Pastor Bob DuPar
December 30, 2008

Journal Entry



Scripture

Malachi 1:1-2:17; Revelation 21:1-27; Psalm 149:1-9; Proverbs 31:10-24

Observation

“When you bring blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice crippled or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?’ says the Lord Almighty. …Oh, that one of you would shut the temple doors, so that you would not light useless fires on My altar!” Malachi 1:8, 10a

“And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.
I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. In the daytime (for there will be no night there) its gates will never be closed.”
Revelation 21:2-6, 22-25

Application

God would rather have us close the church doors than to offer Him imperfect and insincere sacrifices. David wrote in Psalm 51:17,

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”

It’s easy for me to pay lip service to God, or to go through the motions of religiosity; and yet, my heart can still be far from Him, far from being fully-surrendered. God wants my heart more than anything else - everything flows from the heart.

Prayer

“Lord, create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me. Help me to live fully-surrendered before You.”