Life At The Ridge

Have you ever been discouraged? The people during Haggai's day had found themselves discouraged in the attempt to rebuild the temple. God gives Haggai another message to encourage the people to continue to accomplish the task He has instructed them to accomplish.

Haggai confronts the remnant that has returned from Babylon about not rebuilding the Temple. His message is a simple one, "Put God first".

The book of Mark is a fantastical book. The Gospel of Mark records many aspects of Jesus’ ministry, but it has no account of his birth. This gospel begins when Jesus is already an adult. Mark portrays Jesus as the suffering servant. As you read through Marks Gospel you see the actions of Jesus. Jesus is constantly on the move. Mark focuses on those actions and shows Jesus as a servant, performing miracles, and that he was crucified and resurrected.

What is the purpose of fasting? How will we know if we are fasting correctly? What does Jesus teach us about fasting?

What does a true fast look like? What will fasting actually accomplish? What kind of fast does the Lord desire?

Jesus gives us some very important instructions on what to do when we fast.

What is fasting and why should we practice it? Why isn't fasting something that as believers we don't do? God's Word has quite a bit to say on this amazing Christian devotion.

Why did God choose to have the events unfold the way they did on that early Sunday morning? Why tell the resurrection story the way that it’s recorded for us in the Gospel accounts?

As we read of Christ's entrance into Jerusalem on what is known as Palm Sunday we encounter three different groups of people in the crowd. Jesus came as the King but do we accept Him as such?

In the garden Jesus prays to His Father. He tells His disciples that they need to keep watch.

What do grapes have to do with our Lord's passion? These were some of his list intimate words our Lord spoke with His disciples the night before His crucifixion and death.

Christ's passion is set before us in these 10 verses. This is the last week of his life. The cross is now imminent, perhaps three days away. Everything is coming to a close. There are 4 word’s that will help us capture his passion as Christ is exalted and lifted up.

This is our last message out of Malachi. So far we’ve seen God exposing and confronting the apathetic, insincere and loveless worship of his people. Today you will see a difference. What Malachi will be focusing on here in his last message is all about the second coming of Christ.

God's people had become spiritually apathetic. Their response to God's indictments was "we're fine" "no problem here". God shows them ways to reveal to the people that they had become spiritually apathetic.

"God you delight in evil!" "Where is the God of justice?" Israel was saying all the wrong things about who God was and in turn God told them through Malachi that their words were wearisome to Him. Their words revealed a deeper problem and that was their hypocrisy. Is there any hope? Yes through God's messenger who will come.

Are we faithful in our relationships? How will we know if we are? Malachi addresses the peoples faithless relationships and shows them the sin that they had committed against each other but ultimately God.

God's disgust with the way His people were worshiping Him, was in direct connection with the priests. The priests were not leading the people spiritually and with integrity. Today the church is to be led by godly spiritual men and there are some very good reminders here out of Malachi that can help the church know how the spiritual leaders should be leading.

The priests were allowing the people to bring polluted sacrifices for worship. God was very displeased in their worship. Their response was "How have we despised you?" In essence their sacrifices they were using was a reflection of what they thought of God. They had lost respect for God.

Malachi's message to God's people was how they had grown cold to God's love.

What message does the book of Malachi have for us who live in 2024? Surprisingly his message is very applicable for us who know Christ. This is an introduction to the book of Malachi.