Just finished my reading in the Old Testament for reading my Bible through. A passage really stuck out to me this time through Malachi. It is highly relevant to the cause of youth ministry.
In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?
Malachi proceeds to accuse his audience of failing to respect God as God deserves. One way in which this disrespect is made manifest is through the substandard sacrifices which Malachi claims are being offered by the priests. While God demands animals that are “without blemish” , the priests, who were to determine whether the animal was acceptable, were offering blind, lame and sick animals for sacrifice because they thought nobody would notice.
I have a heart to see students come to church no matter where their starting point my be. I have had boys in kelts who thought they were a punk rock band. We have had kids from muslim families who did want to come into the auditorium. Of course, we have our steady flow of kids who come just for the few minutes of craziness they can find after the service and before their ride home. However, how we do worship can not be lowered. There are many kids there who are true believers who came to worship and be equipped for ministry.
Tomorrow night I will help decide what for of sacrifice will be offered to our God in worship. I want to be true to my calling and not lower our standards of worship for convenience. We will sing songs full of good Bible doctrine. We will spend real time in prayer. We will expound the Word of God and aim at the heart of our students.
The verse says that the people would not offer the governor the type of sacrifice they were offering God. Would allow the students to disrespect my mother the way they disrespect the Word of God? How would we act if we expected the governor to walk in? Pray for us as we offer the best we have to our Lord tomorrow at 7:15 pm!
