THE GREAT KING
Today’s Reading: Malachi 1-2
Click scripture link to read online or HERE to listen online (then click the symbol of the audio speaker above the scripture portion).
This is St. Lazarus Church built at the location where Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave. The depiction behind the altar is of Jesus, the resurrection and life. The village in which the church is located on the eastern slope of the Mount of Olives is called to this day by the local people, El Lazaria. After 400 years of prophetic silence, the people recognized that in Jesus a mighty prophet, and more than a prophet, Immanuel (“God with us”) had come to them (John 11).
GOOGLE MAPS – To see where the photo was taken, click HERE.
Key Verses: Malachi 1:14b, 2:10b
“For I am a GREAT KING,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“And My name is to be feared among the nations.”
…Why do we deal treacherously with one another
By profaning the covenant of the fathers?
Almost 100 years had passed since the Temple was rebuilt and since the people had heard the powerful preaching of Haggai and Zechariah. Malachi tells us that the priests had grown tired of the daily routine and that corruption was evident. This was manifested in the failure to pay their tithes and give their offerings (reading for tomorrow), as well as their marriages to wives who were not followers of the true God. Some had divorced their Jewish wives and married foreign women.The leaders in the Temple were going through the motions of worship, even showing strong emotions (Malachi 2:13). Covering “the altar of the Lord with tears” was not acceptable to God when at the same time they were living in sin as shown by their unfaithfulness in their marriages. The last four verses in today’s reading point this out. As shown in our key verses, the people no longer feared God as they once did. They were profaning, showing disrespect and irreverence for the Covenant (the most solemn and binding commitment possible between two parties), which their fathers had made with God. The evidence of this was in their disobedience to God, going through the motions of worship, even showing strong emotions, but living in sin continually.
The “love” and “hate” spoken of in Malachi 1:2 refers to Jacob (Israel) and the neighbouring nation of Edomites, descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. We know from many Scriptures that God loves the individual person but hates the sin represented by the persistent evil practised by nations in their culture and deeds. Yes, Israel sinned too, but the difference was that Israel repented of her sins on a regular basis and reversed corrupt practises, lining up with God’s Word every three or four generations. May God grant us another wave of repentance and obedience to His unchanging Word!
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord God, I confess You as my “Great King!” I recognize Your absolute authority over my life. My tears do not prove repentance; obedience does! I pray that the grace to repent, to turn away from living in sin, will be manifested 24/7 in my life. I ask this in the Name of the One who never sinned and, therefore, had no need of repentance, the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!!!
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
The “wife of my youth” (Malachi 2:14-15) was 19 and I was 22 when we entered what I regard as an unbreakable covenant, our marriage. She is sleeping as I write this in the early morning. We’ll be married 58 years this coming September 19th. She spends much time in prayer before she sleeps. I’m too sleepy then, so I have my prayer time when I awake refreshed most mornings (at my age, 79, an afternoon sleep is essential!). Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, summed it up in a humorous way when she was asked if she ever considered divorce from Billy. She said, “Murder sometimes, but divorce never!” When Norma-Jean and I gave our word (our most sacred possession) “until death do us part,” it meant just that. Obedience to our covenant with God means working through the problems and never giving up!
The other evidence of withdrawing from obedience to God is in the area of tithing…that 10% off the top of our entire income. Malachi points out that failure to PAY our tithes is actually stealing from God, as it is His, not ours. I’m jumping ahead here to Malachi 3 because of its extremely important message. These are almost the final words of the Bible which Jesus and His Apostles read and believed. We begin to GIVE back to God only when we give offerings over and above the tithe (alms for needy people, as well as for soul-winning ministries such as Crossroads, etc.). Obedience to God is a must, both in our marriages and in our tithes and offerings. Jesus and His disciples would have read Malachi and put into practice the teaching on tithes and offerings. I make no apologies for believing that these two areas of human behaviour represent the minimum level of commitment to God so that, as my father prayed in my hearing every day when I was a child, “O God, may the smile of Your approval be on my life this day.”
