Scrapbooking, anyone?

One thing I absolutely LOVE about Scripture is that each time I read it, there is the probability that something new and fresh will jump out at me from its sacred pages. Some years ago now, my daughter, Shawn, recommended the Amplified Bible. As I read through Malachi, which is the last book of the Old Testament, to see what this version said about "robbing God", I came across two verses that have become two of my very favorites. They are found in chapter 3. Dip in with me at verse 16.

"Then those who feared the Lord talked often one to another; and the Lord listened and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who reverenced and worshipfully feared the Lord and who thought on His name." These words gripped my soul.

The background here is that Malachi was given a hard job to do as the last minor prophet in the Old Testament. He was commissioned by God to tell His people to clean up their act. It was still a good 420 years before Christ would come on the scene. The church was in a deplorable state. Not only did the priests stray far away from God's Word, not venerating it as something to be acknowledged and followed, but they were accepting maimed, diseased, and defiled animal sacrifices from their congregation, which resulted in defaming, and polluting the table of God and profaning and despising His Name. He suggests that they offer such "gifts" to their governor to see how he would like them.

Chapter two grinds the men to pieces who have left the wives of their youth in lust to marry foreign wives who worshiped foreign gods and left their first wives sobbing at the altar because of being abandoned. These same men came crying at the altar as well--not because of their penitent hearts--but because the Lord would no longer accept their contemptible sacrifices. Amazing isn't it how sin blinds us. In verse 16 of this same chapter He speaks of this behavior as an act of great aggression. ". . . I hate divorce and marital separation and him who covers his garment (his wife) with violence. What an intimate description of our relationship to our husbands. We are their garment.

One sin leads to another when we do not guard our hearts, out of which every issue of life proceeds. I love this next warning: "Therefore, keep a watch upon your spirit that it may be controlled by My Spirit."

Chapter 3 speaks of impending judgment from The Judge who does all things right. However, God's heart cry is that they will turn rather than burn. Part of the returning to Him requires that they stop withholding their tithes and offerings, and consequently they are cursed for robbing the God of the universe. We've all been there I think. You know, thinking that we can handle our finances better than our Creator can! Giving God what's left over instead of the first fruits, or maybe nothing at all because there's more month left than there is money. It's painful to hear, but God just doesn't see it that way. He calls us thieves and frauds.

They were not much different from today's society, really. But remember God's eyes always roaming the earth in search for those who are fully committed to Him? This is where verse 16 comes in. I believe in addition to the Book of Life where our name is recorded once we become a child of God through the blood of Jesus Christ alone, there is a book of memories. This is where the scrap booking comes in.

It says here that the Lord actually opened up His ears and took it all in when he saw some who feared Him and talked about Him, and thought on His Name. He is so stirred when we respect Him enough to follow Him in awe and talk about Him, and take the time to meditate and allow our minds to be full of thoughts of Him, that He makes sure that those thoughts and words are recorded in a special book.

My God is impressed with what I occupy my mind; and, when it is filled with Him, when my mouth speaks His praises, and when healthy fear causes me to worship Him, He makes a note of it! I am suggesting that we can scrapbook with the Lord each day. We can make a memory with Him, for Him, about Him. We can determine in our hearts not to forget to set aside some time to store up memories with Him for the future. What will my scrapbook look like? When I lay my head on my pillow at the end of the day, will I have made sure that I took the time to extol, esteem, and honor my God? How thick will my scrapbook be? Won't it be fun to look back with the Lord and see how we looked when we first came to know Him as Savior? And what about the next decade after that all important choice of becoming accepted in the Beloved--what will those years look like? What about the breakthroughs, the lights coming on in our spirits during prayer, and the times we determined we were going to wait on Him instead of running ahead impulsively?

It's all for the taking. We can make a difference for all of eternity by what we choose to do today. Why wouldn't we want to remember the One who has the hairs of our heads numbered and who considers our tears valuable enough to bottle them up and put them in a book as well? Psalm 56:8 And, oh, such delight He takes in us. Look at verse 17 of chapter 3. They shall be Mine, says the Lord of hosts, in that day when I publicly recognize and openly declare them to be My jewels, My special possession, My peculiar treasure. . . ". Wow! He's going to put us on display!

"I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart; I will show forth, recount and tell aloud all Your marvelous works and wonderful deeds. I will rejoice in You and be in high spirits; I will sing praise to Your Name, O Most High! Psalm 9:1,2

Happy scrap booking.