TUESDAY, 2 March, 2021 “God’s Records”

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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends on this the second day of March. I wonder what this month will bring to you and me, wherever we live this month in our world?

Frequently people wonder if God is paying attention to what is happening on planet earth. Is God really interested in the details of our lives, does God listen to our conversations? Do our choices, our behaviors, our attitudes, even our conversations here on earth make a difference in heaven? Well, Mr. Malachi has a word for us today about that. Will you look with me at Malachi 3:16-18.

“Then those who feared the LORD talked with each other, and the LORD listened and heard. A scroll of remembrance was written in His presence concerning those who feared the LORD and honored His name.” (Mal. 3:16) We know the Bible speaks often about this matter of ‘fear the LORD”. It means profoundly respecting God, revering God, living in awe of God, and yes it also means fearing the judgment of God.

In the verses preceding Malachi was describing people who do not live ‘in fear of God’ and both their behavior which ignores God and their talk which mocks God is evidence. In contrast to them, there were God honoring people in Jerusalem in Malachi’s day, who were deeply troubled by this and they tried to live their lives in a manner which glorified God and honored God. Evidently some of them had gathered together and were discussing Malachi’s messages from God and they were concerned that they kept their lives pure and separate from those who they knew were mocking God.

Are you and I living each day with a determination to be distinctively different from those around us who mock God?

God wanted His people to know He was watching, listening and in fact He was keeping a record in heaven of what was transpiring on earth. That’s the ‘scroll of remembrance, written in His presence’ that Malachi refers to. Now we might question that, imagining libraries full of the records of what transpires on earth, but I urge you friends to consider Revelation 20:11-15 where John’s vision records the judgement of the great white throne in heaven. “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who was seated on it…and I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and the books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books…each person was judged according to what he had done…if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, they were thrown into the lake of fire.”

That’s both graphic and clear isn’t it? Let’s add one more verse to add even more clarity, Hebrews 4:13 “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of HIM to whom we must give account.” And one more verse on this subject 2 Corinthians 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done in the body whether good or bad.”

Now for the people in Malachi’s day, neither Hebrews nor 2 Corinthians had yet been written. But do we see my friends that both the Old and New Testament assure us that God is watching, God is listening and God is keeping a record of all that transpires here on earth, AND that we will all stand before God one day accountable for all that He saw, He heard and He has recorded?

Malachi continues…“They will be mine,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up My treasured possession. I will spare them…and you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” (Mal. 3:17,18)

Over and over in both Old and New Testaments of the Bible God speaks of a future time of reckoning when a final judgment will take place. God Himself will be the final judge. People, all people, will stand before God and God will review their lives, individually, every part of their lives. You see life is a gift from God. We don’t create ourselves, we don’t give ourselves life, we don’t determine how long we’ll live, but God has given us free will, a mind to think and reason, a heart to feel all emotions, and freedom to choose… everyday, a hundred times a day, how we want to live our life.

Life is a wonderful freedom… but it is also a wonderful responsibility. When we each stand before God we’ll answer for how we have chosen to live the lifetime God gave to each of us. Have you thought much about that?

You see the phrase Malachi records: “They will be mine,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘in the day when I make up My treasured possession.” Any Jew hearing that would have smiled, immediately thinking of the day Moses came down from Mount Sinai and told the slaves whom God had rescued from Egypt, that they were not to consider themselves runaway slaves, but rather “God’s treasured possession’!

Years later the Apostle Peter would use the same phrase when writing to Christians in the first century scattered all across the Roman empire (1 Peter 2:9). If you have trusted Jesus to be your Savior, you are part of this wonderful people of God, God’s ‘treasured possession’, and we will all spend eternity together with God.

Finally look please at verse 18 “And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.” God is making it clear that this distinction should be very obvious here on earth in our lifestyle, world view, values, life priorities, life choices. And the distinction will be even more graphic on that day of judgment when the righteous, God’s ‘treasured possession’ are ushered into HIS glorious heaven forever, and ‘wicked’ are sent to the lake of burning sulfur forever.

If you’d like to see two very clear, contrasting pictures of the distinctions God is speaking about, which should be clearly evident in the lives of His people as compared to what God calls “the wicked”, may I offer you Galatians 5:17-23 and Colossians 3:1-17. It really can’t be much clearer can it my friends?

Are you absolutely confident which group you are part of today, and which group you will be part of on that day of judgement? Are you praising God or terrified? Jesus makes the difference. Trust Him with your life, invite Him to do His transforming work in you through His Holy Spirit, and you will be amazed at the result of who you become, for God’s glory!

Today’s Scripture is Malachi 3.

Choose below to read or listen.

Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.

Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.

Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)

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