Whole Hearted

A few weeks ago I was lead to look-up Malachi.  The relevance of this chapter came to light last weekend as the leadership discussed the "values" underlying our mission and purpose.  Malachi is pointing out the importance of whole-hearted, total commitment. This seemed to reiterate the message some weeks back from John's Revelation, about the "luke warm" church at Laodicea (Rev.3:15).

Malachi points out that God is angry when we do not honour and respect him (1:6). When our offerings are second rate, we cheat God (1:14) - "Try giving a gift like that to the governor! Would he be pleased?" (1:8). God has already put a curse on those who do not take His commands seriously (2:4).

Malachi calls us to whole-hearted commitment, "bringing the full tithe" sacrificially: by stepping out in faith, we "put God to the test, then we will see that He will open the windows of heaven and pour out in abundance" (3:10). Then "for you who obey Him, His saving power will rise on you like the sun and bring healing" (4:2).

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