Wednesday Thought -- April 9, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“On that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that attack Jerusalem. And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son. On that day the weeping in Jerusalem will be great, like the weeping of Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. The land will mourn, each clan by itself, with their wives by themselves.” (Zechariah 12:9-12)

This must be a prophecy that is yet to be fulfilled. Jerusalem has not yet looked at the One they pierced and mourned deeply for Him. The weeping of Jerusalem over the crucifixion of Jesus has not yet arrived. In fact, it was quite the opposite when Jesus was killed. The people of the city of Jerusalem turned against Him. They were the ones who were calling out for His blood. They wanted Him dead.

A day is coming when the Jewish nation will see what they have done. They will understand that they did not recognize the Messiah and that they had Him crucified. And on that day, God will forgive them. He has always been ready to forgive them and open His arms to welcome them into His presence. He has been patiently waiting for their repentance. The word of Zechariah is that it will not be a wait that will be useless. Israel, at least much of it, will repent and turn back to the Lord.

The Apostle Paul spoke of that coming day, too. “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’” (Romans 11:26-27)

God will pour His Spirit on the people of Israel. They will experience His grace. Their hearts will become soft toward the rest of their own people and toward the other people of the world. They will develop a heart of prayer, a heart of supplication for other people.

God is not yet finished with the people of Israel. “God is patient, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) That’s even true of Israel! That’s especially true of them.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Tuesday Thought – April 8, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“I told them, ‘If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.’ So they paid me thirty pieces of silver. And the LORD said to me, ‘Throw it to the potter’ -- the handsome price at which they priced me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them into the house of the LORD to the potter.” (Zechariah 11:12-13)

500 years before the birth of Jesus, Zechariah prophesied about the price of His betrayal and what would happen to the money. This passage is clearly a prophesy that was fulfilled in the actions of Judas. He betrayed Jesus and the Jewish leaders paid him the price they thought his betrayal was worth: 30 pieces of silver. (Matthew 26:15)

When Jesus was condemned, Judas felt deep sorrow for what he had done. Some think that Judas believed he was forcing Jesus to reveal Himself as King. But that wasn’t the outcome of his betrayal! Well, actually it was, but not in the way that Judas thought it would happen. It was through death and resurrection that Jesus was revealed as King, not through ascending an earthly throne by military might or miraculous power.

Judas brought the money back to the priests, letting them know that what he had done was wrong, probably hoping they would stop the condemnation of Jesus. (Matthew 27:3) But the priests had already received what they wanted and would have nothing to do with Judas. So he threw the money into the temple. (Matthew 27:5) The priests took the money and bought a potter’s field that would be used to bury strangers. (Matthew 27:7)

And so, even Judas and the priests fulfilled the prophetic word of the Lord. They didn’t scheme to fulfill it, but God used them, even against their own knowledge to demonstrate that He knows the future.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Monday Thought -- April 7, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.” (Zechariah 9:9-10)

The people of Judah were coming back to their land after their captivity in Babylon. They were rebuilding the city of Jerusalem, rebuilding the temple, and reestablishing their nation. God was giving their nation and their land back to them after a period of discipline. But in the midst of the joy of their restoration, God looks beyond it to another day in the future when even greater blessings would come to those who were faithful to Him.

This passage in Zechariah may have had fulfillment in Zechariah’s day, but it was also a prophetic word that would be fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah. Matthew reached back into the words of Zechariah to quote this passage and say it was fulfilled with the coming of Jesus into Jerusalem on the Sunday before His death. (Matthew 21:4) We commemorate that event with Palm Sunday.

The coming of Jesus is something to rejoice about -- to shout about! It is good news. He Himself is righteous, perfect before God and He brings salvation for us, too. He offers the gift of peace to those who will hear Him -- peace with God and peace with the people around them.

The people of Judah in Zechariah's day were entering into a time of peace. But it would be a short-lived time of peace and conflict would again come upon them. But Zechariah looked into the future and spoke of a peace that was coming. It would be a peace that would never be taken away, not for eternity.

That’s the peace that Jesus brought into the world. That’s the peace that we know through Jesus!

His, by Grace,

Steve

Friday Thought -- April 4, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“‘These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,’ declares the LORD.” (Zechariah 8:16-17)

God loves the truth and He wants His children to be known as people of the truth.

