Tag: Restoration

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Restoration – The Messenger of Jesus

 “I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.But who can endure the day of his coming?… For he will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. Malachi 3:1-2

We will conclude our story of scripture here, with the last book of the Old Testament. The book of Malachi was written sometime after both the temple and the Jerusalem walls had been rebuilt. Though the city and sanctuary were now in functioning order, the people of Jerusalem still yearned for the glory days when they had their own king ruling over them, if those days were any good, to begin with. Things just weren’t what they could be. The Jews longed for a Messiah, a rescuer, someone who could make their world whole.

God speaks through the Prophet Malachi to announce to the people that the “messenger of the covenant”, the Lord whom they desire, is on the way. In fact, the name Malachi means “messenger.”

The prophet announces that there is someone coming who will refine people’s hearts like fire and wash people of sin like strong soap. How will they know when he’s about to arrive? God will send a messenger ahead to prepare the way. The next chapter says that God will specifically send the prophet Elijah. You might remember that Elijah was the guy who called down fire on an altar way back when the kings were still ruling Israel.

When we turn the page from the Old Testament to the New Testament, we find out the identity of these two mysterious figures. The messenger preparing the way is John the Baptist, and the Lord who will refine and wash us clean is Jesus of Nazareth. The story of Scripture has led up to this son of a poor carpenter from a small town in Galilee. He is not rich or royal, but he is the Son of the living God, Emmanuel, God with us. He is slow to anger, abounding in love, champion of the poor, king of heaven, model of humility, savior of all humankind.

As we conclude this devotional series, could you tell someone the story of Scripture? Could you tell someone the story of Jesus Christ? Like the women returning from the tomb on Easter morning, will you be God’s messenger?

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Restoration – Milestones of Faith

With praise and thanksgiving, they sang to the Lord “He is good; his love toward Israel endures forever.” And all the people gave a great shout of praise to the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But many… who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.  Ezra 3:11

The Temple is being rebuilt. It is literally a dream come true. People are shouting and singing and playing music. They’ve traveled from foreign lands to resurrect the community of God from ashes and rubble. It should be the happiest day of these people’s lives. Yet, when the foundation is laid, some of the older members present begin to cry. Why? Are they happy tears because things are finally getting made right again? Or are they genuinely sad? Overcome with emotion because the old temple is never coming back? It’s difficult to say exactly why these people are weeping, but we can at least say that this is an emotional day for everyone.

Emotions have an important place in our faith journey. Sometimes we find ourselves riding an emotional high after worship. Perhaps we find ourselves convicted and ready to join a noble cause after hearing someone’s testimony. Maybe you’ve caught yourself crying while sharing your own experiences at camp or on retreat.

Emotions are a gift from God that help reinforce our spiritual experience, but it’s important that we do not mistake our emotions for real, solid, faith. The Jews have worked so incredibly hard to follow God’s call in rebuilding the temple. The crazy part is, they have only just started. This is just the groundbreaking ceremony. There are years of work still ahead of them, and they will face all kinds of challenges to get the job done.

The Christian journey is like building a temple. It takes a long time and a lot of hard work. There will be many emotional milestones to encourage us along the way. May we celebrate and give thanks for the joyful milestones in our own faith journey, but never lose sight of our goal in Christ.

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Restoration – Ezra and the Temple

In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and also to put it in writing:  The Lord, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Ezra 1:1

In the British Museum, there’s a small stone artifact roughly the shape of a glass Coca-Cola bottle. It’s called The Cyrus Cylinder, and it is one of the few instances we have specific archeological evidence for something that happened in the Bible. The Cylinder is inscribed with an account from Cyrus, King of Persia, which is modern day Iran. It explains that the king spent time and money to restore many temples in the empire, especially ones that the Babylonians destroyed. This included building a new temple in Jerusalem.

The way the Book of Ezra tells the story, Cyrus makes the decision to organize the rebuilding of the temple after God stirs up his heart. It is God who works through this powerful foreign king to restore the sanctuary in Jerusalem, and Jews from all over will be called together to get the job done. God has a habit of stirring up hearts, and it’s our job to work together to get the job done.

One day, God stirred up the heart of UMC minister Rev. Brian Combs with the words from a poor man in his ministry. “The shelter lets out early in the morning and I’m on lockout until afternoon,” the man said. “In the park, there’s a chance of arrest; in the library a chance of getting kicked out, and middle of the day and middle of the week is when I struggle with addiction the most.  I’d rather hear the Good News than get high.”  Brian decided to do something about that, so he founded a church which meets at 12:30 PM on Wednesdays.

Rev. Brian and King Cyrus were both moved by the Holy Spirit to do the work of God. They had their hearts stirred, and they followed through with commitment and action. May God move our hearts to do God’s will and may our hands and our feet follow.