling you!

I guess you could sum them up with a 'one-liner' for each of them - they all had a message to tell and guess what!! that message is still relevant today.

They all neatly appear - all six of them - just before the New Testament starts and there they cling onto history and still boldly proclaim God's message to all and sundry - yelling out to the world what will happen, what has already happened and to make sure we are ready for the finale!

First comes Nahum with his message of "WHAT GOES AROUND COMES AROUND".

Reading Nahum you can take heart! - all injustice, unfairness, cruelty, rebellion against God, disobedience, bullying in fact anything that breaks the heart of God and His people will NOT go unpunished.

We can be confident by reading Nahum, that God will make all things right one day.

Every sin will and must be accounted for either at the foot of the cross when the person who has wronged you will accept the gift of forgiveness from Jesus and have their sins pardoned or....

A the judgement throne of Almighty God where they will have to give account of every thing done and said.

God is the only JUST JUDGE - His ways are perfect and although sometimes we can't really understand what is going on, take courage, be brave take one huge breath and be assured that our Father knows the end from the beginning - the BIG picture!!

We have all been hurt at one stage or another - we have had our hearts broken, been bullied, had heaps of unfairness dished out to us and generally felt depressed and alone.

Imagine how God feels! For as long as people have been on earth, He has been rejected, scorned, made a joke of, disobeyed, laughed at, insulted, ridiculed, ignored, misunderstood, forgotten and belittled!!

The list goes on and on and on - Yet he remains patient.

He shows us love, understanding and mercy - giving us opportunity after opportunity to repent and come back to Him.

So when God does get ANGRY it's probably not a bad idea to listen up - Old Nahum brought this message to Nineveh or Assyria - "Get Ready What goes round comes around!"

Next comes Habakkuk with His message of  "VIOLENCE: IT ISN'T FAIR"

Habakkuk wondered and questioned God as to why evil is allowed to win so often!

Of course we have never done that!! Yeah right!! - That is what we do best!

But after questioning God , Habakkuk concluded that God is in control, that there is a judgement coming and we had better praise God.

Habakkuk was in a horrible situation - he knew that Babylon was about to destroy Judah - he pleaded with God not to let it happen and the people to change - to get ready.

Babylon was probably one the most horrendous countries of their day - torturous, barbaric and showing no mercies to anyone - and here they were - about to carry off the people as slaves, killing and brutalising as they went.

Through all of this Habakkuk could still say "Though the fig tree shall not blossom and there is no fruit on the vine, the olives fail, the flocks die, no meat and no shelter I will still praise the Lord"

Now we may not tend sheep, own a vineyard or not even realise that figs grow on trees BUT we can still relate to what Habakkuk was saying here.

When we get downsized, when we get stressful and anxious, when we have been diagnosed with some terrible, horrible disease, when our budget zooms out of control, when the kids get sick and when we are laying awake at night desperately searching for solutions to what seem like endless problems - what then?

We certainly don't feel blessed BUT you know it is then at those very moments more than any others that God is the only stability you will find in life.

He can give us - you and me - the spiritual strength and emotional courage to keep going.

When you think of it - Jesus suffered terribly for us - He didn't die peacefully in His sleep not was He given a lethal injection and fell asleep before He died - and yet through all of His unbearable pain He never stopped praising is Father and handing it all over to Him.

Although we rarely admit to needing it - God's mercy, strength and stick ability is available to us on a daily basis - God virtually explodes with mercy - He loves mercy - He loves courage - he loves to share His strength with us.

God longs for us to bring all of our wounds and innermost thoughts to Him - He will extend His mercy, grace and strength to get us through the most horrendous events in our lives - even when things look their blackest.

So there we go - the first two "Minor prophets" in a nutshell - I have no idea why they are called 'MINOR' because their message is pretty 'MAJOR' if you ask me!

Nahum with his "What goes around comes around" and then Habakkuk's amazing "VIOLENCE: it is isn't fair"gives us two very awesome messages from these ancient and prophetic pages.

Nahum's message that all sin will be accounted for either at the foot of the cross or at the throne of God blows me away with it's simplicity yet is startling in it's truthfulness and still relates so much to today.

Habakkuk's determination to praise God even though things look their blackest also made me aware again of  God's mercy and of course on-going grace.

