{"id":7825,"date":"2021-09-28T06:38:09","date_gmt":"2021-09-28T11:38:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/?p=7825"},"modified":"2021-08-25T18:58:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T23:58:11","slug":"devotional-on-malachi-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-malachi-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Malachi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure id=\"attachment_15598\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15598\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601-1024x577.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"541\" class=\"size-large wp-image-15598\" srcset=\"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601-1024x577.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601-768x432.jpg 768w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601-1536x865.jpg 1536w, http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/100_2601.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15598\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Along the road to Moab, UT<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nHow to get a better preacher for your church<br \/>\nMalachi 1: You say \u201cI\u2019m bored \u2013 this doesn\u2019t do anything for me.\u201d<br \/>\nThe people of Malachi\u2019s day have lost the edge off of their religion.  Worship services are a burden rather than a blessing.  For them, righteous living is more about \u201chave to\u201d than \u201cwant to.\u201d  What should be the most satisfying part of life has become just another burden for them to bear.  Malachi tells them why it\u2019s like this: they\u2019ve settled for a cheap religion.  When they bring an animal to the Lord they don\u2019t pick the finest they have.  Instead, they pick one that\u2019s probably going to die anyway.  Even when they brag that they\u2019re going to make some significant offering, at the last minute they just can\u2019t bring themselves to do it and settle for a mere token offering instead.  The result, according to Malachi, is a dull, boring religion.  The less they put into their relationship with God the less they get out of it.  Here\u2019s the real kicker: God isn\u2019t satisfied with their religion either.  He says, \u201cIf this is how it\u2019s going to be just lock the Temple doors.\u201d  Apparently, the Lord isn\u2019t into playing church.  I don\u2019t think this concept gives us preachers a license to preach dull, sloppy, poorly prepared sermons or for singers and others to sleep walk through church.  However, from years of experience I can affirm that the people who get the most out of worship services are the ones who put the most into them.  Why not give it a try?  Get up early enough to pray for the services and for yourself, arrive ahead of time, focus on the Lord, and give 100% to worship.  Who knows?  You might have a better preacher at your church than you think you do!<br \/>\nTake Away: The people who get the most out of worship services are the ones who put the most into them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How to get a better preacher for your church Malachi 1: You say \u201cI\u2019m bored \u2013 this doesn\u2019t do anything for me.\u201d The people of Malachi\u2019s day have lost the edge off of their religion. Worship services are a burden rather than a blessing. For them, righteous living is more about \u201chave to\u201d than \u201cwant [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1516,6,7],"tags":[141,850,939,1169],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7825"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7825"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15600,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7825\/revisions\/15600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}