Spring Forward

Our hope and prayer is that you have set your clock forward to make it to church on time.  By the surety of progress, times change and by government mandate the time changes in most of the country twice a year.  Time, it is said, waits for no man.  The only defense is to be prepared when it is time to do what must be done no matter what changes.  Let’s talk about that…

“And the elders  of the Jews builded, and they prospered through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo.  And they builded, and finished it, according to the commandment of the God of Israel…” Ezra 6:22

There was a time when things were going well.  Everything seemed to be clicking along with nothing but favor and fortune to match a bright future.  Then, one day something happened.  Someone said something.  Someone did something.  Then everything stopped right where it was and stopped moving.  One accusation from an adversary, one attack from someone who approached as a friend but then flanked like the enemy they turned out to be, and everything that was going so well stopped going at all.  Sound familiar?  I don’t know anyone besides myself that I’m preaching to today but I believe the Lord has a word for us in His Word.

The Israelite remnant found themselves under progressive attack from the Samaritan adversaries that reached all the way to the throne rooms of Assyria and Babylon.  By force and power (Ezra 4:23) the work on re-building the Temple was stopped.  Fourteen years went by and nothing had happened.  [SIDE-NOTE:  “14” is the biblical number of deliverance or salvation.  14 generations from Abraham to David.  14 generations from David to the carrying away unto Babylon, then, 14 generations to Christ.  “Biblical Mathematics” by the late Evangelist Dr. Ed. F. Vallowe].  By the means of preaching from two leather lunged, railroad-tie-backboned, original manuscript preachers named Haggai and Zechariah, Zerubbabel, all the prophets and all the people stopped listening to what the adversaries said was over and started listening to God say It Is Time To Finish What I Told You To Start!

Their deliverance came when they stopped taking orders from the adversary and obeyed the instructions of their Master.  In Haggai 1:2 the prophet said This people say, The time is not yet come, the time that the Lord’s house should be built.  They were operating in fear.  YOU CANNOT FEAR YOUR WAY THROUGH LIFE AND EXPECT TO ENJOY WHAT GOD COULD BE DOING TO YOU, THROUGH YOU, AND FOR YOU!!  (Preacher voice).  It is time for us to stop listening to what cannot be done, why it cannot be done, and who cannot do it and Spring Forward toward an hour that we can finish what God has started in us.  It is time to finish that book!  It is time to go to the mission field! It is time to build that church house!  It is time to witness to your lost family, friends and neighbors!  It is time to Spring Forward!

In Proverbs 22 the do nothing, procrastinating, paralyzed in fear, excuse making child of God says The lion is outside the door!  The worst case scenario rarely happens and usually it does not happen to you or me.  Can the farmer stop because it might rain?  Do  athletes stop training because they might get sore?  Does the dairy farmer sleep in because milking cows is hard?  Does the passionate teacher stop because kids now-a-days…

What is hindering you and me from Springing Forward into what we are supposed to do for the Lord?  Who are we taking orders from.  Did God say stop?  If not, Spring Forward!  It is time.

We Love You,

BroAdamB

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