Intro to Zechariah 7-8

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/4/2016 11:35 PM

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Short Introduction to Zechariah 7-8

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Zechariah 7-8

            Message of the verses:  As mentioned in our last SD we will go back and look at some of the things that Warren Wiersbe has to say in his commentary regarding chapters 7-8 of the book of Zechariah.  He has entitled this forth chapter of his commentary “Truth, Traditions, and Promises,” and we will look at what he has written for his introduction to this chapter in this SD.

            “To what extent do the traditions of the past have authority over what the church does today?  As times change, should customs also change?  And who has the authority to change them?  Are religious traditions to remain as they’re always been, or can we drop the old ones and begin some new ones?

            These are questions that are challenging churches today and even dividing churches but these questions aren’t new.  Similar questions were asked centuries ago when Sharezer and Regemelech arrived in Jerusalem from Babylon.  The Jews in Babylon had sent them to ask the Prophet Zechariah about the traditional Jewish fasts.  Zechariah used the opportunity to teach the people about true spiritual worship, and then he turned their eyes away from the past to the promises of the future.”

            I have to agree with what Dr. Wiersbe is writing here as from the time when I first came to believe in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord most of the churches were what we called traditional churches, but today many of them are more contemporary in their services.  The music is the big thing that has changed, along with the dropping of the Sunday evening service and in many cases the dropping of the Wednesday evening prayer meetings.  I think that this is a sad thing that has happened because by doing this the time many believers use to spend in church they are not there anymore.  As far as the music I have to say in my opinion that the church is chasing after the world’s music to draw people from out of the world to come to church, and on the surface this may seem good, but as far as believers we are to be something different that what the world has to offer, therefore we should act like we are different in order for the world to see we are different and this will draw people to the church.

7/4/2016 11:49 PM