We always plan to go to church on a Sunday to worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Occasionally we need to hike over one half hour. Today the chosen church was right next door to the motel.
Unfortunately, the church was locked but we heard voices in the fellowship hall behind the church. We walked into the room, and there were about eight people sitting at a table. They apologized that the church was not open. They are on break and were planning the church service for next week.
We went around the block to The Anglican Church, and it was the same thing.
Whoever heard of a church on break? (Even the TV personalities that host morning shows take a one month Christmas break here. It must be a new Zealand thing!)
Anyway, we were reduced to watching a sermon online. My favorite online church is the Evangelical Church of Bangkok. Pastor Pablo Morales delivered a sermon by doing an induction Bible study of the book of Malachi. That is the last Bible book of the Old Testament and consists of four chapters. It isn’t a book that is talked about much.This church will spend two months to studying it. Today was the first five verses.
Malachi 1:1-5
[1] A prophecy: The word of the Lord to Israel through Malachi.
[2] “I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob,
[3] but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.”
[4] Edom may say, “Though we have been crushed, we will rebuild the ruins.” But this is what the Lord Almighty says: “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.
[5] You will see it with your own eyes and say, ‘Great is the Lord—even beyond the borders of Israel!’
God loves you because he created you. God has rescued you. God will never give up on you. Everything you ever hope to be starts with these FACTS!
Malachi 1:3 about hating Esau has always seemed troublesome but the reference here is explained as Hebrew hyperbole that is difficult to translate. Jacob was the chosen one, not Esau.
Another example is in Luke 14: 26. It says, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.
It means: You can and should love others, but you can’t love others more than Jesus. This is a helpful explanation.
Well, I guess we will go do our laundry … unless it, too, is closed.
On the way, we passed by a man wearing a religious collar. I asked him if he too was on break. Actually, no, their service had been up the hill at 9:30. It turned out that he was Father Vincent Jones, a Catholic priest. He was a very nice man.
Conversations with New Zealanders are very lengthy. Once they find out where you are from, they tell you all that they know about your country, state, AND city. Once they find out your name, they tell you about others that they know that share your surname. Once they find out where you are going, they will give you information on how to get there. And sometimes, we get an interesting history of the place where we are staying with an additional weather report … and all of this happens while holding bags of dirty laundry.
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