AWAKE BIBLE IN A YEAR SEPTEMBER 25
Read Malachi 1-4, Psalm 50
“I have loved you,” says the Lord. Malachi 1:1
Real love confronts. As we read the whole book of Malachi, it’s clear God, out of love is speaking direct.
Malachi 1:11 is our reminder to take time to pray, in every nation, in every place.
Regifting an unwanted item is not a sacrifice. This is like what they were doing, and God was not having it.
God is talking about his altar, having real fire on it not useless fire. Useless means wasted money and time. Have you ever wasted someone’s time or money or perhaps both? The priests who error and lead God’s people to error are wasting God’s time and stealing God’s money. And the problem doesn’t end in the day of Malachi. Jesus will enter the temple and confront the religious. He makes a whip and our “John 3:16 gift”—the one who will love us enough to die for us, says a hard truth— my fathers house will be called a house of prayer you’ve made it a den of robbers. LUKE 19:46 This sounds a lot like Malachi 3:8, will a man rob God? You have robbed me. Over correct and you end in the other ditch. Exacting and profiting from sin, is just as wrong as offering God lamé sacrifices. See what I did there? Lame as in defects and sick animals. Ones you can’t even sell.
This same Jesus of Nazareth has an entire chapter in Matthew 23 full of warnings against hypocrisy. God’s mood hasn’t changed.
“Return to Me, and I will return to you.” (Malachi 3:7) This should bring encouragement, because it means at any point in time anyone can choose to come to God. You don’t have to wait.
PRAYER IS OPEN. I dare ya to send one up, under 10 seconds, but you have to mean it, God if you are real, make yourself known to me.
God will do it. Malachi 4:6 is the last verse of the Old Testament and it is much like Luke 15:11-32. A prodigal son who has wasted his father’s money and time, comes to his senses and is reunited and restored to his father not as a servant but as a SON. And the father, unchanging says, “I have loved you.”
