Bro Harold Davis - Harolds Lessons

Copyright 2020 by Bro Harold Davis.

ISBN 978-1-952835-52-0 (softcover)

ISBN 978-1-952835-53-7 (ebook)

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Printed in the United States of America.

Book Vine Press

2516 Highland Dr.

Palatine, IL 60067

CONTENTS

A NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR

I lay no claim to originality as my life has been influenced by the input of truth from many sources. Phrases or unique thoughts that have become my own, surely were birthed from hearing a sermon or reading a book at some time in my past. My thanks to the many Pastors and Sunday School teachers who have helped me to understand The Bible, The Word of God.

Bro. Harold Davis is a minister of the Gospel according to Acts 2:38

His lessons are written to the saving of souls.

By the Grace of God, many more of his lessons will be published.

Read the lessons and let them speak to your souls.

Blank sheets are left after each chapter, so you may be able to make your own study notes.

HAROLD DAVISS LESSONS

LESSON ONE

The Fragrance of Obedience

Malachi 3:8 and 1:9

Ephesians 5:1-2

Samuel 15:22

When you read the book of Malachi, you began to feel that God is saying, You smell terrible. God didnt use those exact words, but that is what He seems to have implied, when He spoke to His people through His Prophet Malachi.

(Their response?

Well, they probably responded the same way you would, if I stood here and said, You all smell bad.

First, you would be offended by such a statement and next, some of you might smell of yourselves. Some of you might ask, Whats so bad about the way we smell?)

God was referring to a condition that His people were blind to; the condition of their offerings. Offerings are to be a sweet-smelling fragrance to the Lord. Their offerings stank.

Although the Israelites had promised God their best, they had actually given Him much less. And they had offered it with a careless pride that had offended God.

Their offerings were blemished, and their hearts werent right toward God; yet they were oblivious to their condition.

How could they have remained so ignorant of their plight?

I think I know the answer, based on my own experience. I never consciously decided to stop having my quiet time, to let the Bible study time dwindle or to cease praying. Yet, I have found myself in each of these conditions at one time or another. I didnt get these by decision; I got these by slippage.

Slippage happens slowly and is easily ignored. Slippage comes mostly because of default. Good habits wear away; exceptions build up. So, I slipped into a condition of which I was only vaguely aware of.

I lacked the motivation to stop and evaluate my life.

The Israelites had probably arrived at their condition largely by slippage and had not stopped to evaluate themselves.

Gods gentler means must have failed to get their attention. So, through the prophet Malachi, God spoke harsh words of assessment and the coming of Judgment.

How recently have you or I took stock of our offering to the Lord? According to Romans 12:1, our offering is ourselves.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, Holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

Gone are the dead sacrifices of the Old Testament; God wants a sacrifice that is alive. We are to be a pleasing and fragrant offering to our God, as was Jesus, who gave Himself up for us, as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

What makes the offering of us a fragrant to the Lord? I believe there are at least five things to consider.

1st. OBEDIENCE NOT SACRIFICE

When Saul allowed slippage to ruin his relationship with God, Samuel rebuked him by saying. To obey is better than sacrifice. Without a commitment to personal ongoing obedience, our sacrifices are useless before the Lord.

We may be tempted to use sacrifice as a substitute for daily obedience. Serving on one more committee, giving extra donations and setting aside vacation time to help build the church, are all good activities, but they can numb us to our need to apply Gods Word to the routines and relationships of everyday life.

We can live a sacrificial, yet disobedient life .

The Israelites of Malachis time did just that. Religion had replaced relationship, and intimacy with God was lost.

We can learn from them and humbly try to live by Gods Word in our homes, our workplaces, and our relationships.

The fragrance of obedience pleases our lord.

2nd. A RIGHT HEART

Martha Thatcher wrote of her own experiences, saying, When I was bed redden for months after an attack of spinal meningitis; I discovered that I was quite replaceable.

Other arms held my children, other hands cooked for my family; other voices encouraged my husband in his work, in the ministry, that God had given us. Having always defined myself by what I did and by who I was to others, I now faced a blank space, where once there had been a rich definition. I realized that I am indispensable to nothing and to no one. It is God who is indispensable to me. Somehow my heart attitude, toward God, had gotten turned around.

God met me in my brokenness and gave me a new understanding of Him and my dependence of Him. The fragrance of my broken spirit was sweet to Him; not because it had come painfully, but because it reflected truth: it is He, not I, who holds everything together. It is a right heart, not success in our roles that laces our offering with sweetness.

3rd. A WALK OF JUSTICE AND MERCY

MATTHEW 15:8

In Malachis time, religion was a mask for tyranny. Somehow, in the misguided minds of the spiritual leaders, it must have been assumed that, if God got His quota of offerings, He would ignore their merciless and unfair treatment of the people.

Malachi 3:5: But, God, through Malachi, said, I will come near to you for judgment. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjures, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me.

The priests were pleasing only themselves while maintaining a form of religion that used offerings in the half-conscious hope that God would be pacified.