Malachi's Call: Will a Man Rob God?

The message of Malachi, or indeed the message of all the prophets, has been a plea for the people of Israel to turn back to God. However, here the people actually ask in Malachi chapter 3, "How shall we return?" (3:7b) and Malachi answers them.

As is the case in many other times in scripture, God responds through Malachi with a question of His own: "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me." (3:8a) As it seems, the priests of that age thought they were pretty righteous before God, because they even asked God what he meant. Now God answers them directly, and tells them that they are cursed because of their tithes (or lack thereof).

That (like many topics in Malachi) really got me thinking. Can a man rob God? When we as Christians earn money, do we rob God when we don't give a tenth of it to Him? Yet God told the people of Israel that they robbed Him through their lack of tithes. Then God makes an awesome statement in verse 10:

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.

Side note -> You know how Jesus told Satan "Do not test the Lord your God"? (Matthew 4:7) As it turns out, this is the only place in all of scripture where God says "test me."

It's like He's saying "look, I know you don't always feel comfortable giving a tithe of what you earn, but I dare you to test me, and see that I will provide a blessing for everything you need." Those aren't the exact words, but that's the feeling I got when I read the verse. I don't have time to go into my own examples here, but I've personally experienced God's blessing after offering a tithe, even when I "couldn't afford it."

Here's the truth of the matter: What Jesus truly deserves is 10% with an extra "0" added on there. Giving shouldn't be a chore, but rather, an eager expectation of seeing how God will bless us.

Camden

Malachi's Call: Hey Priests!

Priests: old guys with long grey beards that mumble prayers, right? Or maybe the passionate speakers that offered sacrifices on altars to atone for Israel’s sin. When I first read through Malachi 2, I noticed that Mal starts by talking to the priests, so I simply thought that this wouldn’t apply to me, and there really isn’t much that I could take from this. Not so.

I think as far as NT (New Testament) priesthood goes, 1 Peter 2:9 summarizes it best:

But you [Christians] are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

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If you’re a Christian but haven’t thought of yourself as a priest, start now. As for Malachi 2, read it yourself, and see the great symbolism used throughout the chapter. I can’t cover the whole thing, but I want to focus in on verses 13-14(a):

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And this second thing you do. You cover the LORD's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand. But you say "Why does he not?"

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Going on to describe Israel's unfaithfulness to God (like unfaithfulness to a spouse), the nation mourns because they wonder why God isn't showing himself to them. When I think about this in my own life, I thnk of times in my day where I have spent twice as much time playing video games as in the Word of God or prayer, and then I mess up and sin, and cry out to God "What went wrong?" The answer is obvious, but just like the priests of the OT, we need Malachi's call to get our attention.

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You want to focus more on God and learn to love Him more? Consider what you spend your time on. Are you being faithless to God, chasing after things of this world, or are you really putting more commitment into the things of God, presenting pure sacrifices of service instead of half-hearted complacent worship?

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Camden

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Malachi's Call: Complacent Worship

Pre-notice: I just want to say sorry in advance for the varying fonts of this post. I've had a lot of technical difficulty getting it up, but I think that's a pretty good indication that a certain devil doesn't want you to see it (thus the reason I'm getting past technical issues =D).

I know, I know, a long time, right? Two and a half months is a while, I'll admit, but getting into the flow of school, much less PSEO (Post Secondary Enrolment Option [aka college classes at high school level]), isn't easy. Nevertheless, despite my periodic posting pattern, I have some time now to do a post I've wanted to do for a while. This is another one of those series, but instead of looking at a certain aspect (like Love), I'll be looking at a book of the Bible, namely, Malachi.

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As I’ve read the book a few times in the last month or so, I’ve seen that there’s far more to Malachi’s call than first meets the eye, and I've found that if we really study it and learn from it, our lives will be changed.

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Let’s preview a brief background before I get into the deeper stuff. As the last book in the Old Testament, Malachi was written the latest in date as well. This means that the setting of this book is after the people of Judah return from exile, and life is pretty much back to normal for the Israelites. This is the central call of our prophet, Malachi. The culture at the time of Malachi was relaxed, at least religiously speaking, and people cared more for general life than for ancient religious events. In Malachi 1, (as you can reference with the link there), Malachi starts in the first five verses by reminding Israel of a key concept: Choice; moreover, God’s choice of Israel.

