TSK · Malachi 3:17

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth.

Today you have declared the LORD to be your God, and that you will walk in his ways, keep his statutes, commandments, and ordinances, and obey him.

The LORD is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love.

He will bless his loyal followers, both young and old.

Poetic Refrain: Mutual PossessionThe Beloved about Her Lover: My lover is mine and I am his; he grazes among the lilies.

You will be a majestic crown in the hand of the LORD, a royal turban in the hand of your God.

“But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the LORD.“I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God and they will be my people.

“‘Then I passed by you and watched you, noticing that you had reached the age for love. I spread my cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I swore a solemn oath to you and entered into a marriage covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.

before God’s decree becomes reality and the day of opportunity disappears like windblown chaff, before the LORD’s raging anger overtakes you– before the day of the LORD’s angry judgment overtakes you!

The Sacrilege of Priestly Service“A son naturally honors his father and a slave respects his master. If I am your father, where is my honor? If I am your master, where is my respect? The LORD of Heaven’s Armies asks you this, you priests who make light of my name! But you reply,‘How have we made light of your name?’

My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they can see my glory that you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future. Everything belongs to you,

But each in his own order: Christ, the firstfruits; then when Christ comes, those who belong to him.

Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

He gave himself for us to set us free from every kind of lawlessness and to purify for himself a people who are truly his, who are eager to do good.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people of his own, so that you may proclaim the virtues of the one who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened– the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds.