Thirsty for more of God in 2010?
I am.
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Let anyone who hears this say, ‘Come.” Let anyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who desires drink freely from the water of life.” – Revelation 22:17
You can argue that this is merely referring to the river of the water of life, flowing from the throne in the new Jerusalem. But yet, anyone who hears the message of John’s Revelation is invited to come. All you need to do is be thirsty and desire to drink.
Come to the water, you who thirst, and you’ll thirst no more, says the famous song of 2008 by Tenth Avenue North, “Love is Here.” We are all invited to come and drink from the living water of God. Just come thirsty.
Today’s reading took me through the last verses of the Old and New Testament, and the last verses of the Psalms and Proverbs. I want to dive right in to Malachi, because it definitely adds a lot to yesterday’s reading. Malachi 3:2-4 reads, “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears? For he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or like a strong soap that bleaches clothes. He will sit like a refiner of silver, burning away the dross. He will purify the Levites, refining them like gold and silver, so that they may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. Then once more the Lord will accept the offerings brought to him by the people of Judah and Jerusalem, as he did in the past.”
This he is Jesus, predicted in verse one. And when he comes (in clarity we just celebrated a few days ago, on Christmas, that he has already come, but follow along with the tense of the verse) he will be like a blazing fire that refines metal, or a a soap that bleaches clothes. Both of these are about removing the impurity completely, like with fire or bleach. The stains are taken away, the metal has been made pure, the silver has had its worthless impurities purged from it. Jesus accomplished all of this for us. And remember, we too are of the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), so are purified in the same was as the Levites, so that we may once again offer acceptable sacrifices to the Lord.
Yesterday’s post was all about how the sacrifices we give are often half-hearted and less than the best, which are unacceptable to the King of Kings. But this here changes everything. Jesus came to erase the broken worship of our past and let us once again offer acceptable sacrifices. He made us pure so we can have another chance to offer ourselves as pleasing sacrifices to the Lord. Just as so many people are viewing tomorrow as a new beginning, Jesus is the new beginning to our worship. Because he came, we can come to God and have our offerings accepted. The only question remaining is, will we take advantage of this new beginning in Jesus and bring our all and our best in the sacrifice of worship?
Malachi 3:8-12 describes how the Lord is upset that the people cheated him in worship, but he makes a promise to the people. If they bring all the tithes to him, where they belong, he will open the windows of heaven and pour out more blessing on them than they can even take in. “Try it! Put me to the test!” says the NLT translation of God’s words in verse 10. It is so simple and yet so overlooked. Bring your all to God, where it belongs, and you will be blessed beyond measure and beyond anything you could have on your own.
While you still have your bible open to Malachi (or, please open your bible to the book of Malachi. If you can’t find it, go to Matthew and flip a couple pages back), move down to Malachi 3:13-18. The story here is so startling and yet so true even in today’s time. The Lord accuses the people of saying bad things about him. The people, as usual, deny any wrongdoing. The Lord counters by reminding them that they’ve been moping around, saying What’s the use of serving god? What do we get out of it? The evil and arrogant are the ones prospering and getting rich. But God says that you can’t see now what the big picture is, and that when judgment comes, it is not the evil who will be spared, but those who feared God and always thought about the honor of his name. It is then that we will see the difference, even if we cannot see it now.
“Worship only God!” exclaimed the angel who showed John the Revelation. The angel was so great and powerful that he could showcase all of the end times in all of their glory, and yet even he deflected the worship of John. The quick lesson in Revelation 21:8-9 is to not settle for worshiping anything less than God himself.
Jesus says, in Revelation 21:12, “Look, I am coming soon, bringing my reward with me to repay all people according to their deeds.” Don’t ever let anyone sell you on the idea that Christianity is just about faith. Yes, faith starts it, but what you do shows what you believe, and we were created to do good works (see Ephesians 2:10). When Jesus comes, he’s going to repay people according to their deeds, with reward for good and punishment for evil. Christianity is not a lip service religion; it’s a relationship with God whose love to us should overflow as action by us.
The very last verse of the entire book of Psalms, Psalm 150:6, says, “Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord!” When I actually thought about how many breathing things are on this earth, this verse actually hit me. On top of the seven billion humans in the world, there are billions more breathing organisms in the world. And the Psalmist wrote, Let all the trillions of breathing organisms sing praises to the Lord! Also, keep in mind that for these organisms, breath is a sign of life. If we are alive, we ought to worship. If anything is alive, it should breathe in worship. Whether or not this is scientifically valid, I learned years ago that יהוה, YHWH, the Hebrew from which Yahweh and Jehovah come, is the sound of an exhale when pronounced without vowels, and so the Hebrews considered even breathing to be something that was God given and necessary to be given back to God. Let’s give our breaths back to God in praise and worship and action.
A year is winding down, a decade is coming to a close, and my first complete month of blogging has finally occurred. My aim is make 2010 the year I read through the entire Bible, and I want you to come along with me, not just by reading my blog, which is just short snippets of what I’m learning, but by reading the Bible yourself. The more I read of the Bible, the more I’m captivated by what I reading and learning, and I want you to get into your Bible too in such a way that helps you grow closer to God. If you want to follow along with the exact passages I read every day, you can do so at oneyearbibleonline.com, where there is a downloadable PDF of the plan I follow, a plan generator that will give you links to the day’s reading in whatever popular translation you want, and a spot to sign up to have those links sent to you via email. In my Resources page I will be putting up more specific links to all the great things available at One Year Bible Online, if you want to check that out.
Whether or not you already have a resolution, make the more passionate pursuit of God a resolution of yours in 2010!
-Zachariah