I want to encourage as many people as possible reading this message, do not give up in serving God. Pay no attention to the wickedness of the people around you to the point of copying them or giving up hope. Do not try to blend with system of the world and at the end, you will be rewarded for staying faithful.
Fortunately for Mary, the four canonical books of the Gospel still managed to retain some of her stories which revealed the crucial roles she played in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Her story and the empty tomb gave the whole world irrefutable evidence to prove that Jesus Christ resurrected.
The point is, if Mary’s sins did not prevent Jesus from accepting her, who are we to challenge that position? If Christ Jesus deemed it fit to make her worthy, who are we to cast her aside?
Remember, the Lord is closer to the broken-hearted and much is forgiven anyone who is contrite in the spirit. Mary may have not been a perfect person, but she was contrite in the heart and she was favoured by the Lord.
Pay attention to this please: The Purifier was not coming to pamper or flatter these Priests. Rather, His mission was to refine them and make them a better vessel that could be used by God so they would stop embarrassing God here and there.
But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly!
And there is still much more to say of His unfailing love for us! For through the blood of Jesus we have heard the powerful declaration, “You are now righteous in my sight.” And because of the sacrifice of Jesus, you will never experience the wrath of God. Romans 5:8-9 (The Passion Translation).
He was instructed to make an elaborate crown and set it on the head of Joshua, the high priest.
This sounds odd as it is odd to crown a priest as king and vice versa.
As a matter of fact, the king that tried to function as a priest in the bible was stricken with leprosy according to 2 Chronicles 26. This happened because fundamentally speaking, there was a clear dichotomy between the responsibilities of a king (political) and a priest (spiritual) in the land of Israel.
In fact, it would have made more sense humanly speaking if it were to be Zerubbabel (the governor) who was nominated to be crowned the king instead of Joshua the high priest.
However, looking at that statement figuratively…
“You will succeed, not by military might or by your own strength, but by my spirit. 7Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you. You will rebuild the Temple, and as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout, ‘Beautiful, beautiful!’”
“Return to me, and I will return to you. Do not be like your ancestors. Long ago the prophets gave them my message, telling them not to live evil, sinful lives any longer. But they would not listen to me or obey me. Your ancestors and those prophets are no longer alive.”
Around 538 B.C. it was Cyrus, the King of Persia that issued a decree which allowed the exiled Jews to return to Jerusalem after 70 years in captivity (Remember Isaiah already prophesied about this more than 100 years before Cyrus was born) Read Isaiah 44:28 and 45:1-end. Two years later (536 BC), they began the rebuilding of the temple, which was led by Zerubbabel. Two years into the construction work (around 534 BC), the work stopped and was neglected for about fourteen years.
Again, it is a time of the year where it is impossible to forget the very popular festive season called Christmas. We have been seeing a lot of ads on the TVs, in the shops, on the radio and we read about it in magazines and newspapers, but the question is: what is Christmas all about?
Yes, our God is a merciful God, generous and caring, but then, whenever He warns us of evil, we must not ignore His warnings so as not to face terrible consequences. To register these warnings in the heart of the people, that was why the prophet repeatedly mentioned the Day of the Lord and all the things that would happen on that day.