How many times do we go to bed and say: "Lord tomorrow I'm going to have a devotion to You, every morning I am going to wake up early and spend time with You, I'm going to read 5 Chapters from the Old Testament and 5 from the New. I'm going to pray in the Spirit for at least 30 minutes every day and seek your face". The next morning the alarm clock goes off as was preordained the night before, giving you ample time for your devotion. Blurry eyed you pick up your bible page through the Old Testament thinking:" Forget Genesis, I have read the first chapter about a million times, you then page to Numbers:"Oh no, not Numbers". Then Exodus: "I'm tired of reading about Moses leading the people out of Egypt. You then flip further through the Old Testament and come across the Major prophets and decide to settle into Ezekiel, but think to yourself, I need to concentrate and I'm still sleepy, so you wander downstairs turn the central heating on, fill the kettle and make a warm cup of Brazilian coffee and dip your yummy Ouma Rusks in it. You then settle back into your cozy bed and begin reading Ezekiel Chapter 1, its gong great until a Facebook notification pops up, you respond and next thing your eyes spot a post in the Christian group that you belong to, because it's Christian it justifies you reading it whilst in devotion, but before you know it you find yourself engrossed in various comments. You realise that your time is slipping by, so you think; "I will start on the New Testament - Matthew". Off you go; Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas...... your eyelids become heavy, you begin to pray: "Lord bless our family and our dog, us four and no more, bless the heathen neighbour, I pray You begin to deal with him....". Again your alarm rings, phew devotion is finally over. Is this true? or is it true? Don't answer it. One thing I noticed about Rev.Dr. Billy Graham is he kept things simple, very simple. He determined to put God first, his wife second and then his family. He stayed away from home for months on end from his beloved family for the sake of the King of Kings, but he made sure he also stayed away from women. Whilst he had a profound understanding of the bible, his priority centred on the most important and simplest message in the bible, the gospel, without it how would we hear and how would we be saved? It is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe. It was his willful determination and outright conviction to serve God and preach without compromise. God saw his heart and therefore honoured him among men. It is true to say that God can keep us from temptation, but it is subject to how much we desire and will it. As long as we put other things above God; relationships (sex), business (money), socialising (drink), etc. our will to serve Him lacks that conviction to carry us and it undermines the importance of giving Him our first fruits, our best fruit. We often offer rotten fruit, our scraps, but we wouldn't dare consider offering it to even to our bosses never-mind royalty or presidents. So why would we think this is acceptable to our Lord?
Malachi 1:12-14 “But you profane it, In that you say,
‘The table of the Lord is defiled;And its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’
13 You also say,‘Oh, what a weariness!’And you sneer at it,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering!
Should I accept this from your hand?”
Says the Lord. “But cursed be the deceiver
Who has in his flock a male,
And takes a vow,
But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished--
For I am a great King,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“And My name is to be feared among the nations.
Through prophet Malachi God is saying the peoples offerings are not acceptable and if they truly loved Him with their hearts their deeds would line up with their hearts. They would not be offering up lame, sick or even stolen sheep as an offering to Him. When are our deeds going to line up with our lips towards the Lord!!! We need integrity, congruence and conviction in what we believe, it is all determined by our will.
Malachi 1:12-14 “But you profane it, In that you say,
‘The table of the Lord is defiled;And its fruit, its food, is contemptible.’
13 You also say,‘Oh, what a weariness!’And you sneer at it,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
“And you bring the stolen, the lame, and the sick; Thus you bring an offering!
Should I accept this from your hand?”
Says the Lord. “But cursed be the deceiver
Who has in his flock a male,
And takes a vow,
But sacrifices to the Lord what is blemished--
For I am a great King,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“And My name is to be feared among the nations.
Through prophet Malachi God is saying the peoples offerings are not acceptable and if they truly loved Him with their hearts their deeds would line up with their hearts. They would not be offering up lame, sick or even stolen sheep as an offering to Him. When are our deeds going to line up with our lips towards the Lord!!! We need integrity, congruence and conviction in what we believe, it is all determined by our will.
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