Malachi 1 LIVE 4 Christ !

Scripture selections are taken from the Rock Church Daily Bread Reading schedule for each month. “Lena’s Journalin’” are Lena’s comments on the specific passages from her Daily Journal.

If the e-mail text you receive is encrypted at all, just scroll down to the end of all of the text and click on Lena’s Journalin’ , which will take you directly to the web-page where you will be able to read the text quite clearly in it’s purposed form.

Date of Writing: The Book of Malachi was written between 440 and 400 B.C.

Purpose of Writing: The Book of Malachi is an oracle: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi (1:1). This was God’s warning through Malachi to tell the people to turn back to God.

Malachi 1:1-14 -
1This is the message F1 that the LORD gave to Israel through the prophet Malachi. F2
The LORD's Love for Israel
2"I have loved you deeply," says the LORD. But you retort,
"Really? How have you loved us?"
And the LORD replies, "I showed my love for you by loving your ancestor Jacob.
Yet Esau was Jacob's brother, 3and I rejected Esau and devastated his hill country. I turned Esau's inheritance into a desert for jackals."
4And Esau's descendants in Edom may say, "We have been shattered, but we will rebuild the ruins." But this is what the LORD Almighty says: "They may try to rebuild, but I will demolish them again! Their country will be known as 'The Land of Wickedness,' and their people will be called 'The People with Whom the LORD Is Forever Angry.' 5When you see the destruction for yourselves, you will say, 'Truly, the LORD's great power reaches far beyond our borders!'"
Unworthy Sacrifices
6The LORD Almighty says to the priests: "A son honors his father, and a servant respects his master. I am your father and master, but where are the honor and respect I deserve? You have despised my name! "But you ask, 'How have we ever despised your name?'
7"You have despised my name by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. "Then you ask, 'How have we defiled the sacrifices F3 ?' "You defile them by saying the altar of the LORD deserves no respect. 8When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn't that wrong? And isn't it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!" says the LORD Almighty.
9"Go ahead, beg God to be merciful to you! But when you bring that kind of offering, why should he show you any favor at all?" asks the LORD Almighty.
10"I wish that someone among you would shut the Temple doors so that these worthless sacrifices could not be offered! I am not at all pleased with you," says the LORD Almighty, "and I will not accept your offerings. 11But my name is honored by people of other nations from morning till night. All around the world they offer sweet incense and pure offerings in honor of my name. For my name is great among the nations," says the LORD Almighty. 12"But you dishonor my name with your actions. By bringing contemptible food, you are saying it's all right to defile the Lord's table. 13You say, 'It's too hard to serve the LORD,' and you turn up your noses at his commands," says the LORD Almighty. "Think of it! Animals that are stolen and mutilated, crippled and sick—presented as offerings! Should I accept from you such offerings as these?" asks the LORD. 14"Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king," says the LORD Almighty, "and my name is feared among the nations!
FOOTNOTES:F1: Hebrew An Oracle: The message. F2: Malachi means "my messenger." F3: As in Greek version; Hebrew reads defiled you.
Copyright Statement: Holy Bible, The New Living TranslationCopyright © 1996 by Tyndale Charitable Trust. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.


