Old Testament Scripture Reading: Malachi 1:1 – 5 (KJV)
Mal 1:1 The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.
Mal 1:2 I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
Mal 1:3 And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
Mal 1:4 Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.
Mal 1:5 And your eyes shall see, and ye shall say, The LORD will be magnified from the border of Israel.
New Testament Scripture Reading: 1John 5:1 – 5 (KJV)
1Jn 5:1 Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him.
1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments.
1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.
1Jn 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world–our faith.
1Jn 5:5 Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?
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Transforming Power Statements:
1) Through sincere meditation and prayer let us think and pray even more deeply about coming into a far more explicit consciousness of one of God’s most prominent characteristics which is His Great LOVE for mankind, so that we too can walk with a more pure mindset as we deal with each other and even more with those outside of the Church, who need it even more.
2) One attribute of the “essence of God” is Love; therefore, when mankind fell from God’s grace, there immediately flowed into the vacuum of the sinful soul extreme distortion of what the actual beauty and power of Love is, which has placed the human family on a downward spiral of greater and greater love-less-ness ; which quickly and progressively becomes more and more evil (which is the opposing force against the things of God) which is what Jesus Christ restores for the ones who believe in Him which we call “Salvation”.
3) As we have been called to be Children of the Most High God, it must be our favorite endeavor to learn to Navigate Through Love Distortion, by continual application of excess effort to be more like God our Father and realize that it is Love that will cover a multitude of sins, and Jesus said that the world shall know that we are His disciples because we have Love one to another.