God sees us, his children, as his spiritual fax machines. He gets his message through to us through prophets. Prophets are sent by God to bring his words to his people. They were sent to Israel to warn the people of coming disasters if they people did not return to their belief in God. After all of the disasters that were foretold by the prophets, they were sent back to share the news of comfort and promising that God would come and save all his people out of the bondage they were stuck in. In the Old Testament, there are foreshadows of the New Testament idea that we are all organs in the Body of Christ. God is the handy feet, prophets are the body's big mouth. Prophets are not people who predict the future, but people who God trusts to share his word of coming events.
The book of Malachi, found in the Old Testament, may have been written before Nehemiah's first return to Jerusalem in 445 bc. It's actually also possible that it was written while he was there, or even years after. He shows us attitudes and behaviors characteristic of the Jewish community a few generations after the end of the Babylonian
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During Malachi’s time, the Jewish people were turning away from God and sinning continuously. He began to punish the Jews for the sins. In chapter one he stated they weren't bringing their best for God and in chapter three says God wasn't happy with the amount of divorces and people lack of tithing. God offers hope in Malachi's message, “Behold, i send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord, Whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, Even the messenger of the covenant, in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming. Says the lord of hosts” (Malachi 3:1). Before the people were told that the messiah is coming soon, another prophet will come to help and prepare all the people and he was john the
Bernard Malamud emerged as a crucial and contemporary innovator of sports literature. Sports literature as defined by Kevin Baker’s introduction, are stories “drawing upon the natural drama of any sporting contest, and imparting life lessons freely along the way” (viii). Malamud’s debut novel The Natural, is a grim and “antiheroic tale” of a baseball player Roy Hobbs “whose ambitions and desires are constantly thwarted” (vii). Through his novel The Natural, Malamud emerges as a prestigious figure of sports literature through his combination of mythology and baseball, in order to create memorable works in this literary tradition. Malamud in his novel The Natural “draws heavily upon this genre, then stands it on its head” (viii). Baker draws
In order to make sense of these inherently opposite features, we must seek a higher authority and focus on God’s beauty, mercy, love, and grace. Our God, who is the creator of the world, has a plan for us all and intends for us to seek out His will. When we look around us and see that God created and feeds the sparrow just as he created and feeds us, we can begin to understand God’s will and His purpose for us. The entire enormity of this world and what God created becomes clearer. God seeks a relationship with us. There are times when reading the Bible, a passage or verse may seem too confusing or unrelatable in our current situation, although a God who created nature and everything in it always reveals the truth in His time for His plan for
Mansa Musa was a Mali emperor from the 14th century. In a vast land filled with important resources, he attained many valuable ones, that soon led to his grand collection. In a world where anyone with even a decent amount of gold and salt were envied, Mansa Musa had endless piles of both. So the question that arises is, “is Mansa Musa the richest person on earth”? Mansa Musa is definitely the wealthiest person of all time. He was the emperor of a thriving empire, located near huge reservoirs of natural resources, and had easy access to them. There has been extensive proof of his fortune while he was on his pilgrimage to Mecca. In Egypt, his fortune disrupted the money system for many years.Mansa Musa is doubtlessly, the most well-off person in history.
"This famous prophecy provides the foundation and the core of the central theological teaching of the New Testament," said The Collegeville Bible Commentary on the Old Testament. "It underlies, but without explicit references, much of the 'new life' theology of St. John and is central to the teaching of Jesus in John's Last Supper discourse." (Collegeville 469).
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Have you ever heard the cliche if everyone jumped off a bridge would you? Well, that’s what led me to jumping off not a bridge but a famous waterfall in Costa Rica.
... always preached to the Jews first (13:5), and turned to the gentiles only after his fellow Jews had rejected him. "And when they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews: and they had also John to their minister."
As we look at this we see that God not only led the Children of Israel out of Egypt that was a type of the world but that He wanted as His Children to lead them into something. A great land full of promise, freedom, and victory It is the same with us. As God’s children, God doesn’t just want us to survive in this world struggling through, barely making it with our heads bobbing up once in a while. No He has a plan and a purpose for each of us. Say: God has a plan for me. We see that God had a plan for Israel. He wanted them to be different than the rest of the world. He dosen’t want us to live with the same bondage and limitations as the world. 2COR.6:14-18. What God was showing us in our scripture in Deut. and here is the relationship that He created us for. In the old covenant, testament He set up the temple so He could be in there midst, in the new covenant, testament we are the temple individually and collectively.