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After reminding the people of God’s choice of them as a nation (As opposed to the ‘rightful’ inherent, Esau), Malachi jumps into how the nation was ignoring God, and not giving Him the honor He deserved. God even tells the Israelites in reference to their sacrifices, “Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?" (v 8)

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As I read Malachi 1, verse ten hit me like a concrete wall. "Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on my altar! I am not pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will accept no offering from your hands.”

Take half a second to really think about what that means. The Bible is written for all times, so what does it mean today in our churches? Could it be that after Christ has freed us from our “exile” of sin, we’ve grown complacent? It hit me that God could right now be begging for someone, just like in these verses, to lock up church doors because insincere worship was all people offered.

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As I was sitting one Tuesday night in the church I go to listening to music practice for Sunday, I was struck that the mild-mannered singing I did while they practiced may be insulting God! If what Malachi 1 says is true, then God is saying that no worship of Him is better than half-hearted worship. This really brought me to a new realization of what it meant to sing praises to God, and worship in general.

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Malachi 1 closes with this: "For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is to be feared among the nations." Know this: If the God you serve is really as great as He says He is (and I would take GOD's Word on it), then how greatly should we be serving Him?

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Discussion Questions:

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I know I gave example of verbally singing, but this passage says “I will accept no offering from your hands.” What are other offerings that we (or the American Church in general) may be insincerely offering to God (“useless fires”)?

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Anything else about this passage (Malachi 1) impact you? Perhaps an area I didn’t touch on that impacted you?

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It's great to post again!

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Camden

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P.S. Sorry about the commas, Blogger is sometimes a little glitchy about it's spacing.

Are you Old?

I'm fifteen. By the world's standards, I'm young. By my own standards, I have no idea how old I am. Here's what I mean, because I think we have this whole 'age' thing off. Our life is only a percentage of arrival at death. Let me explain. Imagine that you're walking out of your car in your church parking lot tomorrow morning and suddenly a car comes from behind you and hits you so hard that you die. In the world's terms, you were young, but percentage wise, that morning you're life was 99.9% over.

I heard an awesome testimony of an 18 year old teen who said he's been diagnosed with leukemia four times in his life, and was finally given three months to live. He looked out into a large crowd and said, "I feel sorry for you." He went on to explain that while knowing about how much longer you're going to be on earth is a little scary, it's so much easier for him to live his life for the Lord. Think about it. If you knew you were going to die in a week, would you live your life like you did this last week? And yet, if we always lived our lives like every day was our last, we'd eventually be right!

When I heard that, I didn't want to write this post, telling you about this great story. No, I wanted to DO SOMETHING! I didn't know what, but anything that would serve the Lord, I was ready to do it. Yet too often, we don't. I think that Christian kids who have cancer are some of the most blessed people on earth, because whenever you see one, their face is lit up. They know that they seriously might die the next day, and they're doing something about it. They aren't letting petty arguments get in the way, and they aren't holding a grudge against someone. They aren't sinning in secret, because they know that they may stand before He who sees in secret before their next breath.

I'm sick of living a life of security and comfort. I'm ready to ask myself "What if I died today?" I'm ready to live.

Camden

Do we Lie when we Pray?

Here’s something new that God has been teaching me in my life. When we pray, we don’t generally think of ourselves as lying, right? It’s just not one of those things that goes hand in hand with prayer. Yet I’ve spotted it in my own life, and perhaps you’ve found it in yours. There’s one example that wedged this thought like a post-driver into my mind. You all know it:

Philippians 1:21
For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I heard this verse, and I was ready to pray it. “Lord, thank you that to live, I’m a light for Jesus in everything that I do, and that in death, I’m even more satisfied than on earth.” That would have been a prayer that (in and of itself) would be an awesome prayer, right from the Bible. Yet something in this prayer makes this talk before God a lie. What is it? The whole thing is a lie! Not the scripture, not the truth behind it, not the word choice, but the person I’m applying the prayer to! If Paul were to pray this prayer, it would be complete truth. However, no matter how many Biblical references to show that this is true, it doesn’t matter because that simply isn’t how I live my life.

