Proverbs 25:6-10 Be careful who you quote and to whom. Watch out, don't be too presumptuous in social settings.

Priorities and a purse with holes

(Haggai 1.5-7)

"Give careful thought to your ways." Since verses 5 and 7 both say the same thing, what must that mean as to the importance of verse 6?!

I see this as a pretty accurate reflection of the dissatisfaction in our current society. Nothing really satisfies for very long. There seems to be an insatiable desire and unquenchable thirst for more...

I've never in my 37 years of ministry seen so many adrenalin junkies and consumer addicts as I see and know today.

Last Friday the report came out that consumerism is 70% of the United States' total economy! How incredible!

It's no wonder that we have such an out of balance trade deficit. We have a society that is more concerned with what they can get than what they can produce. We want it cheap then complain when the quality isn't there.

No wonder we have problems with lead-painted toys and flammable children's bedding and apparel.

What is the real problem? We aren't taking care of basics in our individual lives and in our own society. Our priorities are all messed up.

It is a "me" driven society. It's all about what I think that I deserve or think that I need. The priorities that God has laid out for mankind are not part of our national or personal psyche.

Those God-mandated priorities aren't even part of the western civilization Christian church psyche or philosophy.

Churches here in the U.S. are more concerned with their tax exempt status than they are with meeting the needs within their own communities. When Haggai warns people about the inattention being paid to "God's house" he is referring to all that was involved in "God's house" being intact...the food coming from the altar preparations that fed the poor, the festivals that lifted burdened hearts, the prayers that ministered to suffering souls, and the Word that lifted spirits - filling people with hope for the future. [I would also suggest that the actual building of the temple provided a public works project that had tremendous emotional, psychological and financial benefit to the people involved. That was proven by public works projects back in the FDR era all across America.]

Haggai wasn't calling people to build the 'first church of vaudeville.' Nor was he issuing a call to build some multi-tens-of-millions of dollars of church complex that is off the tax rolls.

Haggai was calling people to God's purposes by focusing on a large project that required individual sacrifice; and in the process - met needs of humanity.

Ps. I made a little pilgrimage to the county assessor's office a couple of weeks ago to find out about how much tax would have been assessed on our church property had it been commercial and not a church (reappraisals have raised the values of property considerably). We use that figure as a base (minimum) for the amount of money we put into our local community's efforts for the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.

I believe that is the least that we can do in meeting the expectations that God has for us! A church should NEVER be a drain on the community in any way. If a church doesn't in some tangible way replace the money taken off the tax roles by its non-profit status, it is literally a drain on the community's resources.