“When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty. “Now plead with God to be gracious to us. With such offerings from your hands, will he accept you?”—says the Lord Almighty. “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. My name will be great among the nations, from where the sun rises to where it sets. In every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to me, because my name will be great among the nations,” says the Lord Almighty. “But you profane it by saying, ‘The Lord’s table is defiled,’ and, ‘Its food is contemptible.’ And you say, ‘What a burden!’ and you sniff at it contemptuously,” says the Lord Almighty. “When you bring injured, lame or diseased animals and offer them as sacrifices, should I accept them from your hands?” says the Lord. “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.” Malachi 1:8-14 (NIV) Are we giving the Lord the best we have? Are we putting Him first on our list, or are we giving Him the leftovers of our time, money, and talents? Worse yet, do we promise God our best, but instead only grudgingly give a half hearted effort? In the Gospel of John chapter 4, we read the famous story of the woman at the well. Jesus is talking to the Samaritan woman, the disciples have gone to town to buy food. In the course of witnessing to the woman, the situation gravitates into a small scale revival. The people came out in force to see Jesus and talked Him into staying for two days. The disciples reaction, when walking into the midst of this, was to ask Jesus if He wanted something to eat. Are we so caught up in our day to day activities that we miss God and what He is doing? Life is a busy and demanding place, full of pain and pleasure. It is easy to slowly let God slide down your list of priorities. Our salvation does not depend on our works, or what we give to God. We cannot earn it. Jesus Christ did all the work on the cross, two thousand years ago. We only have to believe. What we do for God, is for our benefit. When we spend time with Him and get to know Him, we become more like Him. We are changed from glory to glory as we encounter God’s presence. We open ourselves up to His blessings when we give to God’s work. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.” Malachi 3:10 (NIV) When we set aside what we want and put God first, we reap an everlasting reward. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what they have done.” Matthew 16:24-27 (NIV) This does not means that God wants us to give up our enjoyment of life. Jesus promised us an abundant life filled with peace, joy, and love. This comes when we truly make Him our Lord, and put Him first in our lives.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 00:08:40 +0000