Day 265, or September the 22nd. Why not give
it one more go? Our thoughts today are rooted
in Zechariah chapter 2, verse 13. Be still before
the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused
himself from his holy dwelling. Now the big picture
surrounding this verse. The book of Zechariah
is one of the longer minor prophets, and was
written with two major aims. Firstly, Zechariah
uses just over half of it to encourage those
who have returned from exile to keep the faith
and rebuild the temple. His second emphasis came
after the temple was completed, and he enthuses
his hearers with the beautiful hope of the coming
Messiah. Zechariah was a very popular name amongst
the Jews. It meant God remembers, and the prophet
of that name would remind the people of this
fact every time they spoke his name. God remembers.
Zechariah was a younger contemporary of the older
Haggai, but unlike Haggai, who exhorts the people
with strong words of rebuke, Zechariah gently
encourages them with a vision of Messiah coming
when it is finished. In short, of course we need
to get the temple finished first, so let's get
to it, and then Messiah will come. And now today's
action step. I believe our churches are not as
full as they could be, despite God making the
first move, which he did with Abraham in Genesis.
all the way through the whole of the Bible, and
indeed the whole of history after that. People
are put off so easily. I remember talking to
a man who didn't go to church because he couldn't
sing. I spoke with another who told me that he
had tried church once but didn't like it. I asked
him how many times he had tried smoking and drinking
beer before he liked them, and he had to confess
it was many times. No matter how many times you
may have failed in the past, why not try again
today? Why not make today the day, with the help
of the Holy Spirit, when we take a step, large
or small, along the path that God has for us?
You'll never regret it.