God is so Holy and Just and sees the 'big picture'.

Our Small world is shaped by what is happening to us today - whether good or bad - big or little. God's world is beyond our understanding - so we have to trust Him that He knows what he is doing and hand our entire lives over to Him.

So reading the 'minor' prophets has been an eye-opener for me - the messages contained there were so vital to that world at that time yet so relevant to today's world as well.

Take time to re-read them and I guarantee that you will be blessed as I was to realise that God has indeed got everything under control even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

God has our best interests at heart and even though sometimes our world may fall apart and praising Him seems like the last thing we feel like doing - we should try to keep in mind all the truths of the Bible and the blessings He has given us and praise (Just like Habakkuk) will be inevitable.

Next time two more of our MINOR prophets get on the starting block when we will look at Zephaniah and Haggai.

Catch up then.

Continuing temptation - Continuing sin!!

Temptation - Can we avoid it? - Is it just a common part of our humanity?

Well - looking at it from a purely human aspect 'temptation'  has been around for years and years from creation really and it will continue to plague us until Jesus comes again - pretty sad turn of events I'd say but one which we as Christians have to come to terms.

What is so good and comforting to realise again is that Jesus Himself was tempted as we are - WOW that is a comforting thought  that the very Son of God - Jesus - Pure Man and Pure God was not immune from Satan's efforts to have Him sin.

Another comforting thought that springs to mind is that being tempted is not the sin - we are all tempted - every one of us and probably every day - the SIN part comes when we actually yield or give in to the temptations.

Experts tell us that we have approximately 5 seconds from the first inclination of sinning - or when temptation strikes to turn away from temptation - FIVE SECONDS - not a lot of time - but time enough to decide "will I or won't I" - the decision is up to you and me to make.

Jesus although tempted as we are did not sin - pretty amazing when you consider. We have a problem in that we think of Jesus as holy and able to avoid temptation - that's true BUT He was also a man and suffered from  all temptations  known to common man - pretty gobsmacking thought that!!

Here was Jesus - the God/man - sent from the Father but also coming under the very temptation known to common man- you and me.

I must admit that the thought of that is somehow comforting to know that our own dear Saviour that died to take away my sins - suffered the very same temptations that I do - How miraculous is that!!

Temptation can be very nasty indeed -  it is a cruel and devious foe we are facing when we are faced with temptation - Jesus stood foot to foot - toe to toe with the same enemy we face - yet did not sin!

Okay then let's look to to Jesus - He has taken the load for us.

We can travel along or follow along the very steps that He took - If we look hard we may even see his blood stained steps that he took to win our freedom and the power to overcome temptation.

Man, what a saviour!! And He did it all for us - If He hadn't then we would be like the un-saved - unable to overcome temptation.

Oh Yes they can try with all the 'self-help' seminars - the psych sessions the one-on-one counselling but nothing will really help without the the blood stained cross, the pierced side, the agony and death of our Lord Jesus Christ on that terrible but beautiful cross.

Of course the amazing and awesome resurrection of the Lord was the clincher - the very fact that he overcame death and is right now seated on the right hand side of the Father interceding for us is, well to truthful, utterly incredible!

Jesus was a man! and as a man endured  heaps of temptations yet did not sin.

Then it only stands to reason that in HIS POWER and His power alone, the members of his family - you and me - may cease to sin and have power over temptation - awesome isn't it.

Remember there is no sin in 'being tempted' - the sin is 'yielding' to that temptation'.

Jesus as the Head triumphed over temptation - we as members of His body share in that awesome victory!

Our place of sure safety is only found wrapped in the arms of our Saviour - Christ is with us armed for our defence.

We are the tempted ones now - all we can do is throw ourselves into the arms of the tempted Jesus our Saviour and our Lord.

The chain has broken - the shackles are gone - we are free - claim the victory through the one who broke them!

God does not promise the same help for those who don't know Him however.

Until we repent of our sin and accept Jesus as Lord of our life and hand over to Him 100% we have no capacity to please God or to overcome addiction to temptation.

But those who are saved may claim the power and wisdom of Jesus relying on God's Grace to have the victory even over Satan's most dastardly, subtle and compelling temptations.