Questions from Malachi.

Question: 

“Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?”… Malachi 3:8

The men of that generation turned away from God, they had not kept his ordinances. God gives them a gracious call. But they said, wherein shall we return? God notices what returns our hearts make to the calls of his word. It shows great perverseness in sin, when men make afflictions excuses for sin, which are sent to part between them and their sins. Here is an earnest exhortation to reform. God must be served in the first place; and the interest of our souls ought to be preferred before that of our bodies. Let them trust God to provide for their comfort. God has blessings ready for us, but through the weakness of our faith and the narrowness of our desires, we have not room to receive them. He who makes trial will find nothing is lost by honoring the Lord with his substance.

Question:

 “I have loved you,” says the LORD. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’…Malachi 1:2

All advantages, either as to outward circumstances, or spiritual privileges, come from the free love of God, who makes one to differ from another. All the evils sinners feel and fear, are the just recompense of their crimes, while all their hopes and comforts are from the unmerited mercy of the Lord. He chose his people that they might be holy. If we love him, it is because he has first loved us; yet we all are prone to undervalue the mercies of God, and to excuse our own offences.

Question: 

“But can you endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears?”…Malachi 3:2

The first words of this chapter seem an answer to the scoffers of those days. Here is a prophecy of the appearing of John the Baptist. He is Christ's harbinger. He shall prepare the way before him, by calling men to repentance. The Messiah had been long called, "He that should come," and now shortly he will come. He is the Messenger of the covenant. Those who seek Jesus shall find pleasure in him, often when not looked for. The Lord Jesus prepares the sinner's heart to be his temple, by the ministry of his word and the convictions of his Spirit, and he enters it as the Messenger of peace and consolation.

No hypocrite or formalist can endure his doctrine, or stand before his tribunal. Christ came to distinguish men, to separate between the precious and the vile. He shall sit as a Refiner. Christ, by his gospel, shall purify and reform his church, and by his Spirit working with it, shall regenerate and cleanse souls. He will take away the dross found in them. He will separate their corruptions, which render their faculties worthless and useless. The believer needs not fear the fiery trial of afflictions and temptations, by which the Savior refines his gold. He will take care it is not more intense or longer than is needful for his good; and this trial will end far otherwise than that of the wicked. Christ will, by interceding for them, make them accepted. Where no fear of God is, no good is to be expected. Evil pursues sinners. God is unchangeable. And though the sentence against evil works is not executed speedily, yet it will be executed; the Lord is as much an enemy to sin as ever. We may all apply this to ourselves. Because we have to do with a God that changes not, therefore it is that we are not consumed; because his compassions fail not.

86,400 Seconds and Counting:

Every morning we have 86,400 seconds before us to spend and to invest. Each day the bank named “Time” opens a new account. It allows no balances, no overdrafts. If we fail to use the day’s deposits the loss is ours.

Tomorrow will be a glorious and marvelous time for those who live in the will of God and take advantage of every moment and every second that God gives.

I speak at in universities, and if I tell young people that time is short, that life is brief, they don’t believe it….

Time can be our tool, but we can be its slave. Have you sat down and written out some priorities for your life? Your life ought to be carefully planned. Ask the Holy Spirit. Start going to a little place of your own where you meet God alone in prayer. Take a pencil and paper along and write out some things that God says to you.

Read Ephesians 5:16. Time is urgent; don’t waste it—redeem it.

                                                                                                 …Billy Graham