Mind of the Missionary
August 2020
“In the very first month of the first year of his reign, Hezekiah reopened the doors of the Temple of the Lord and repaired them… So the Temple of the Lord was restored to service. And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because of what God had done for the people, for everything had been accomplished so quickly.” (II Chronicles 29:3,35-36 NLT)
Hezekiah’s father was King Ahaz one of the wickedest kings that ever served in the history of Israel. His life was a disaster from the decisions he made like the closing of the Temple to his placing of altars to foreign gods on every street corner in Jerusalem. This was Hezekiah’s inheritance. One even wonders how he had the sense to reopen the doors of the Temple of the Lord and seek Him.
I notice four key words in these passages: reopen, repair, restore, and rejoice. They seem like great words of hope that I believe can be used in our lives today. However, these actions must be used in this order. We are being told that our businesses, our schools, our churches, even our minds must be reopened. Why must these be reopened? Are they to be reopened just for the sake of reopening? No, they are to be reopened to lead us to the point of rejoicing for what God has done.
As you read II Chronicles 29, notice the amount of hard work in the repair and the restoration of the Temple which took place before the rejoicing of the people occurred. Many times whether it is our businesses, schools, churches, lives, etc…, we are willing to reopen, but we are not willing to do the work of repair and restoration necessary to bring about the rejoicing of all the people.
It reminds of Jesus’ statement on counting the cost, “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?…Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14.28,33) Repairing and restoration must be an essential part of our reopening our churches and our lives. We must allow Christ to do his work in our churches and in us. If not, both will suffer dramatically.
The same is true for our present society. Reparation and restoration must be sought if our nation can be healed. It is our responsibility as Christ’s followers to lead that fight. We cannot shrink away from our responsibility. However, many times, we have not counted the cost. To repair and restore our communities and our nation, we, as believers, must do more than stand up, we must do the tedious work of reparation and restoration.
Let us begin asking ourselves the hard questions: Are we, the church, doing all we can to mend our communities? Are we, the church, getting our hands dirty or are we running in fear from the difficulties that our communities are facing? I remember the history of our past where Christians went where the bubonic plague ran rampant, where leprosy overtook societies, and where the Spanish flu hit the hardest. We, the church, must step in to reopen, repair, and restore, so that all the people will “ rejoice because of what God has done.”
Until next month,
Bro. Lyle