Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:06 Hey, welcome back to the gray Souths podcast. This is a devotional edition called shut the doors Malakai one six through 14 old that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not Kindle fire on my altar in vain. So a small team of us here at grace office have been praying and building strategy, and we decided it was a cool idea to create some content around a 52 week devotional. So on our website, grace house.com, you can click on the devotional section under content, and that's where you can find all of our devotionals, writing them just for you to help, help you grow in maturity, Walker Christ, and to use as discussion and a tool with your band of brothers. So this is based on Malakai one, six through 14. And I just read to you verse 10, this is God offering a solution to a problem.
Speaker 1 00:01:04 So here's the devotional reading for today. There is nothing minor about the message of Malakai. I love that, right? My Malakai's called a minor prophet, but yet there's, there is nothing minor about this guy's message. He's hardcore lays it down in four chapters. And man, does he address every problem under the sun? Kind of, but there's nothing minor about the message of Malakai. It is brilliantly framed. It's a brilliantly, brilliantly framed appeal to us. It puts on display, the love mercy and grace that God has for us who pursue his name and walk in his salvation. What was getting out of hand was the standard of his, the, his was the standard of excellence. We are called to live as believers. It was getting out of hand in Malakai's day. The way we live matters to God, because it's how the world sees him. He set it up that way.
Speaker 1 00:02:02 The nations will see me within my covenant people. Now we all struggle and we're not, we're not working to save ourselves, but we are learning our new identities in Christ. And that calls us to think and walk in a radically new way. So Malakai God has called Malakai the prophet to deal with his people, his nation in some serious days of corruption. So we'll continue on with the devotional here in Malakai's day, the people of God struggled with high divorce rates, they ignored social justice and tithing. They even allowed their worship of God to become routine and disconnected. So it is today. At large, we struggle with the same things, but God in his mercy is asking us some powerful questions. He takes time to address the lack of honor due to these issues. He is asking us, do you love me? If so, where is my honor? Show me your love and how you bring respect to my name and work and the work of my salvation. So God is saying, show me that you love me with your obedience. Show me that you love me with your actions.
Speaker 1 00:03:26 Then God exposes an ache within his heart. And it's the solution to the whole problem in verse 10 God states, oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors that you might not Kindle fire on my altar in vain. One among you who would shut the doors, basically stop the madness and renew your heart to live within my standards. Stop the madness. Now it's kind of key here. God is insane. Tear the whole temple down in just a story. The whole thing. Cause there was some Crow. There was corruption in the priesthood. There was corruption in the standards of how God's people were bringing sacrifices and they were bringing lame sacrifices and it was offensive to God. And so God is like, I've loved you. And it's a hint. Have you loved me? And God is like, if I'm your father, where's my honor, good son would bring honor to his father.
Speaker 1 00:04:24 And then he's like, go bring those lame sacrifices to your governor. Right? We covered that. And where is my honor? But now God is like offering a solution. He's like, and I love the passion of this. All that. There would be one among you who would shut the door and not Kindle alter a candle, allow my, a fire to burn on my altar in vain. So God is like, if there just be one among you, it just takes one. I mean, God's just asking him for one person to re-install the excellency of his standards and shut the doors so that they could stop the vanity and the self-centered it us isn't it like that today in our culture. We're so narcissistic and vain, maybe the same passionate question goes out to us. Oh, that there'd be one among you. Who would shut the doors, stopped a madness, renew your heart to live with them.
Speaker 1 00:05:20 My standards. So God is looking for the same passion right now. He wants that heart within his people that we would recognize our low level of living and shut that door. Stop the vanity and engage with him. Engage with him with honor that our lifestyles would reflect to him the honor that is due his name. So a couple action areas here to focus on this week is what areas within your life do you need to shut the doors, shut the doors to those areas that do not honor God and does honoring God me anything. And that's an interesting question a day and age like this, right? Like God's love for you. Cost him a death on a cross. So as my ability to honor God, where does that? Where is it costing me? And then as you're reflecting, ask God for healing and resolve, ask God for healing. Seriously, ask God to heal your heart, heal your pain. And to show you how to walk in a greater level of maturity in wholeness. So ask God for healing and resolve to walk in your new identity. Allow his grace to train you today in living upright. God bless you.
