| The Messenger with a purified message |
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Devotional text: Malachi 3:1-3 (AMP) Behold, I send My messenger, and he shall prepare the way before Me. And the Lord (the Messiah), Whom you seek will suddenly come to His temple; the Messenger or Angel of the covenant Whom you desire, behold, He shall come, says the Lord of hosts. (Matt.11:10; Luke 1:13-17, 76.) But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; (Rev. 6:12-17) He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver , and He will purify the priests, the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, that they may offer to the Lord offerings in righteousness. Dear FriendsThe world we live in gives us all sorts of messages by way of the vast amount of media technologies. Messages that promises immediate wealth, health etc. Some of these messages however is going most of the time unchecked and the result normally being the opposite of what we were told. One example is the "get rich quickly" schemes that plagues our e-mail addresses and wasting our time, where you are promised major pay outs by a certain time and when that time comes, one is awakened by the awful reality of having lost everything. Your God knows about these schemes, since he knows the creator and because of that Malachi prophesied of God’s personal messenger who he himself will be sending to us. A messenger who shares a message with us that not just purify our hearts, by showing us the things to believe and not to believe, but when we have accepted this message, namely the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it can also purify our neighbor’s heart in sharing it with them. What is this purified message that our text is referring to? It is a message of conviction. A message that can’t seem to let go of you. A message which enables you to take action. A message that doesn’t allow self-centeredness, but one which forces you to look beyond yourself as God has looked beyond himself and saw us. People who are in need of salvation and acceptance. A message that says "you are ok" the way you are and there is nothing this world can offer you, since you have already all the wealth you need. The messenger who is send to us Jesus Christ came to this world to unlock God’s wealth within us and to lock the locks permanently which causes us to doubt the abilities and wealth which already exist within us. When doors has been locked as a result of our doubts, Christ came to re-open them, cutting of the locks or even the doors in order for that passage to remain open eternally. When these processes are happening we experience them at times as cans of worms which is opened we rather wanted to remain closed. Sometimes our path to salvation leads through unresolved painful memories and disappointments and it doesn’t matter how hard we try to avoid them, they will always hinder and haunt us until we took the first steps into the mess of our lives. Going through these heavy patches in life, rest assured that the messenger walks with you through these times helping you to make this life changing message part of your daily with Him. Thus, knowing this enables us to pray the words of the Psalm writer "Yes, though I walk through the (deep, sunless) valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for you are with me; Your rod (to protect) and your staff (to guide), thy comfort me." (Psalm23:4 AMP), with confidence knowing who is really in control of our lives. Amen |