I might say, “For to me, to live is Christ,” and I might pray, “Lord, thank you that to live, I’m a light for Jesus in everything that I do,” but the profound problem is that this isn’t how I live my life. Yes, I strive to live for Christ, but I’ll be the first to admit that my daily life, there are areas where I don’t show Jesus in everything that I do. And yes, for the latter part of this verse, I’ll admit that there are things in my life I would hold onto before truly meaning “To die is gain.”

So how are we supposed to pray? If praying scripture one way we should pray, yet applying it to ourselves is a lie, what words should we say when coming before God Almighty? Here’s what I said. “God, right now in my life, I want you to be everything to me. I to be able to say that I live my life for you and dying would be gain because I would have you. But the truth is there are things in my life I hold onto more than you. My family, my friends, and myself I love more than I love you God. Please help me to grow, not to stay where I am, but to experience you more, and I pray that you’d become everything for me.”

Instead of praying a prayer that deceives ourselves, why don’t we just be honest with God, who already knows everything about us? Which will really conform us into this verse more, praying through this verse (which would be a lie unless God truly is that much to us), or admitting that we need more growth there, and asking God to do whatever it takes to love him more?

Camden

Do: Living Water -- rain?!?

Do you believe that God works everything out for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His will? (Romans 8:28) I do, and sometimes I'm called to live out my belief, like today. This was to be the first day of Do: Living Water, an effort started by two girls in my youth group to have carwashes that would raise money to build wells in the Congo. Today was the first day, and while I was totally looking forward to the wash, I woke up to a forecast of rain-- all day. That means that a potential third of anyone who would come to the wash are gone. Total loss? No, because tomorrow looks decent, but still, I have to wonder what God understands up on His throne that I feel I need to question. He knows best, and let's not forget that!

Camden

Lord, Lord

I was going to do a post on who God was, but I decided to take a break from that after hearing about what I’m going to post now.
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Judge my prayer: “Dear Lord, thank you for this day. I pray Lord that you’ll bless this food to our bodies, and give us a good week Lord; in Jesus name, amen.”

A pretty typical prayer, right? That’s my fear. If you look through that prayer, you’ll see that the word Lord appears three times. Now of course, you can substitute Jesus, God, or Father into any one of those, but often, Lord is the word we choose. Yet, for as often as we say it, we forget the magnitude of the word itself. For instance, did you know that the word Lord comes up 6712 times in the Bible?!? (ESV version) Hands down, it’s a pretty important word! But what do we really mean when we say Lord, or rather, what should we mean?

A time when the word Lord would be used (outside of a church setting, where it all too often looses its meaning) was back on plantations. Slaves would refer to those over them not as ‘sir,’ or ‘Mr.,’ but as ‘Master’ or ‘Lord.’ This really makes the true definition of Lord come out, as one who you serve as your master. That means when your master tells you to do a chore, you do it. Yet isn’t it all too often that when our Master tell us what to do, we as Christians look at God and say, “What if I’m rejected?” “But I don’t know enough.” “Oh, I’m too tired to hear your Word tonight.”

What about when we come to God with a list of chores for him! Instead of saying, “Lord, use me,” we say, “Hey, could you do this for me? How about this? Please bless me in this.” How pointless all of this sounds when standing in front of an all powerful God! When our Master, our Lord, tells us to do something, the only response should be immediate following! You guys, I really think living a life where we don’t take our Lord (and his title as Lord) seriously is what Jesus meant when he said:

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Matthew 7:21

For a long time I had a hard time balancing ‘you aren’t saved by works’ with ‘your life with Christ will have works.’ But if we accept Christ as our Lord, we give him the position of Master over us, which means that it only makes sense that when he tells us to do something, refusal denys the title we profess (hypocracy). So then you have to ask, What type of servant are you? Are the servant who will go through the Valley of Shadow for your Lord, or are you the lukewarm Christians that Christ says he will spit out of his mouth? (Revelations 3:15-16) A life professing Jesus as Lord deserves nothing more than our all. Let me ask again: How much service do you give God, and how much do you refuse him? We shouldn’t give fifty percent of our lives to Jesus, because Jesus didn’t give fifty percent of his life for us.

Share your thoughts here

Camden