~ Lena’s Journalin’
Isn’t it amazing what/who God uses to bring His messages to the earth? He uses men, humans, to bring the living words. Malachi means “My messenger”. The Lord’s messenger.
Many years ago, I was doing a home school penmanship lesson which added a bit of history to emphasize proper communication and how writing was used. The page that day was about “The King’s Messenger.” It said that messages were sent through the hands of “postmen” or messengers. The messages were supposed to be taken from a King to the people and the messenger must express the messages correctly, as any err would not represent the king correctly and the outcome could also be tragic, depending on the message needed to be delivered. I thought of how stories can be passed along and if each story teller takes liberty and adds his flair, or opinion or whatever, by the time the story goes through 10 hands it has changed drastically. Then I thought of myself as a messenger of God, The King’s Messenger, a human vessel, whom God has entrusted with His message of life to this world. It caused me to listen more intently, take notes at church, and when given the honor of expounding God’s word, to try and stick with an accurate delivery, as close to what was given as possible. When I’m the King’s messenger, my own opinion does not matter. I’m a parrot in the hands of the Lord. It is His message, not mine.
That is actually how effective warfare is engaged in. One learns to wield the sword for the Lord (God’s word is as a sword) rather than for self.
It is one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen when someone is angry at God. God IS LOVE and He loves us and has drawn us with His love. His love did not draw us so we could use Him to love ourselves. But self centered humans think that is it, God is our servant, He needs to do such and such and so and so for us.
Wow, did you not hear what He did do for us? #1 He made us, #2 He saved us from the doom of our own decisions. Now we want Him to satisfy us too and make us temporarily happy. That is sad.
A person angry with God is uninformed, has been lied to by God’s enemy.
Our “ancestor Jacob” is our old nature. God loved us when we were in sin, before we received Christ. He loved us when He made us long ago, and He had such hope that we would love Him in return and live our lives here on earth to serve His purposes. Yet we want to live here to serve our own and have Him serve us, bless us, make us comfy cozy. We do not know what was done. To be angry with Him for not making everything nice for us here is the fruit of deception and lack of revelation. We have not truly seen Him at the cross.
Esau is our un-Born Again nature. Our natural man. When we receive Christ that old man gets nailed to the cross, we get turned in to a new man, if we will walk away and leave the old self-centered man there. When we receive Christ we crucify the old man, he is no longer living to please self, he is alive unto God and the purposes of God. A miracle happens in our spirit man, but our old pre programmed ways must be transformed by submission to the word of God’s instructions by faith.
Why would I change, become transformed? To please God, not self, self has been crucified. I live to please Christ in God. I submit to change because of love. I love Him back and I want to be all He’s now made me new to be.
IF I go back to the old ways or refuse to participate in what it takes to learn and apply the new ways, or if I will not do what I’m shown, I begin to rebuild what was taken away at the cross. It is tragic, because there is no resurrection of that old man. If I try to resurrect Him, I become a dead man walking, stinking flesh (See Pirates of the Caribbean, it is one ugly sight). I become a prey to vultures, demonic forces of evil. Something is severely wrong, I was meant and now newly created for God, but I live for self. The earth around me begins to resist this unfortunate turn of events, the earth itself, knows this is incorrect. It responds accordingly and I become consumed, by everything except God. I can’t seem to do anything right. I can’t seem to erect any fortresses, I can’t move in blessing, my pathways are destruction. The earth around me cries out for me to go back HOME! To God, to the cross, to Christ!
I was newly destined to be a king and a priest unto God, and I know I should do what is “right” so I go through the motions of what is “right”, but if I’m not a king and priest unto God, nothing is right. My destiny must be fulfilled by me, not by anyone else. So if I go to the altar, but do not change. I go to church, hear, but do not listen and do. I even hear personal words of the Lord, I make promises I do not fulfill. Then the earth, my earth (even my physical earth made body) cries out for the manifestation of the Son’s of God. (Rom 1). This is tragic, it cannot be so. Every ache, pain, and destructive force hopes to lead me home, direct me home. I have to go there, stay there, serve there. If I do not, I cannot be angry with God. (note, yes I can be angry with myself, BUT I must also forgive myself and change, I cannot stay in anger towards self. I must repent!)
How serious am I about God? Do I believe in Him? Do I honor Him with my life, both hidden and visible? If I do not, it is evidenced by my lifestyle, and this is why I suffer so. I’ve opened doors to enemy powers that were only meant to be opened up by the Lord. My life was not meant for anyone except God.
It is very sad to suffer for sin, when sin has been paid for in full by the blood of the Lamb of God.
There is a suffering for and in Christ, but it is completely different than suffering in and for my own sin.
Suffering for our own is a disgrace before God, if we suffer for our own sin, we have not regarded His Son, Jesus, we’ve profaned His name, we do not believe in His saving grace, we’ve not turned from sin. BUT it is not too late as long as we are alive. His blood was shed for us yesterday today and forever. Today is the day of salvation. If you weren’t seriously saved, you can get serious today. You can purpose to live no longer for self, but for God, today.
You can wear your crown, be dressed in robes of righteousness.
A priest stands before God clean (by Jesus’ blood, not by good works), he intercedes for others to be made into priests before God also. A king is crowned by God and by others. He is a man in action, because he is priest he’s been entrusted to rule the others he stands before God for. It is not about who gets on the throne, who has clout or who is in the highest position. This is not an earthly competition about earthly success. It is about who is a father, who loves most, who will stand in the gap for someone else, even if it means death, especially the death of self life.
The Kingdom of God is at stake. It is not about every man’s own kingdom rule, it is about the rule of God. Can I give my life for another “Man’s” kingdom? Will I live changed for another man’s kingdom? Will I make the sacrifice of unity to live for another man’s kingdom? I mean I could just die and be over with all of this, escape the misery, and the constant need for change. If I die early, He loses out with using me here, if I live a long life for Him, He’s been able to use me. The biggest tragedy is a man living a whole life for self, and never giving the use of self, up to God’s use. It is tragic, because as soon as he dies, he will have seen it all clearly, why he was here etc. He’ll know full well and he’ll have regret in the deepest part of Him. Oh yeah he’ll be in God’s presence comforted in the place where men who believed God live in eternity, but he’ll suddenly know how much more there was, yet he won’t be able to go do it all over again, He’ll so have desired to perfectly please the Father in his full revelation. He’ll see how much God’s love for him drew him there, he’ll want to reciprocate. He’ll sing and say, “Holy, Holy, Holy” with the angels….he’ll want intercession for others to realize this and to make it happen. Jesus is forever interceding. What do we think He is praying for? Our safety? Our health?
Our revelation of His Father and boldness to be the King’s messengers.

Daily Repetitive Verses:

Isaiah 58:12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language