Monday, June 21, 2021

When a Verse Hits You in Your Conscience

 Every Christian can probably relate to the title. It either happens when you're sitting through a sermon or teaching and feel like the words are directed right at you. Or, as in my case this morning, you're reading a chapter and some verses jump right off the page and slap you on your conscience. Yeah.


My Bible reading was the book of  Haggai. I won't be longwinded about it but these are the verses and the corresponding bits of commentary added for 1:9

Hag 1:6  You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. (ESV)

BTW, I had just finished browsing the Prime deals on Amazon that day... The verse made me consider my chasing after material things that aren't necessary for my daily living needs. Then I kept reading and got to verse 9.

Hag 1:9  You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the LORD of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house. (ESV)

Haggai 1:9 (commentary from John Gill):

... and ye run every man unto his own house; were very eager, earnest, and diligent, in building, beautifying, and adorning their own houses; taking care of their own domestic affairs; sparing no cost nor pains to promote their own secular interest; running in all haste to do any thing and everything to increase their worldly substance; but sat still, were idle and slothful, careless and negligent, about the house of God and the affairs of it.

Wow, right? Did that one hit you too? All I could think about was how I worry so much about how nice my own living space looks when I maybe don't worry enough about how the inside of my heart and mind - the temple that is me and my body looks.

Anyway. I just wanted to share that with the blog. Maybe someone needs to see it and think on it. I know I did.

Peace

--Free


P.S.: By the way, I copied the commentary that I use when reading the Bible via eSword. It's very useful to have the commentaries, dictionaries, etc right at hand while doing my Bible study. Here are shots of another feature of eSword - the Summarized Bible commentary:




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