TLIC FAMILY. DAY 109. APRIL 19: HE IS COMING.

THINK TOGETHER

Do you have to clean things in your house?

READ TOGETHER

Malachi was the last prophet sent by God to his people before Jesus. Can you find Malachi in your Bible? The next page will begin the New Testament. But in real life there was 400 years between Malachi and Jesus. Four hundred years of no prophets. Four hundred years of waiting for God to send the hero who would save them, the Messiah. But Malachi’s prophecy was one of hope beyond their wildest imagination. Listen to what Malachi said to God’s people:

Malachi 3:1-2. ¹“Behold, I 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 in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. ²But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap.

OK, this is a bit tricky so let’s break it down: God said, I send my messenger, but the messenger is NOT the messiah. The messenger lets the people know that the Messiah is on the way. Then God said, he (the messenger) will prepare the way before me – ME! God is letting us know that God will be God’s messiah. God’s hero IS God. God will send God. The God who must judge us will take our judgment upon himself. How is that possible?

Jesus! Jesus is God and Jesus is God’s Messiah, God’s hero, who will save us from God’s punishment. But how does Jesus save us? Malachi tells us the answer – he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap. A refiner’s fire makes metals pure, and fuller’s soap makes wool clean. You see, Jesus doesn’t just forgive us for our sins, he removes all our sin from out of our hearts. He burns it away like a hot fire with gold, and he scrubs it away like soap on wool. How does Jesus do this? By loving us over and over and over again until one day we love him too.  

Because of Jesus we are both forgiven and made clean of our sin by his love.

With Jesus I can learn to love others too like he does.

DO SOMETHING TOGETHER

Watch a video on how gold is made. Talk about how the impurities have to be burned off. Jesus makes us pure too by showing us the bad things in our hearts and by loving us anyway, teaching us what unconditional love looks like.

PRAY TOGETHER

Jesus, you came to forgive us and to make us clean by your love. Teach me to love others like you do. Amen.