Malachi 4:6 (KJV) Reclaiming Biblical Family Values

Malachi 4:6 (KJV)

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

 

American culture glorifies, almost deifies, the idea of a child growing up, becoming independent, and going in a direction different from his or her parents. To make our own way, in American mentality, is the ideal. Our system trains children early to become independent of parents. We send them young to a school filled with teachers who think differently than the parents. The parents develop life habits that do not include the children. The children develop dependencies upon friends, leaders, and peer groups that hold more sway than their parents ever could. Even if the parents become concerned and try to teach their kids a different course, what no one considers is that the child knows survival depends, not on what the parents teach, but on what the people they spend the bulk of their time with practice.

 

It seems to me that the Bible teaches something quite opposite. The Bible teaches that it is a curse for the child’s heart to be turned from the father and the father’s from his children. I know the Bible teaches that a man and wife are to leave their parents and cleave to one another. I also know that the book of Zechariah tells the Jews not to be like their fathers. But these things must be taken in balance with the whole teaching of the Word of God.

 

As Moses led the children of Israel out of slavery in Egypt[1] and as the prophetic Elijah would point the way to Christ,[2] the blessing of God on a people is discovered when the whole family has a heart for God, who is our eternal Father.

 

#FamilyInFaith #BiblicalParenting #GodlyHeritage #TurnHeartsToGod #StrengthenFamilyBonds

Reclaiming Biblical Family Values: The Clash Between Culture and Scripture

 

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[1] Malachi 4:4 (KJV)

Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments.

[2] Malachi 4:5 (KJV)

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:

Call to Action

• What steps can you take today to strengthen the bond within your family and align more closely with biblical teachings?

• Spend dedicated time in prayer and Bible study with your family each week to nurture a shared faith and strengthen your bond.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Malachi 4:6 (KJV) Reclaiming Biblical Family Values

Malachi 3:5 (KJV) Taking Matters into Our Own Hands

Malachi 3:5 (KJV)

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts.

 

I am struck with the depth of God’s judgment in this passage. I think most believers wouldn’t be too surprised by God’s witness against sorcery or perhaps even adultery because we know that to be closely connected to idolatry.[1] The one that struck me most was God’s promise to be a witness against those “that oppress the hireling in his wages.” This is a practical, down to earth application and one that those involved in unions[2] have taken upon themselves.

 

Have you noticed that almost exclusively, unions are socialist and practically anti-Christian? It’s as if they have a grudge against God for not standing up for them against their bosses. Communism, which is certainly anti-God, is supposedly a people’s movement meant to promise the hireling fair wages. It’s not what happens, but it is the promise.

 

I wonder in how many other areas we have dismissed God and taken upon ourselves to take care of ourselves. I wonder in how many areas we have, perhaps even unwittingly, blamed God for our circumstances and therefore taken from God the right to manage those circumstances. And I wonder how much we have lost in the sense of God’s protection, care, and provision because of it.

 

#GodsJudgment #BiblicalTruth #FaithAndWork #ChristianResponsibility #TrustInGod

Taking Matters into Our Own Hands: The Unseen Sins God Judges

 

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[1] If the modern believer spiritualizes it that way, he can then avoid the conviction against modern promiscuity he likely engages in.

[2] I worked as a union Ironworker and loved the work a lot. I know many union men who are conservative, good men. Many of them are Christians, moral and strong family men. But the unions themselves all have an agenda that is socialist at very best. They will eventually destroy the very people they are paid to speak for.

Call to Action

• What steps can you take today to ensure you are relying on God's provision and not just your own efforts?

• Write down one area in your life where you need to trust God more.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Malachi 3:5 (KJV) Taking Matters into Our Own Hands

Malachi 2:15 (KJV) Marriage Matters

Malachi 2:15 (KJV)
And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth.
 
I wish to note this chapter specifically says it is to the priests. 
Malachi 2:1 (KJV)
And now, O ye priests, this commandment is for you.
 
There are applications I am sure that point directly to the Leviticus priesthood. But this is the final book of the Old Testament and, in the New, Jesus makes all believers the priests of this age. 
 

And then I note that the chapter speaks specifically about the issue of “putting away” or divorcing one’s wife. It’s the priests who were getting divorces. It was the priests who were guilty of profaning the covenant of their fathers by marrying the daughters of strange gods. God said, Malachi 2:16 (KJV) 
For the LORD, the God of Israel, saith that he hateth putting away: …
 
·       Marrying those who are not of the faith
·       Carelessly or treacherously treating the wife of your covenant and
·       Divorcing or putting away your wife
God opposes these. But why? “That [HE] might seek a godly seed.” 
 
In the case of the Jews that seed is Jesus. The marriage covenant among the Jews was critical to preserve the heritage through which God had elected to deliver Jesus, His Son, into the world to save them which believe on His name. 
 
By way of application to the modern-day priest, the New Testament believer, our marriage vows, who we marry, how we behave in our marriage, and that we are faithful to those vows, is critical to delivering the gospel purely and powerfully to generations to come. 
 
It doesn’t matter how culture changes its views on the institution of marriage. God has not changed His. 

 

#GodlyMarriage #BiblicalFamily #FaithfulVows #ChristianPriesthood #MarriageCovenant #marriagematters

Marriage Matters: Guarding the Godly Seed

Call to Action

• Are you honoring your vows and treating your spouse with the faithfulness and respect that God commands?

• Spend time with your spouse today, discussing ways to strengthen your relationship and ensure it aligns with God's design. 

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Malachi 2:15 (KJV) Marriage Matters

Malachi 1:2-3 (KJV) Divine Inheritance

Malachi 1:2-3 (KJV)

I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,

And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.

