We have been studying the book of Haggai the past several weeks at the church we are attending down here.  (Haggai is three books in from the end of the OT - it's only two chapters - so don't miss it)

This week the text was Haggai 2:15-19, which has the Lord saying to the people (in my own paraphrase), "Remember when you were hardheaded and wouldn't listen to me?  Remember how difficult it was to live when you were living contrary to the way I designed you to live?  Take a look around now that you have been following me, are things any better yet?"  And the people have to reply that yes they remember how they were hard headed and turned away from the way the Lord had chosen for them.  And no, even though they were now turning back to the Lord things weren't better, there was still a lot of hardship and some of that stuff from the past just kept hanging with them.  And God says in Haggai 2:19 "Consider very carefully.  Remember this day.  From this day on I will bless you."

That is the way God works.  Just because he wants to, He will bless you.  It's called grace.  God's unearned favor.  And He pours it out upon fully and richly in His son Jesus. 

For a reason I still am thinking through, I experienced an overwhelming sense of God's grace during that worship service.  I felt as though I was freed of some stuff that had been weighing me down. 

The previous weekend I was back at the church where I was formerly pastor.  And I had the opportunity to speak to the congregation and just lay it out there that upon further thought and reflection I could have and should have left under different circumstances and in a better manner.  And I asked for forgiveness.  And I felt free.   I didn't even realize it, but I felt so guilty about leaving the way I did.  I tried to rationalize it in many different ways.  But in the end, just dealing with that guilt by confessing was so freeing.  The grace poured out upon me by the people who I once served as the steward of God's grace in Christ was so amazing.

And then a week later back in Texas, this passage from Haggai said to me "Consider carefully how it was before you confessed this and dealt with it.  You were worried about things, you felt bad, your house was going nowhere, your best efforts to sell it were hitting a wall.  Consider carefully.  You went and openly dealt with it.  You received forgiveness.  I allowed an offer to come in on your house the very next day." 

I can't say it definitively, but I think there is a definite correlation between the two.  God loosed me and he loosed that house.  And I am humbled by His grace shown me so frequently so many times and in so many ways.

May you experience His grace in a new way in your life as you seek to follow Him in every area of your life too (see Haggai 2:10-14 - which has enough that it requires a whole nother post some other time).

Shalom leka, (Peace to You)

Rich for the rest of the Rudowske Crew