This week we begin our study of the prophet Malachi, who will teach us to be faithful to a faithful God. Our text this week is Malachi 1:1-5, where God declares his love, calling and protection to us. The worship theme is “I Have Loved You,” and the visual theme is waterfalls, which symbolize God’s love poured out.
Here is the link to the YouTube playlist: 201011 Heart Prep
Deuteronomy 10:14–15 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
Psalm 25:4–7 Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. 5Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long. 6Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. 7Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions; according to your steadfast love remember me, for the sake of your goodness, O Lord!
Romans 5:6–8 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Preparation for Prayer:
How Deep the Father’s Love for us
Closing Worship:
The King of Love My Shepherd Is
Scripture for Meditation:
Deuteronomy 7:6–9 “For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, 8but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,
Hosea 11:1–4 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 2The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. 3Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them. 4I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
