Get your house in order, there is a reckoning coming… 

The Coming Messenger…

Read Malachi 3:1-4

Malachi 3:1-4
Contemporary English Version

The Promised Messenger
I, the Lord All-Powerful,
will send my messenger
    to prepare the way for me.
Then suddenly the Lord
you are looking for
    will appear in his temple.
The messenger you desire
is coming with my promise,
    and he is on his way.

A Day of Change
2  On the day the Lord comes, he will be like a furnace that purifies silver or like strong soap in a washbasin.

No one will be able to stand up to him.

3 The Lord will purify the descendants of Levi, as though they were gold or silver.

Then they will bring the proper offerings to the Lord, 4 and the offerings of the people of Judah and Jerusalem will please him, just as they did in the past.
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Malachi 3:1-4
Messiah’s Coming in Judgment

God will send His messenger, a promise that had an early and partial fulfillment in John the Baptist, but awaits a later and complete fulfillment when Elijah (4:5) will prepare the way of the Lord, … the Messenger of the covenant whom they desired (irony).

The irony here is that when He later arrived (His First Advent), the nation of Israel did not delight in Him but crucified Him instead. 3:2–4

The day of His coming will be the Second Advent. The Lord will come in judgment on sin, and who will be able to stand?

This purifying ministry, pictured by Christ’s cleansing of the temple, awaits final fulfillment at His Second Coming.

The sons of Levi (priests) will be purified so that they can make offerings of holiness and righteousness that are pleasant to the LORD, as in the days of old.

God’s coming is both a delight and a difficulty.

It’s a delight because He comes to us.

It’s a difficulty because He comes to us in order to cleanse.

Using the strongest of soap, He’ll scrub us like dirty laundry.

Washing us. Rinsing us. Wringing us out.

Then repeating the cycle over and over again until we’re clean.

Which raises a question: “Who can survive his coming?”

And there’s ONLY one answer to that question:

The one who submits to the soap and the suds and the scrubbing.

Put God First in every area of your life – this is a key principle of life:

Put God first. If you want Him to bless your marriage; put Him first, if you want Him to bless your relationships; put Him first, if you want Him to bless your finances; put Him first.

Put Him first in whatever you want Him to bless or protect.

“And all, whatever you might do in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” (Colossians 3:17)

SELAH (let us pause and calmly think about these things)
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Thursday, August 15
cFaith

The Anointed Word
by Keith Butler

THE LORD SHALL COME SUDDENLY

“Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts.”
— Malachi 3:1

Even the return of the Lord will be sudden.

In Mark 13:35-37, Jesus tells us the signs of His coming: “Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: Lest coming suddenly He find you sleeping. And what I say unto you, I say unto all. Watch.”

Suddenly He shall find you sleeping. You may say, “But you preachers have been talking about Jesus coming back all my lifetime.”

That’s right. We are that much closer to His return, and when He comes it’s going to be unexpectedly.

He will come and snatch up the believers with the rapture of the church.

One day people will be driving down the expressway and believers will be caught up out of their cars.

Some of them will be pilots of airplanes flying 35,000 feet above ground and they will be caught up out of the cockpit.

They’ll be at work and they’ll be caught up immediately, instantly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, Jesus shall return – glory to God – and catch up the believers.

The point here is that it will happen so fast that people won’t have a chance to repent.

Then if you are left, you have to deal with what the Bible says is the worst seven years ever in the history of the planet.

It’s called the tribulation period.

God said if He did not cut these days short, no flesh would be saved.

Everything on earth would be destroyed. Don’t you know at the rapture of the church that people who never went to church are going to be there?

Don’t you know every church will be full, they’ll have ten Sunday morning services a day, but then they’re going to have to pay a price while on earth because they didn’t listen when the spirit of God ministered to them?

Now is the time to listen. Now is the time to follow the Spirit of God.

Now is the time to receive from God. Now is the time to accept the Word of God unto you this day.

Scripture References: 1 Thessalonians 5:6; 4:13-17; 1 Corinthians 15:51-52

[Keith Butler Ministries]
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“Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” (Isaiah 55:6)

Come join the Adventure, while you still can!

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