Thus says the Lord of hosts, Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in our heart. But they refused to pay attention and turned a stubborn shoulder and stopped their ears that they might not hear. They made their hearts diamond-hard lest they should hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent by his Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore great anger came from the Lord of hosts. —Zechariah 7:9-12 Years ago I was taking out a pine tree stump in…

…clothed with filthy garments… “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments.” —Zechariah: 3:3-4 Picture yourself out in public or maybe at some special event. You have been there for quite some time before you realize your white clothes have large ink spots on them in various and obvious places. Now picture someone coming to you with a change of new clean clothes. How grateful would you be? In the context of the verses above, Joshua the high priest is having his filthy sin garments removed and then is being…

YOUR ARE THE APPLE OF GOD’S EYE! …he who touches you touches the apple of his eye… —Zechariah 2:8 I was working in a flower garden one day and as I bent down to pick up some weeds a dry flower stalk stuck me in the eye. Immediately I thought it pierced my eye and I could not see because my eye was watering so profusely. And wouldn’t you know it, this was my good eye. If I lost sight in it then I would be legally blind. I was very concerned and asked the Lord for help and protection in this situation. I walked to a neighbor next to…

In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? Now, therefore, thus says…

…discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose… –Ezra 4:4-5 Tim Stanley writes: The religious persecution in Iraq has seen one of the most vibrant Middle East Christian communities almost wiped out – forced to covert, driven from their homes or murdered. Conditions deteriorated after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, improved a little with the US-led surge in 2007 and now, with the advance of Isis, has descended to what might be described as genocide. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/11000168/Iraqs-persecuted-Assyrian-Christians-are-in-limbo.html There are those who are out to frustrate the purposes of God’s people and they will use fear and discouragement to accomplish…

And all the people shouted with a great shout when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many of the priests and Levites and heads of fathers’ houses, old men who had seen the first house, wept with a loud voice when they saw the foundation of this house being laid, though many shouted aloud for joy, so that the people could not distinguish the sound of the joyful shout from the sound of the people’s weeping, for the people shouted with a great shout, and the sound was heard far away. —Ezra 3:11-13 Remember the “good ole days?” Now, what…

…the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia… —Ezra 1:1 C’mon, the sun is up, the day has started, let’s get going. “Ooooh is it time to get up already?” came the reply. He was stirred and now his feet hit the floor, ready to start the day. It is interesting how the Lord stirs people of all types and backgrounds to do His will. In the above verse the Lord stirred up King Cyrus to allow the Israelites to return to their homeland which was foretold by the prophet Jeremiah. “The king’s heart is like a stream of water directed by the LORD; he guides it…

Should not shepherds feed the sheep? … you do not feed the sheep … the strayed you have not brought back …the lost you have not sought … My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. —Ezekiel 34:2-6 If you lost $1000, would you seek for it? How about if you lost $10, would you seek for that? If we misplace something or something we value is lost, then we seek it out. How many of us have looked for lost keys to the car, a lost wallet with all the valuable information in it or something else that…

Our ancestors sinned and are no more, and we bear their punishment. —Lamentations 5:7 Does our generation largely have the attitude that it is OK to economically enslave the future generations with our irresponsible spending? That was the mindset of King Hezekiah. He thought it was OK that hard times would be on the future generation as long as peace and security existed in his life-time. “Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord Almighty: The time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your predecessors have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left, says…

My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray… —Jeremiah 50:6 Unfortunately they were not reading the compass correctly and were leading the whole group in the wrong direction. Fortunately they caught their mistake and headed in the right direction to find the next point in the compass course. They found the next point and finished the course, but they lost time with their error. In Jeremiah’s day the shepherds were leading God’s people astray and the people were like lost sheep. Some things do not change. In our day, in America, there are shepherds that are leading people astray. They call themselves “spiritual leaders” but they…