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T O D A Y    G O D    I S    F I R S T
                  Marketplace Meditations
                       by Os Hillman

Paneled Houses

"Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled
houses, while this house remains a ruin?"
- (Haggai 1:4)


There is a crisis of grand proportions in the spiritual house of
God today. The moral fiber of our world has eroded. Greed,
idolatry, and pleasure are the gods of our day. And it is no
different in the Body of Christ.

The prophet Haggai wrote about a people who had lost concern for
the need to build God's house because they were so focused on
their own worldly needs. It is a dangerous place to get with God.
When our world begins to focus around increasing our pleasure,
building bigger and better homes, and failing to make what is
important to God important in our own lives, this should be a
warning to us.

Jesus entered the temple area and drove out all who were buying
and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers
and the benches of those selling doves. "It is written," He said
to them, " 'My house will be called a house of prayer,' but you
are making it a 'den of robbers' " (Matthew. 21:12-13).

Jesus came into Jerusalem and found the businesspeople buying and
selling in the temple. As far as they knew, this was an
acceptable practice in their day. Their fathers did it, and now
they were doing it. It was business as usual. Jesus got angry,
turned over the tables, and said that His house was a house of
prayer. He found the businesspeople of the day seeing His house
as a place for profit, not prayer. They had stepped into a place
of complacency that was not acceptable to the Lord. When we begin
to blend in with the moral condition of an ungodly world, we
begin losing God's perspective on life.

It is easy to begin blending in with our culture and to accept
what is being modeled by the ungodly. God called us to be salt in
a world that needs much salt. "You are the salt of the earth. But
if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and
trampled by men" (Mt. 5:13). Each of us must ask ourselves if we
have lost our salt. Are we having an impact on our world? Or is
our world having an impact on us? Ask God to give you a vision
for how you can be salt to your world today.




Published and distributed by Crosswalk.com, this daily devotional is
written by Os Hillman (os@marketplaceleaders.org).  Os is president of
Marketplace Leaders, an Atlanta based ministry teaching Biblical
principles for career and business success.  He offers a FREE newsletter
and other resources at:
http://www.marketplaceleaders.org

Order "TGIF: Today God I s  First" - 365 daily meditations to motivate
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Mail: 3520 Habersham Club Drive, Cumming, Georgia 30041 USA.


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