“Thus says the LORD of hosts: Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the LORD.
“The British are coming!” Okay, according to most history scholars, this never happened. He never yelled those words but was more discreet. This did happen though; at his instigation, as many as 40 men rode through Concord alerting the people to get ready for action. That is what Haggai did for the captives returning to Jerusalem. It was a call to action to fight the enemy. The enemy was not the British or the Babaylonians, but their own complacency and indifference. The temple lay in ruins and the people ceased to care because they were comfortable in their homes. The Lord called them out for forgetting about him and called them to action in building his house.
A similar call to action is needed today in the church in America. The enemy is coming, and is already here. Partially, the enemy is aggression from without in the form of political and moral decay, the godlessness of our education system, and misrepresentation of Christians in the news. The bigger enemy though, is from within and it is reminiscent of the captives in Jerusalem. Many Christians in America have simply ceased to care about the church because they are safe and warm in their homes. The persecuted church all over the world has known this indifference for decades but continues on the front lines. It is time to take up arms against the lethargy of the American church and fight the devil on our turf. Come to church and…
Build the house.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church