Archive for month: March, 2024

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Malachi 2:10-17.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Malachi 2:10 (NIV) 
10 Have we not all one Father? Did not one God create us? Why do we profane the covenant of our fathers by breaking faith with one another? 

On verse 10: In this passage God identifies three ways that the Jews “broke faith” with one another. By carrying on these three sinful practices, the Jews were hurting one another, discouraging each other’s faith in God, threatening their unity as God followers, profaning the covenant their ancestors had made with God, and setting a bad example for the generations that followed them. Let’s take a look at each of these three practices, which are even more common today than they were in Malachi’s time.

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Malachi 2:1-9.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Malachi 2:1-2 (NIV) 
1 “And now this admonition is for you, O priests. 
2 If you do not listen, and if you do not set your heart to honor my name,” says the LORD Almighty, “I will send a curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already cursed them, because you have not set your heart to honor me. 

On verses 1-2:  After rebuking the Jewish people as a whole, God has a specific rebuke and warning for the priests.  From these verses we can see that God wants His priests to have hearts that are set on honouring His name.  Because their hearts were not set on honouring God, God says that their blessings are cursed (“I will curse your blessings” – v2).  Is “blessings” in verse 2 referring to blessings that the priests receive (such as material blessings and provision) or blessings that the priests give and pronounce on others?

Hi GAMErs,

Today we begin our look at the book of Malachi.  Here is some background on the book of Malachi that you may find helpful:

1.  The book of Malachi was most likely written in the 5th century B.C.  (around the same time as, or maybe slightly before or slightly after, the events described in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah).  It is the last of the Old Testament prophetic books to be written.

2. During the time that Malachi was written, the Jews were under Persian rule.  Jewish governor Zerubabbel and prophets Haggai and Zechariah had already successfully led the Jews in rebuilding the temple by 515 B.C.  Still the Jewish people had become cold spiritually and were struggling financially.  Doubt about God’s promises and spiritual apathy had set in, resulting in many Jews marrying non-believers and refusing to tithe or to be accountable to their spiritual community. It is in this context that God sends several hard-hitting messages to the people through the book of Malachi.  Let’s go!

Hi GAMErs,

Today’s passage is Revelation 22:1-21.  As usual, I encourage you to read the passage yourself first and see what you can glean with the Holy Spirit’s help, then read the GAME sharing below.  Let’s go!

Revelation 22:1-2 (NIV) 
1  Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 
2  down the middle of the great street of the city…

On verse 1-2a:  In Psalm 46:4 we read that “[t]here is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells.”  Here in Revelation 22, John gets to see that river.  According to John’s description, heaven is such a beautiful city that there is a river of living water, clear as crystal, that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the main street of heaven.