The Psalmist called Him the “God of truth.” (Psalm 31:5) Truth is an unchanging characteristic of God. He can tell nothing but the truth. In fact, all three Persons of the Trinity are known for truth. Jesus declared of Himself, “I am the truth.” (John 14:6) John called the Holy Spirit the “Spirit of truth.” (1 John 4:6) There is nothing false in God and He cannot lie.

The devil is the source of lying and lying is one of his most commonly used tools. He is called the “father of lies.” “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)

Therefore, when we tell a lie we are following the example of the devil and rejecting the character of God. God hates lies and calls His children to be people of truth.

In our homes, at our job sites, in the classroom at school, in the neighborhood market, in our emails, on Facebook and everywhere else life takes us should be a place of truth-speaking for us. Others may choose a different path, but God has called us to the path of truth.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Thursday Thought -- April 3, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. ‘When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty.” (Zechariah 7:11-13)

They prayed. They asked for God's help, but it was as if God was deaf. God did not respond to their cry to Him for help. Their prayers went unanswered.

There are a number of reasons for unanswered prayer. Sometimes what we are asking for is not good for us and God, who is a loving Father, will not give us gifts that will hurt us.

Sometimes the timing is wrong, God waits to answer until it is the right time.

Sometimes there are lessons to be learned from a “no” or a “wait” and God will not give us what we ask for because He wants us to learn those lessons.

Sometimes God’s answer is not about us at all, it’s about what God wants to accomplish through us.

And there are times when God does not answer our cries because we have not listened to Him.

The last reason was the case in Zechariah’s day. The people of Judah had ignored God and turned a deaf ear toward what He asked them to do. So, when they cried for help, God turned a deaf ear to them. They were still not of a mind to listen to God, they just wanted Him to listen to them. God was not willing to be their servant, heeding their cry when they ignored His.

God isn’t willing to be our servant, either. His desire is that we listen to His voice and His direction. At times, when we refuse to listen to Him, He refuses to listen to us.

His, by Grace,

Steve

Wednesday Thought -- April 2, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’” (Zechariah 7:9-10)

God wants our relationship with Him to make a difference in how we respond to the people around us.

That principle has been true since the beginning of His interactions with men and remains true today. The problem in Zechariah’s day wasn’t just that the people had forgotten God, but that they also were not treating others in a way that reflected God’s work in their lives.

It doesn’t please God for us to go through religious ceremonies and actions and then cheat the people around us. He wants to see us treat people with justice.

It doesn’t please God for us to sing praise to Him and treat other people with harshness and an uncaring attitude. He wants to see mercy and compassion from us toward others.

It doesn’t please God for us to give to Him and withhold from those in need around us. Hearts changed by God should respond to the needs of those around us.

When God spoke through James about the kind of response to Him that pleases Him, He made the same point as He did through Zechariah: “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1:27)

Does the way you treat the people around you reflect the work of God in your life?

If it doesn’t, there is something wrong in the way you are responding to God!!

His, by Grace,

Steve

Tuesday Thought -- April 1, 2014

Good Morning Friends,

“Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?’” (Zechariah 7:5-6)

Right things can be done for the wrong reasons.

In this passage in Zechariah, the Lord challenged His people to examine the motives behind their religious actions. They fasted regularly and feasted according to what the Law commanded. The question the Lord asked was whether they doing those things with the right heart and thought. Were they fasting and feasting for the Lord – or for themselves?

We can ask yourself the same question about the “religious” things we do.

We go to church. We pray. We read the Bible. We attend small Bible study groups. All of those are good things. All of those are things that please the Lord and that He wants us to do. All of those things can be done for right reasons and with right motives. They can be done for the Lord and express hearts of love and gratitude toward Him. All of those things can also be done for wrong reasons and with the wrong thoughts and motives behind them. They can all be done simply out of duty or out of the hope of reward that will come because we do them or out of some other motive that doesn’t reflect a true heart devotion to the Lord.

God’s challenge to all of us is to examine our hearts. He encourages us to evaluate our thoughts and motives.  Even good things are meaningless when done for wrong reasons.

His, by Grace,

Steve