Haggai 1:3-4

Then the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

From Background Notes [BN] for September 15^th & 16^th written by Pastor Bob Brown:

Back in the land, the little province of Judah was idling and coasting, accepting the benevolence of the Persian Empire, and leaning back in relief that at last they were home again where life would quickly return to normal.

Of course it’s hard to imagine normalcy when your capital city is a fire-charged ruins. It’s hard to see everything as whole and well when the worship of God is missing its temple. After all, you are not just any people returned from exile: you are God’s people, the chosen ones, whose seventy years in a foreign land has left deep rifts in your soul and in your community. Thinking that everything is fine under those circumstances is to accept less than the best and to live in denial. You are destined for greatness, the harbinger of Yahweh’s glory, and a witness to the nations that He is the true God.  [BN, 1]

Join us this week in Study, Worship, Praise and Celebration at Chicago First Church of the Nazarene:

* Saturday 6:00pm
* Sunday 8:30am & 11:00am, 5:30pm