{"id":305,"date":"2015-01-20T14:23:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-20T14:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/2015\/01\/20\/giving-anything-less-than-your-best-is-not-what\/"},"modified":"2015-01-20T14:23:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T14:23:00","slug":"giving-anything-less-than-your-best-is-not-what","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/2015\/01\/20\/giving-anything-less-than-your-best-is-not-what\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving Anything Less Than Your Best Is Not What You Should Do"},"content":{"rendered":"

Malachi 1 \u2013 4<\/strong><\/a><\/h1>\n

Verse 1:8 focuses on our giving:<\/p>\n

\n

When you offer blind\u00a0animals<\/em>\u00a0for sacrifice, isn\u2019t that evil? And when you present sick and lame\u00a0animals,<\/em>\u00a0isn\u2019t that evil? Try bringing these\u00a0useless animals<\/em>\u00a0to your\u00a0foreign<\/em>\u00a0governor when you need his favor; will he grant your request<\/em>\u00a0and lift up your face\u00a0to his to dignify you<\/em>?\u00a0Of course not.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The offering plate comes by and we dig up the scraps that our in our wallet. If it\u2019s a choice between a 10 or a 100 the 10 gets dropped. We all do this in one way or another, most of the time subconsciously. Now I don\u2019t want to fall into a \u201cProsperity Gospel\u201d trap and say you give and shall receive, but rather just GIVE. We are not to hoard and worship our wealth, but rather be free in giving and experiencing that joy.<\/p>\n

Verse 1:13 expands on this more:<\/p>\n

\n

and when you sigh contemptuously and say, \u201cDon\u2019t you see how boring\u00a0all these required rituals are<\/em>?\u201d You bring stolen or\u00a0dirty gifts\u2014<\/em>your own lame and sick\u00a0animals <\/em>or\u00a0animals you found torn apart by beasts in the wilderness\u2014<\/em>to the offering. Should I accept what you present?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

We don\u2019t understand the freedom given by giving. Don\u2019t make it about a ritual of passing the plate, but rather have fun!! See how a BIG TIME lights up the eyes of a worker and that they understand God\u2019s love along with it.<\/p>\n

Verse 3:1 talks about a \u201cmessenger\u201d:<\/p>\n

\n

Eternal One:<\/strong>\u00a0Pay attention! I am sending My messenger,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0and he will clear the road ahead for Me.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The Lord you seek will suddenly arrive at His temple.
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0And the Messenger of God\u2019s covenant, your soul\u2019s delight,
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Watch, because He, too, is coming.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Who is this messenger? Verses 4:5 & 6 may have insight for us:<\/p>\n

\n

5\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Keep watch. I am sending Elijah the prophet to you before the arrival of the great and terrible day of the Eternal One,\u00a06\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>and he will return parents\u2019 hearts to their children and children\u2019s hearts to their parents, or else I will come and strike the land\u00a0of promise<\/em>\u00a0with a curse\u00a0of annihilation<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Is God sending Elijah or someone \u201clike\u201d Elijah? The people of Israel were expecting Elijah to return and therefore did not recognize John the Baptist as he stood before them. If we look at timing and God\u2019s message we can see how many of these prophecies have come true. Hold on your seats because the next series in this weekly read is Revelations and is going to show us some difficult truths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Malachi 1 \u2013 4 Verse 1:8 focuses on our giving: When you offer blind\u00a0animals\u00a0for sacrifice, isn\u2019t that evil? And when you present sick and lame\u00a0animals,\u00a0isn\u2019t that evil? Try bringing these\u00a0useless animals\u00a0to your\u00a0foreign\u00a0governor when you need his favor; will he grant your request\u00a0and lift up your face\u00a0to his to dignify you?\u00a0Of course not. The offering plate … Continue reading “Giving Anything Less Than Your Best Is Not What You Should Do”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/emailsfromdad.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}