Yours for a revival of faith and obedience in every generation, not just every 100 years,
David
May 1st, My Utmost for His Highest
Faith— Not Emotion
By Oswald Chambers
We walk by faith, not by sight. —2 Corinthians 5:7
“For a while, we are fully aware of God’s concern for us. But then, when God begins to use us in His work, we begin to take on a pitiful look and talk only of our trials and difficulties. And all the while God is trying to make us do our work as hidden people who are not in the spotlight. None of us would be hidden spiritually if we could help it. Can we do our work when it seems that God has sealed up heaven? Some of us always want to be brightly illuminated saints with golden halos and with the continual glow of inspiration, and to have other saints of God dealing with us all the time. A self-assured saint is of no value to God. He is abnormal, unfit for daily life, and completely unlike God. We are here, not as immature angels, but as men and women, to do the work of this world. And we are to do it with an infinitely greater power to withstand the struggle because we have been born from above.
“If we continually try to bring back those exceptional moments of inspiration, it is a sign that it is not God we want. We are becoming obsessed with the moments when God did come and speak with us, and we are insisting that He do it again. But what God wants us to do is to “walk by faith.” How many of us have set ourselves aside as if to say, “I cannot do anything else until God appears to me”? He will never do it. We will have to get up on our own, without any inspiration and without any sudden touch from God. Then comes our surprise and we find ourselves exclaiming, “Why, He was there all the time, and I never knew it!” Never live for those exceptional moments— they are surprises. God will give us His touches of inspiration only when He sees that we are not in danger of being led away by them. We must never consider our moments of inspiration as the standard way of life— our work is our standard.”
Beverlee,the words you quoted are like a message from God setting me free from lingering feelings of guilt that I was letting Him down.I wish I had read this a few months earlier.I’m running late.Thanks.God bless
Praise God, Bill!!
Thank Beverlee for posting this…I read it this morning in my devotions, and thought it good to post here. Thank you for being obedient.!
Ever grateful for Crossroads Ministry, 100 Huntley Street and 100Words.ca. Thanking you in heaven, David, for your faithfulness to our God. Thank you Norma Jean, Ron, Ann, Kathy, Reynold, Ellen, Nizar, Bruce, Elaine, and all the 100 Huntley Street hosts and staff—Maggie John, Greg Musselman,
Cheryl Weber, Robbie Simmons, Kevin Pauls, Robert Melnichuk, Moira Brown, Lorna Dueck—all the behind the scenes staff—and ever thankful to those who work the prayer lines. We support you 100% to spread the seeds of God’s Word, Truth and Way, around the world. God’s blessings, fellow saints in the Lord!
Great is our Lord and mighty in power; his understanding has no limit.
Psalm 147:5 NIV
Plumb – GREAT IS OUR GOD (Official Lyric Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQSXH5so-As
AMEN !
Yes. These front-line workers need our support. Lord God, we commit these workers into Your care, Father. Please strengthen and protect them and their families, and keep them ever faithful to You and Your unchanging Word. Thank You for these, Your workers, Lord God.
Just a note: I went to a prayer rally at Lansdowne Stadium in Ottawa, where many Christian leaders had gathered. Each was given five minutes to lead the great congregation in prayer. Some got up, gave a three-minute preamble, then read out their prepared prayer. Then David Mainse got up and just started praying. He was a genuine man of God, and I appreciate what God did, and is still doing, through him and the ministry God entrusted him with. God is still ministering to us through it. Thank You, dear Lord God. Please give us malleable hearts and the grace to obey You, I ask in Jesus’s great name, amen
Amen and amen, Rob!
Thanks Rob for sharing this with us. Pastor David was so close to The Lord, he knew Him intimately and would have no trouble praying from his heart. We miss him a lot but I join Beverlee in thanking everyone on Huntley St. for their dedication to the work of The Lord. Blessings Eleanor M.
Amen Rob!
Amen Eleanor and Irene!
Amen Beverlee!
Jesus is our
great King.
Amen Beverlee and Carol, Amen! Over the years I have received much from the ministry of 100 Huntley St. and the Mainse Family and Staff. Thank you and God Bless You. Am continually receiving much through this blog including all you readers. Praise the Wonderful Name of Jesus!
Ditto and amen.
Yes, Praise God for 100Huntley Street. It is so important that the airwaves be filled with God’s word, rather than most of what is presented.
Praying for everyone on this blog, that our Heavenly Father would
meet all their needs, in Jesus’ Almighty Name I pray, Amen!
Amen, Joy!!