God has created a beautiful world where all kinds of people benefit from living in it — the righteous and unrighteous, the worldly and godly, believers, agnostics, atheists, and pagans. Amazingly, God withholds His material gifts from none of these, not favoring anyone (Acts 10:34). He is pleased to share His sun’s light and His rain cloud’s bounty with both good and evil persons alike (Matthew 5:44-45). But God has something more to offer than just the physical glories of the world. To His people, He delivers this invitation:
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, and prove [test] Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).
These blessings that tumble from the “windows of heaven” are not the temporal blessings of life. Everyone gains those in some measure, as we have pointed out. No, this outpouring contains the spiritual blessings that are found only “in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). However, the obtaining these gifts requires something from us — the sacrifice of ourselves to God (Romans 12:1-2; cf. Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Luke 14:27). How do we make this sacrifice? Metaphorically speaking, how do we bring all our tithes into God’s storehouse? God’s answer: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4).
If we would enjoy these spiritual blessings, we must dedicate ourselves to holy living — that is, living that is set apart, distinctive, and blameless [law-abiding] (1 Peter 1:15-17; 1 Peter 2:11-12; 2 Peter 3:11). When we obey Him in holiness, it pleases God to adopt us as His children (Romans 8:14-17), accept us in His beloved Son, and redeem us from our sins through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:4-7).
To those outside of Christ, God has a wonderful inheritance to drop down through the windows of heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4) — things that can’t be seen with the natural eye through a pane of glass. However, He only reserves that blessed inheritance for those who fully trust in Him (cf. Job 13:15), and who demonstrate that trust by believing with active faith in His word of truth (Gal. 5:5-6; cf. James 2:18-24), the gospel of salvation (Ephesians 1:5-14).
Dear reader, the question we must ask ourselves is: “Are we ready to open the windows of heaven by obeying the simple saving gospel of Christ?” (Romans 1:16; cf. Acts 8:26-39; Acts 16:25-34; Romans 6:17).
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, and prove [test] Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it” (Malachi 3:10).
These blessings that tumble from the “windows of heaven” are not the temporal blessings of life. Everyone gains those in some measure, as we have pointed out. No, this outpouring contains the spiritual blessings that are found only “in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). However, the obtaining these gifts requires something from us — the sacrifice of ourselves to God (Romans 12:1-2; cf. Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Luke 14:27). How do we make this sacrifice? Metaphorically speaking, how do we bring all our tithes into God’s storehouse? God’s answer: “He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephesians 1:4).If we would enjoy these spiritual blessings, we must dedicate ourselves to holy living — that is, living that is set apart, distinctive, and blameless [law-abiding] (1 Peter 1:15-17; 1 Peter 2:11-12; 2 Peter 3:11). When we obey Him in holiness, it pleases God to adopt us as His children (Romans 8:14-17), accept us in His beloved Son, and redeem us from our sins through the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:4-7).
To those outside of Christ, God has a wonderful inheritance to drop down through the windows of heaven (1 Peter 1:3-4) — things that can’t be seen with the natural eye through a pane of glass. However, He only reserves that blessed inheritance for those who fully trust in Him (cf. Job 13:15), and who demonstrate that trust by believing with active faith in His word of truth (Gal. 5:5-6; cf. James 2:18-24), the gospel of salvation (Ephesians 1:5-14).
Dear reader, the question we must ask ourselves is: “Are we ready to open the windows of heaven by obeying the simple saving gospel of Christ?” (Romans 1:16; cf. Acts 8:26-39; Acts 16:25-34; Romans 6:17).
—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets
Comments
Post a Comment