Church attendance is infected with a malaise of conditional loyalty which has produced an army of ecclesiastical hitchhikers. The hitchhiker's thumb says, 'You buy the car, pay for repairs and upkeep and insurance, fill the car with gas – and I'll ride with you. But if you have an accident, you are on your own! And I'll probably sue.' So it is with the credo of so many of today's church attenders: 'You go to the meetings and serve on the boards and committees, you grapple with the issues and do the work of the church and pay the bills – and I'll come along for the ride. But if things do not suit me, I'll complain and probably bail out-my thumb is always out for a better ride.'
Kent Hughes

Bible – English_World – Zechariah Chapter 2:1-13.

Index: World English Bible

 

Zechariah 2

[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14]

2:1 I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and, behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand.

2:2 Then I asked, “Where are you going?” He said to me, “To measure Jerusalem, to see what is its breadth and what is its length.”

2:3 Behold, the angel who talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him,

2:4 and said to him, “Run, speak to this young man, saying, ‘Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it.

2:5 For I,’ says Yahweh, ‘will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.

2:6 Come! Come! Flee from the land of the north,’ says Yahweh; ‘for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the sky,’ says Yahweh.

2:7 ‘Come, Zion! Escape, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon.’

2:8 For thus says Yahweh of hosts: ‘For honor he has sent me to the nations which plundered you; for he who touches you touches the apple of his eye.

2:9 For, behold, I will shake my hand over them, and they will be a spoil to those who served them; and you will know that Yahweh of Hosts has sent me.

2:10 Sing and rejoice, daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in the midst of you,’ says Yahweh.

2:11 Many nations shall join themselves to Yahweh in that day, and shall be my people; and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that Yahweh of Hosts has sent me to you.

2:12 Yahweh will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land, and will again choose Jerusalem.

2:13 Be silent, all flesh, before Yahweh; for he has roused himself from his holy habitation!”