Malachi 3: 7

7 Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.

How do we return to God?

1. Turn back to God’s love and love people as He expects us to.
2. Ministers and leaders need to return to righteousness
3. Start calling sin sin
4. Return to the Word of God
5. Return to being a godly people

1st John 2:3-6

1st John 2:3-6 “We know that we have come to know Him if we obey his commands. The man who says, I know Him, but does not do what He commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys His word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in Him: Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did.”

Christ’s example that we are to follow is His complete obedience to God and His service to others. John says the way we act can give us assurance that we belong to Christ.

If our search in religion is fellowship with God and if as Augustine wrote we are restless until we rest in God, then the people who are trying to find God or understand God through their intellect are missing the boat. Any intellectual effort has to be combined with moral action.

1st John 1:6-7

1st John 1:6-7 “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

Here John is talking to that group who said they were so spiritual they didn’t have to worry about sin. Kind of like Napoleon when he said that laws were for ordinary people – not the likes of him!

When John said that to have fellowship with God who is light, a man must walk in the light and that if he is still walking in the moral and ethical darkness of the Christ-less life – then he can have no fellowship with God, this is really what God said in Leviticus centuries before, “Ye shall be holy; for I the Lord your God am holy.”

If we are committed to fellowship with God, our life must reflect the goodness of God! Obviously this doesn’t mean we have to be perfect, but it means we try and we’re sorry when we fail. It means we never think that sin doesn’t matter. Actually we notice our sins more and they seem worse to us then they did before.

John mentions truth here, and a test for truth is if we have fellowship. Christianity is not exclusive. (Revelation 3:20)

Some translations say, “he who really knows the truth is daily more and more cleansed from sin by the blood of Jesus Christ.” What John means is, if you really understand what the sacrifice of Jesus has done, if you are really experiencing its power day by day, then every day you will become more and more fit to enter the presence of God. So not only did Christ’s sacrifice atone us from the sin of the past, but equips us in holiness day by day.

All of the sacrifices in the Old Testament prepared people to understand Christ’s sacrifice. My application Bible says, “God graciously forgave them because of their faith in Him and because they obeyed His commandments concerning the sacrifice.”

They believed God telling them that life is in the blood and the wages of sin is death. And that God allowed their guilt and sins to be transferred to an animal that was then killed. God told them that and they had faith that what He said was true. And they followed the laws that God laid out concerning sacrifices.

John says any man who denies Jesus, as Christ is a liar. And any man who says he loves God, but at the same time hates his brother is a liar. All of our saying we love God and love Christ means nothing if we hate man.

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She did what the Lord commanded

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)

If on my tombstone were written the words, “She did what the Lord commanded” and it was true, I would have died at peace.

God doesn’t ask us to do the impossible. He just wants us to believe in Him and then act on that belief!

He created us to have fellowship with Him. He had it with Adam and Eve in the garden and He has been reaching out to us ever since. He led the Israelites on their journey to the Promised Land, as a pillar of fire at night and a cloud by day. When they built the temple His presence was in the Holy of Holies. He spoke through the prophets. He came in the form of Jesus Christ to walk among us. He came as the Holy Spirit to live inside of us. And He gave us His word, the Bible to know Him better.

He is constantly reaching out to us. He wants our obedience to come from love for Him. The covenant with the Israelites was based on their keeping the law. The commandments were written in stone. The new covenant is based on forgiveness, mercy and grace. And the Bible tells us it is written on our very hearts.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13 says, “what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, to Love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I command you this day for your good?”

God will bless obedience. The blessings of obedience are; knowing you are loved by God, having peace and being used by Him.

Here I am Lord. Send me!

One never does wrong by doing right. Put the matter in God's hands and simply do the right thing, leaving the outcome to God.

Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you. Joshua 3:5

The wonders God wants to do in all our tomorrows are prepared for in our todays! I pray this waiting is preparation!