Thought for February 21

 History:

• 1173: Thomas Becket canonized 
• 1431: First day of the trial of Joan of Arc
• 1613: Michael Romanov elected first Tsar of Russia of the House of Romanov
• 1804: First locomotive runs along the tramway in Wales
• 1848: Engels and Marx publish "The Communist Manifesto" in London
• 1866: Lucy Hobbs is first US woman to earn DDS degree
• 1878: World's first telephone directory--50 subscribers in New Harbor Connecticut
• 1885: Washington Monument dedicated
• 1916: Battle of Verdun begins--lasts 9 months and creates 1 million casualties
• 1931: Alka Seltzer introduced
• 1970: Jackson 5 first television appearance--American Bandstand
• 1972: Nixon is first US President to visit China
• 1980: Eric Heiden wins 4th of 5 Gold Medals at Lake Placid
• 1988: Jimmy Swaggert confesses his sins to his congregation
• 2003: "Real Time" with Bill Maher debuts
• Born: Hubert de Givenchy, Santa Ana, Erma Bombeck, Nina Simone, Alan Rickman, Jennifer Love Hewitt, John Lewis, Anthony Daniels [C-3PO], Tyne Daly, Trisha Nixon, Kelsy Grammer, 
• Died: Anne Frank, Malcolm X, Tim Horton, Eric Liddell [Chariots of Fire], Billy Graham

Thought:

I have arrived at the Book of Malachi revisiting the passages I have marked over the years. Much of this book is underlined or bracketed in my Bible and there are notes written around every page. This morning I am reflecting on what Malachi says about God's love in chapters 1 and 2. 

• I want to tell everybody that God loves them, maybe quote John 3:16 to them. But the first note I have written over chapter one is "Before you can declare God's love, you must become a channel of that love." Unless the love of Christ is alive and working in and through my life, I cannot proclaim that love to others--why? I am a hypocrite. If God's love is all I claim it to be, then it will flow through me and be evident in my words, actions and attitudes. I guess we would say walk the walk. So if I have impatience in my heart, unforgiveness in my heart, bitterness, anger--how can I be a channel of God's love?
• The second note I have written in chapter 1 is, "To be a channel of God's love, there must be no exception to who I love." God so loved the world. Jesus came to save everybody. So if I claim to be a channel of God's love, I don't get to pick who I love. If I think of the channel as the hose of living water, the living water is for everyone, not just the one's I like and not just the one's that like me. 
• The third thing I have written really hits me today. "Don't try to prove God's love by looking at the circumstances." If things are going great and I feel blessed, God must love me. But if things are not going well or I don't feel like God loves me, then God must not love me. I noted in my Bible "Man feels love, but God is love." In Malachi, the priests were complaining that the food was not good or sufficient [1:12]. They were tired of the food like the children got tired of manna in the wilderness. So, they were bringing the lame and sick as sacrifices to the Lord. Have you ever looked at someones circumstances and said either that God must really love them or that they must have done something wrong. I need to learn that my circumstances are not a measure of God's love--but my joy and peace are. So when I have joy and peace in difficult times, I know God loves me. 
• Next I wrote, "the priest's power to bless others is void if there is no holiness " in the priest. We are priests of the Living God. In 2:1-2, God reminds the priests that unless they are holy, honoring God and His name, then they cannot be a channel of God's love to others and their blessings will become curses. So if we want to be channels of God's blessings and love, we must have open channels, channels available to all, and the channel must be clean. Living water will flow from that channel.
• Finally I wrote, God's covenant is one of life and shalom [2:5]. The word "shalom" does not just mean peace--it means a prosperous life, a fulfilled life, a satisfied life. God's plan is for His children to live lives that are abundant and overflowing--through clean and open channels that bless everyone we meet. The peace that we have flows through us to others. 

I think I wrote these notes in the late 1980's, over 30 years ago. I come back to them this morning to ask myself, what kind of channel am I today? A channel of God's love? To everyone? A clean and pure channel for Living Water? And do I judge the love of God by the circumstances of life or do I understand that God's love carries me through all the circumstances of life--good and bad. Let's sing a little "make me a channel of blessing today, make me a channel of blessing I pray, my life possessing, my service blessing, make me a channel of blessing today."

Blessings

Larry