 

I have read that a man once approached Charles Hadden Spurgeon with this objection, “I do not understand why God hated Esau.” To which Spurgeon is supposed to have responded, “I don’t understand why God loved Jacob.” This concept is repeated a few times in the Bible, including Romans chapter nine and is offered as a proof text for the Calvinistic doctrine of election.[1]

 

This text is not speaking about individuals, but about nations; Jacob being the nation of Israel and Esau being the nation of the Edomites. Specifically, the text references the geographical location of the nation of Edom, its mountains, its wilderness, and its heritage.[2]

 

Israel was placed in a land filled with good natural resources. Esau’s lot was less productive. The text has nothing to do with eternal judgment. Whether one could make an application of future eternal judgment, I think, is questionable. What I believe is certain is that God did not intend this passage to apply to individuals and that the hatred spoken of is not meant to be emotional angst against an individual, but more like the distribution of an inheritance. Because one child is given a greater portion of a parents’ estate does not imply the parents hated for the one who received less. 

·       Perhaps the parents recognized the skills of the one to be more capable of using the inheritance. 

·       Perhaps the parents recognized that the one who received less would have been injured by the greater inheritance. 

·       Perhaps there were circumstances involved in giving a portion of the inheritance to one or the other that others in the family were not aware of.

 

The people of Israel have never been any better or any worse than any other people. God did not choose to bless them because they were greater or better. God chose to bless them as the one nation that would deliver to the other nations the Word of God and the Saviour of their sins.

 

God did not hate Esau. He chose to save Esau (those who would be saved) through the seed of Israel - Jesus. He also chose to save Israel (those who would be saved) through the same seed.

 

#GodsLoveAndJustice #BiblicalElection #NationsInScripture #DivineInheritance #SovereignGrace

Divine Inheritance: Jacob, Esau, and the Heart of God

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[1] There is a biblical doctrine of election. I do not believe the Calvinist’s doctrine and the Biblical doctrine are the same.

[2] I think this refers to the natural resources of the region.

Call to Action

• Have you considered how God's decisions impact your understanding of His love and justice?

• Share your insights and encourage one another in faith.

👉 Join our community in studying God’s Word and strengthening your faith.

To my readers:

Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

For this and, more than 6400 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Join me at Daily Visits with God Podcast
https://marvinmckenzie.substack.com/

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi  is an opportunity to support this effort to reach a world of souls with the Word of God. I would appreciate any gift you can give. 

Malachi 1:2-3 (KJV) Divine Inheritance

Malachi 1:5 (KJV) Look and Learn

Malachi 1:5 (KJV)

And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.

The general understanding of the passage is that Jerusalem will watch as God curses Edom, and Jerusalem will glorify God because of it. However, since the burden of the word of the Lord from Malachi is pronounced against the Jews, I think it ought to be understood differently. The Jews can see God’s hand against Edom from their borders and should draw from that a desire to get right with the Lord.

There is never a reason to glory in another’s suffering. But there is a lesson to be learned from it so that we may not find ourselves in the same place. It’s the lesson that is supposed to be gained from capital punishment. It’s such a harsh judgment that those tempted to do crimes worthy of it think again. The law aims to incarcerate those who have committed crimes and restrain those who would but think better because of the law.

To see the evil effects of sin on others is no reason to judge them, look down on them, or certainly not to speak evil or take advantage of them. But it is a reason to take care to learn from them and do not as they have.

To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

Donate to our cause of “Reaching a world of souls with the Word of God.”

For this and, more than 5600 earlier Daily Visits with God, visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books, and other resources, are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Merch at my Teespring store https://macz.creator-spring.com/
Be a witness with hats, mugs, t-shirts, sweat shirts, and more

Let’s have coffee?
The link to Ko-fi provides a means for those who appreciate my content to leave me a “tip.” I would be thankful for it.

Malachi 1:5 (KJV) Look and Learn

Malachi 3:14 (KJV) Is It Vain to Serve God?

Malachi 3:14 (KJV)
Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts?

I imagine a number of Americans feel this way this morning. I think it is a misplaced sentiment based upon putting hopes in politics and not God. The response of so many today is evidence that we have not learned our lesson. God has a plan for all of this, and He has an answer. 

Fear the Lord
Vs 16, 
From chapter 4:2, But unto you that fear my name shall of the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings……
He arises only to those who fear his name.

Speak often one to another
Vs 16

No wonder governments wish to restrict this. Whether we agree that COVID-19 is a threat or not, it is apparent that government is using it to curtail gatherings of spiritual nature. I do not believe it is possible for them to prevent gatherings of true believers. 

Discern between the righteous and the wicked
Vs 18
I believe that the current state is manifesting the two quite clearly. I read the other day that the number of attendees that define a large church has gone down from 400 to 250. I imagine that number will continue to decline.

When those who fear the Lord speak often one with another, in the current climate we will soon discern between the righteous and the wicked and the Lord will bring healing, not to this lost world, but to those who look for and to Him alone.  

To my readers:
First of all, thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. Secondly, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.

Donate to Bible Baptist Church every time you make an Amazon purchase through this link, https://smile.amazon.com/ch/91-1265824

For this and more than 5100 earlier Daily Visits with God visit https://mckenzie-visit-with-god.blogspot.com. There you will find daily visits going back to 2005.

If you have been blessed by this blog, please subscribe to my feed and share it with others.

For more resources from Pastor Marvin McKenzie visit http://puyallupbaptistchurch.com.

My books are available at:
https://marvinmckenzie.org

Malachi 3:14 (KJV) Is It Vain to Serve God?

(I wrote this Daily Visit with God very early the morning of the 6th. I had no idea, at the time, what the events shaping up in Washington DC would be.)