Hands to the Plow

"But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy"- Ezra 3:12 (NIV).   

Their weeping was not tears of joys. Letting go of the past is hard, painful. Why do we cling to past memories, like these older Israelites did to the former magnificence of the destroyed temple Solomon had built? Each day, the Eternal clock clicks down 24 more hours until Christ's Kingdom comes. Jesus said, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God" (Luke 9:62). Your movement should be forward; not backward or standing still! Paul, formerly Saul, knew he hadn't yet reached that point, when he wrote the church of Philippi, but he was determined to press on, reaching forward, to take hold of that which Christ Jesus took hold of him (Philippians 3:12). Roots of bitterness spring up and cause trouble, and by it many become defiled...unfit (Hebrews 12:15). Don't look back. You may loose your equilibrium and fall, or make someone else fall, in the race set before you (Hebrews 12:1). Hands to the plow!