Matthew characterizes Jesus as the prophesized Messiah that has finally arrived. Every time a significant event, Matthew highlights that these events fulfill a certain specific prophecy. One example is the revelation that the power of the Holy Spirit caused the Virgin Mary to conceive. Matthew 1:22-23 says, “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.” Later on, Matthew 2:18 quotes a prophecy in Jeremiah that foretold the Herod’s actions, and Matthew again quotes another prophecy in Matthew 2:15 where “the Lord had spoken by the prophet, ‘out of Egypt I called my son.’” This was when Joseph, Mary, and Jesus had fled to Egypt to avoid the wrath of Herod. Other important details that fulfilled prophecies are Joseph’s lineage of the House of David and Jesus’ childhood in Nazareth (which makes him a Nazarene). (Matt. 2:23) The very end picture that Matthew intends to portray is that Jesus fulfills so many specific prophecies in the Old Testament, that surely, without a doubt, Jesus was the Messiah the Jews were waiting
¨The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.¨ (Morrie Schwartz). Morrie was a wise man, a teacher, a husband, and most importantly everyone's best friend! Morrie teaches people to live life by accepting the fear of aging, accepting death, and learning how to say goodbye.
Jewish people expected that He would bring deliverance through the conquest but Jesus explained that deliverance can be achieved only through the cross. Jesus will achieve victory through suffering. It is the cross, not crown He will take up. Explaining His mission to the listeners he requires them to adjust and raise their expectations of Messiah . Jesus is much more than they had anticipated and God's mean of deliverance is through death. Jesus knew that He was misunderstood as Messiah and corrected their view in the gospel of Mark.
Malachi 3:8-10 demonstrates the importance of tithing. In many churches in America, the majority of believers do not tithe. Israel gave tithes on multiple things. McGee said, “There are several rather important things that we do need to correct in our understanding at this point. To begin with, the people of Israel did not give just one tithe, as you would discover if you would examine the Scriptures carefully.”1 Israel was not tithing properly and for them to withhold their tithes and offerings, it was seen by God as them robbing God. Hindson said, “The specific nature of their offense could have taken three formats: (1) not paying their tithes and offerings at all; (2) withholding a part
One may question the relevance of studying Malachi, a book that could be seen as relatively insignificant at the tail end of the Minor Prophets, however a detailed look will show that the people of Malachi’s day struggled with some of the same issues as the modern church today.
The book of Matthew is a Gospel Narrative. The purpose of Matthew has numerous aspects of importance. It is here to tell that Jesus is the promised Messiah of the Old Testament prophecy. Because the gospels , (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) are narratives (like the Old testament histories), we should emphasize the broader context when reading them. We should always think about the broader sweep of the narratives, constantly relating the various events and teachings to those that precede and follow them. The heart of the narrative lies in the interrelation of the various events and teachings to one another. To ignore this interrelation is to miss the basic meaning of the narrative. The gospels demand some background information regarding history and culture1. It is more relevant to understand the culture, values and worldview of the people on the pages of the Gospel, than to know the specific author or recipients. All of that interaction comes to full light when we understand those important historical and cultural aspects of the gospels. The focus on the gospels is on Jesus, not on us! The Gospels were primarily written to tell us about who Jesus is, what he did for us, and why He is the only true object of our faith. If we change this focus1, we distort the very essence of the Gospels. We will think of Him as the God-man who walked the earth and now sits resurrected and glorified at the right hand of our Father. With four different Gospels, we should do comparisons of the various Gospel accounts when appropriate. When you blend the different Gospels together, you loose something unique and precious. We need to understand the centrality of the Kingdom of God in the Gospel.
3.) God also speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit usually talks to us from our hearts. Have you ever experienced that? Like, sometimes, just out of the blue, you get this little voice or urge in your heart telling you to pray or read the bible? That’s the voice of the Holy Spirit and you shouldn’t ignore it. Or you could also be in the middle of a test and you’re stuck on one problem. You know you’ve seen the problem before, but you just can’t remember the right answer although you’ve prayed right before taking that test and all of a sudden the answer just came to you?
Surely this is one of the most unusual texts found in the Bible. But within this unusual text, there are two important truths to help you to grow. The first unusual truth you discover is that Malachi charges that a man can rob God. For one to keep back that which God has declared to be His is robbing God. The second important truth you discover is God’s plan for giving. It is essential that you learn to give biblically if you are to grow spiritually.