Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gates into the city. Revelation 22:14

Malachi 3-4

Malachi 3

Judgement Day

¹ “I will send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me, and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, he will come!” says the Lord of Hosts.

² “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like launderers’ soap, ³ and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them as gold and silver. Then in righteousness, they will give their offerings to the Lord.

⁴ Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasing to the Lord, like they were in the days of old and in ancient years.

⁵ I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be quick to witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress employees in their wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and those who deprive the foreigner of justice and do not fear me,” says the Lord of Hosts.

Robbing God

⁶ “For I, the Lord, do not change, therefore you, descendants of Jacob, have not perished. ⁷ From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the Lord of Hosts.

“But you say, ‘How shall we return?’

⁸ Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me!

But you ask, ‘How have we robbed you?’

In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are doomed with a curse, for you–this whole nation–are still robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house and test me now in this,” says the Lord of Hosts, “if I will not open to you the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing upon you, that there will not be room enough to receive it. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for your sake, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your land, nor shall your fruit fall from the vine in the field before its time,” says the Lord of Hosts.

¹² “All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight,” says the Lord of Hosts.

¹³ “Your words against me have been bold,” says the Lord.

“Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’

¹⁴ You have said, ‘It is useless to serve the Lord,’ and ‘What profit is there, having followed his instructions and walked mournfully before the Lord of Hosts? ¹⁵ So now we call the proud blessed. Those who behave wickedly prosper. They tempt God and escape.’ ”

The Book of Remembrance

¹⁶ Then those who feared the Lord spoke one with another, and the Lord listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him, for those who feared the Lord and who honored his name. ¹⁷ “They shall be mine,” says the Lord of Hosts, “my own possession on the day that I act, and I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. ¹⁸ Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between the one who serves the Lord and the one who does not serve him.”

Malachi 4

The Great Day of the Lord

¹ “For the day is coming, burning like a furnace, and all the proud, and all who act wickedly will be stubble, and the day that is coming will burn them up,” says the Lord of Hosts, “leaving them neither root nor branch.

² But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall arise with healing in its wings. You will go out, leaping like calves released from the stall. ³ You shall trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I act,” says the Lord of Hosts.

⁴ “Remember the law of my servant Moses, and the statutes and ordinances which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel. ⁵ I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Revelation 22

Water of Life

¹ He showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, ² in the middle of its street. On this side of the river and on that was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruits, yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. ³ There will be no curse any more. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will serve him. ⁴ They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. ⁵ There will be no night, and they need no lamp light or sun light, for the Lord God will illuminate them. They will reign forever and ever.

Jesus Coming

⁶ He said to me, “These words are faithful and true. The Lord God of the spirits of the prophets sent his angel to show to his bondservants the things which must happen soon.”

⁷ “I am coming soon. Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

⁸ Now I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. When I heard and saw, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who had shown me these things. ⁹ He said to me, “Do not do this! I am a fellow bondservant with you and with your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God.”

¹⁰ He said to me, “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand. ¹¹ He who acts unjustly, let him continue acting unjustly. He who is filthy, let him continue being filthy. He who is righteous, let him continue in righteousness. He who is holy, let him be holy still.”

¹² “I am coming soon. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work. ¹³ I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

¹⁴ Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. ¹⁵ Outside are the despicable ones, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves deception and lives a lie.

¹⁶ I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify these things to you for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the Bright and the Morning Star.”

¹⁷ The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” He who hears, let him say, “Come!” He who is thirsty, let him come. He who desires, let him take the water of life freely.

Add Nothing

¹⁸ I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book, if anyone adds to them, may God add to him the plagues which are written in this book. ¹⁹ If anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, may God take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

²⁰ He who testifies these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”

Amen! Yes, come, Lord Jesus.

²¹ The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with all the saints. Amen.

Psalm 150

Let Everything that has Breath Praise

¹ Hallelujah!

Praise God his sanctuary!
Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power!
² Praise him for his mighty acts!
Praise him according to his excellent greatness!

³ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet!
Praise him with harp and lyre!

⁴ Praise him with tambourine and dancing!
Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!
⁵ Praise him with loud cymbals!
Praise him with resounding cymbals!
⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!

Hallelujah!

Proverbs 31:25-31

²⁵ Strength and dignity are her clothing.
She laughs at the time to come.
²⁶ She opens her mouth with wisdom.
Kind instruction is on her tongue.
²⁷ She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
²⁸ Her children rise up and call her blessed.
Her husband also praises her:
²⁹ “Many women do noble things,
but you excel them all.”
³⁰ Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.
³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands!
Let her works praise her in the gates!

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