Polluted Sacrifices

My kitchen table is a sacred place. It is a place where God Himself has often come to me and revealed Himself through His word.

In this past week, the following scriptures have been put down in front of me, and I am telling ya, I am picking them all up!

"Whatever work your hands find to do, do it with all your heart" (can't remember the address!)

In Malachi:
If I am the Father, where is my Reverence? Says the Lord of hosts to the priests who despise My name. Yet you say, "In what way have we despised your name?"
"You offered defiled food on My alter,"... by saying"the Lord's table is contemptible". When you offer the blind, the lame and the sick as a sacrifice, is it not contemptible?
(In this case, the priests added the sin of pride when they shot back an incredulous response of "When did we do that? Prove it!". )

In I Samuel:
Lots of verses about Eli and his wicked sons. What angered God the most was that they were perverting the sacred. They were "kicking at God's sacrifice, offerings and commandments".

Not scripture, but anointed nonetheless, was a sentence I read last night in a book. It quoted Dr. Martin Luther King as saying:
"If a man is called to be street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or as Shakespeare composed poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of Heaven and earth will pause to say, Here lived a great street sweeper, who did his job well."

I often get to thinking that my life, my relevance, and my impact on this world is insignificant.
But how wonderfully divine that God delivers His Rewards, Justice and Mercy based on the one thing we can control:
Our Hearts.

God designed a plan to reveal Himself to the world through us,..His beloved children.
It is easy to get weighed down by the responsibilities.
It is easy to see His work as a burden, especially when it involves the menial or appears to be unproductive.
It is easy to be distracted. The world is a noisy fun place, a delight to our senses.
It is easy to be lazy. To do His work without a thought of excellence or sacrifice to a Holy God.
It is easy to look at other people and point out their "issues".

I have a renewed commitment to the things I am involved in. Not to settle for a half-baked job in anything. In all that I do, to offer the efforts to God as a sacrifice of service.

He does not need me, but He loves me and lets me help Him.
The Lord of Lords, King of Kings, and Creator of the Universe wants me to revere Him by my efforts in my daily life.
I can do that, but will I?
God forbid that I should ever offer Him a defiled effort.