Applications from Haggai

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 4/6/2016 10:20 PM

            This Spiritual Diary will be a bit different in that I wish to quote from Dr. Wiersbe what he has written at the end of his commentary on the book of Haggai.  I have mentioned many times how I really like the insights that Dr. Wiersbe has in his commentaries and one of the things that I really like is his applications that he sometimes have at the end of his commentaries, on how to apply what we have learned to the church or our personal lives and that is why I like to include them whenever I find them at the end of his commentaries.

            We ended our SD yesterday with these words from Dr. Wiersbe:  “We can’t leave Haggai without noting some practical lessons for God’s people today.

1 The work of God is begun, sustained, and encouraged by the Word of God.  ‘So the elders of the Jews continued to build and prosper under the preaching of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah, a descendant of Iddo’ (Ezra 6:14 NIV).  When God’s servants proclaim God’s Word in the power of the Spirit, things begin to happen.  ‘Is it not clear, as you take a bird’s-eye view of church history,’ said Dr. Martayn Lloyd-Jones, ‘that the decadent periods and eras in the history of the church have always been those periods when preaching had declined?  What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or a revival?  It is renewed preaching.’

2. God’s servants must work together to build God’s temple.  Haggai and Zechariah, an older man and a younger man, both ministered the Word to the Jewish remnant, and God blessed their mutual efforts.  It’s tragic when preachers and churches compete with one another and even carry on public disputes that give the enemy ammunition to oppose the Gospel.  ‘For we are laborers together with God’ (1 Cor. 3:9).

3.  When the outlook is bleak, try the uplook.  Apart from God’s promises, we have no hope.  As Vance Havner used to say, ‘Faith sees the invisible, chooses the imperishable, and does the impossible.’  Our work today is a part of God’s work in the future, and we want to do our best.

4.  Putting God first is the guarantee of God’s best blessing.  Why should God’s work suffer while we pursue pleasure and comfort for ourselves?  An affluent generation of Christians that is wasting God’s generous gifts on trivia and toys will have much to answer for when the Lord returns.  Matthew 6:33 is still in the Bible, and so is Romans 14:12.

5.  Apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, our labors are in vain.  ‘For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure’ (Phil. 2:13 NKJV).  God still demonstrates His power and receives great glory through the weak things of this world (1 Cor. 1:26-31).  If we’re too strong in ourselves, the Lord can’t use us.  That’s what reined King Uzziah; ‘for he was greatly helped until he became powerful’ (2 Chron. 26:15.

Now, we turn to Haggai’s associate, the young prophet Zechariah, and study his striking prophecies and Jerusalem, the Jews and the Messiah.”  4/6/2016 10:40 PM