Malachi 1 - 1.22.24

Scripture

‭‭Malachi‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭NLT

“Cursed is the cheat who promises to give a fine ram from his flock but then sacrifices a defective one to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and my name is feared among the nations!“

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Observation

In this passage, God is speaking to the people of Israel through His prophet Malachi. God is furious with Israel for treating His Holy Altar with contempt.

”“You have shown contempt by offering defiled sacrifices on my altar. “Then you ask, ‘How have we defiled the sacrifices?’ “You defile them by saying the altar of the Lord deserves no respect. When you give blind animals as sacrifices, isn’t that wrong? And isn’t it wrong to offer animals that are crippled and diseased? Try giving gifts like that to your governor, and see how pleased he is!” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.“-‭‭Malachi‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬-‭8‬ ‭‬‬

At the end of the day, God has blessed Israel throughout the generations with so much. God is a Holy God, who deserves their respect. God deserves better than they are offering. God deserves their best.

Application

I should give God my best because He gave me His best…JESUS!

If you look deeper into this passage, I believe it was more of an attitude thing than a animal sacrifice thing here with the people of Israel. They began losing their focus of just how Holy and Mighty God is. They began taking Him for granted, going through the motions with their worship and sacrifice for Him. God Almighty deserves better than that. He demands our respect! He deserves our best.

Now before we get on Israel’s case for treating God this way, we may want to look in the mirror first. Now we may not offer animal sacrifices to God nowadays, but there are other ways we could cheat and dishonor God with our “sacrifices”. We could do it with our time, money, and talents God has given us.

I still remember like it was yesterday when my dad would tell my sisters and I things like: “You’re willing to give your waiter a 20% tip, but you can’t even give God 10%.” Or “You have time to watch all those shows on television, but you don’t have time to spend with God.” Or my favorite one, “You are able to get to work on time, but you can’t even make it to church on time.” (Ouch! 😖)

Looking back at my life, my dad had a point. (I wonder if he got that message from reading this passage😆). With ALL the things God has blessed me with, God deserves my utmost respect. He deserves ALL the glory, honor, and praise. He deserves my full and undivided worship. After all, God gave me His best when He sent His One and only Son, Jesus to die on the cross for my sins. It’s only right that I give Him my best.

Prayer

God, please forgive me for whenever I may take You for granted, or for whenever I may treat You in contempt. You have blessed me with so much in life. Thank You most of all for giving me Jesus. It’s because of Jesus that I’m able to have access to a Holy, loving, and awesome God like You. I pray that You give me a joyful attitude that allows me to give you my all in everything I do. May I give you my best with my finances, my ministry, my talents and gifts, and my time. May You get all the glory and honor. In Jesus name I pray, Amen. 🙏🏽

-Moses Gaddi

Galatians 6 - 1.19.24

Scripture - Pick one verse that stood out to you.

Galatians 6:1

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.

Observation - What about this verse stands out to you?

The second half of verse one stood out to me: ‘Watch yourselves (as you restore that person gently), or you also may be tempted.’

Lord, help me to establish Godly boundaries within my home, and please grant my wife wisdom to deal with the fallout when those boundaries get crossed because it’s not going to be me…- was sadly a prayer I used to pray to You Lord.

I thank you that over the years You have seen me more active in the running of my own home, a home more dedicated to Your honor and glory. 

Thank you for reminding me that the younger generation aren’t the only ones prone to sin. And thank you for reminding me that restoration doesn’t need an iron fist.

Application - How will you apply this to your life?

While this scripture was specific to the restoration of a brother or sister caught in sin, I would like to apply this principle to how I approach family/household issues. First, I will watch myself to guard against hypocrisy and/or sin before I attempt to administer house justice. Second, I will apply restoration much more gently.

Prayer - Write out a prayer.

Lord, please help me to become less frustrated when administering justice within my own home. Please, help me to mimic the way that a brother or sister in Christ was to be restored - gently. Please, help me to develop a self-auditing sense so that I may guard myself against both sin and hypocrisy. Please help me to keep the logs away from mine eyes!

In the name of Jesus do I pray, amen.

-kenneth lee

Galatians 5 - 1.18.24

Galatians 5:6, 13, 22

S  – Galatians  6:  The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love;

Galatians 13:  You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh, rather, serve one another humbly in love.

Galatians 22:  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

O –  The book of Galatians is the charter of Christian freedom. We are free in Christ! Free from the law and the power of sin; free to serve the Lord, not ourselves. Having laid the foundation, Paul builds his case for Christian liberty. We are saved by faith, not by keeping the law; our freedom means that we are free to love and serve one another, not to do wrong. Christians should carry each other’s burdens and be kind to each other (LOVE one another).

A -  I love this chapter soooo much. Last week I was looking ahead to my SOAP posting day and saw that I was assigned this chapter and just smiled at how God works.  We are saved through faith and our faith shows up in how much we love others because God IS love.

1John 4:7-8 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.

Love for others and for God comes out of a response from all God has forgiven us.  We might think once saved, loving others should be natural.  However, we have two things within us contradicting each other, our sinful nature that we were born with and comes from our fleshly desires, and the Holy Spirit, which was deposited in us at salvation, when we were born again.  We cannot rely on our deeds or our own strength to follow the Holy Spirit. If it were that simple, we wouldn’t need God.  We must know God and getting to know Him takes time and practice. We can get to know Him by reading His Word, praying, and spending time with Him (abiding in Him). One way to practice and live this out is to join us in our daily SOAP (located at www.desertstreams.com click the tab in the upper right corner, then “Resources & Bible Reading & Journal”).  We must learn to rely on Him, love Him and imitate Him. If we are being selfish with our time, observing a friend or even a stranger in need, and doing nothing about it because we are “too busy” (boy I have come to severely dislike that phrase!), if we are not serving in some capacity in ministry, or giving of our tithes, we are not living out God’s love.  The freedom God gave us through salvation was never to fulfill our own selfish ambitions and desires, but to walk in the Spirit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal 5:22).

P  –  Lord, I pray that you will cause myself and each of us to become more like you this year. Help us to put aside our selfish desires and fill us with the love and desires of your heart so that it IS natural for us to go out and love one another; so we DO commit to acts of selflessness on a regular basis and not to just do a good deed once and month and feel good about ourselves. Let our Spirits permeate with your love and overflow into every single day we get to be on this earth. Help us fight against all those areas that our flesh wants to participate in, immorality, sexual sin, lust, greed, anger, selfishness, idolatry, hatred, jealousy. Let us seek the power of the Holy Spirit to crucify those desires every single day!  You are our strength where we are weak. I pray 2024 we make excuses no more! We are new creations in Christ created to love you, to be in relationship with you, and therefore go and love others with the power you have deposited in us. In Jesus’ name I pray! Amen

- Crystal Flory