Doug Van Pelt

The Lord's House?

Often times, when I read Scripture, I ask myself, 'How can this apply to my life?' This is a good motivation, but it cannot cloud my study of the Bible. For instance, the battles in the Word, the chopping up of a murder victim into 12 pieces -- one for each tribe of Israel... Stuff like that. The "application" might be to learn a lesson, see what God was teaching His people from a big perspective, not the details of some violent act or ceremonial law.

Such is the case when I read the first chapter in Haggai. The Lord's "House," or temple, is in ruins, and His people have said, "The time has not yet come for the Lord's house to be built." God was not pleased with their actions and attitude. He says: "Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?" We've probably heard the story before. What's interesting is what the Lord says next:

"Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.' This is what the Lord Almighty says: 'Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build the house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored.' says the Lord. 'You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?' declares the Lord Almighty. 'Because of My house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with his own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the oil and whatever the ground produces, on men and cattle, and on the labor of your hands.'"

Wow.
I want to 'give careful thought to my ways,' if for no other reason than to just walk humbly with God. I don't want to get distracted and find myself doing something useless. But I also want to give careful thought to my ways because I feel like this sometimes -- like my work is not producing enough fruit, like my wages are going into a purse with holes in it. I have long felt like HM Magazine should have grown or be growing much faster and bigger than it has. We work very hard here and it sometimes seems like a little gain here (like getting a new advertising client aboard) is met with a little loss there (like a different client going out of business or a big retail chain ceasing to carry our magazine). It is frustrating to feel like we are taking one step forward and two steps back. I wish I knew what I was doing wrong. I listen to suggestions, but nothing seems to hit the mark. I look at a passage like this and wonder, 'Is there a temple I need to be building, or something? Is God wanting me to focus on something that I'm ignoring, and thus He's holding back His blessings?'

Again, this may not be the purpose of this passage of Scripture. Sometimes there are words that are, like "WORDS" that have an immediate, personal application, like a little miracle or "word of knowledge." But sometimes the right thing is to learn a lesson from Scripture and the personal application is just knowing more about God, His Word, and growing in wisdom.

But I'll be honest, these are questions I have about HM Magazine. If the Christian music scene is growing in numbers, why aren't HM's numbers growing? Sometimes God seems to step in and bless us with growth here and growth there, but it sure seems like we could have 30,000 subscribers instead of 4,500. It seems like we could sell 15,000 on newsstands, instead of 9 or 10,000. This is something I have to give careful thought to, as well. 'How to make HM Magazine grow.'

I will press on, seek the Lord, and continue doing what I know I should be doing, and perhaps a breakthrough will come. It seems kind of convenient, sometimes, how God's people had prophets that explained what was wrong or missing in their live context...in "real time."

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at September 15, 2005 09:14 AM