lubumba pastors blog

The prophet Micah ministered through troubling times for the kingdom of Judah. There were invasions from Syria, the northern kingdom of Israel, and Assyria. These troubles came about because of Judah's continued failure to obey God and carefully adhere to his commandments. Like many of God's prophets, Micah preached of immediate coming judgment for the people's behavior, predicted fina...

Recorded for Impact Radio Broadcast week of Wednesday, October 28, 2026.

What is truth? That's the famous question Pilate asked Jesus when Jesus told him that all those who were of the truth who listen to his voice. How should Christians examine truth claims? What's the highest authority and source of evidence they must always appeal to? In recent times, there is more and more pressure for believers to use extra-biblical areas, like history and science, to prov...

The conclusion of Malachi looks ahead beyond Malachi's immediate audience to the first and final comings of Christ. In chapter 4, God promises he has a great and awesome day where he will fulfill his promises of justice and salvation. There's been much talk of "justice" and "human rights," one could almost say, since the period referred to as the Enlightenment. But thou...

Recorded for Impact Radio broadcast week of Wednesday, October 21, 2026.

V16 of Malachi 3 gives us the first moment in the book where some of the people of Israel respond by agreeing with God of what he said to them. God was in the right and they acknowledged they were wrong. God looked with pleasure on these people's response and the text tells us that he wrote "a book of remembrance" of them. What must a person do to be "remembered" or "k...

In Malachi chapter 3, we find the Israelites asking themselves what purpose there was in serving the Lord. In their minds, they hadn't reaped personal benefits for their professed service. This dialogue presents us with an important self-examination. What's our true motive in serving Christ? In Jesus' life, there were several people who came and said they would follow him anywhere, but...

In Malachi 3, God accused the Israelites of robbing him by failing to bring the lawful tithe. As usual in this book, the Israelites initial reaction was to defend themselves and ask "how are we robbing you?" From this narrative, we will consider what the NT says Christians owe God and how we might also be robbing God of what belongs rightfully to him. We hope you are blessed challenged b...

Recorded for Impact Radio broadcast week of October 7th, 2026.

What is the only hope in life and death for sinners? That question is the focus of our study today from the book of Malachi. After years of hard lessons, we find in Malachi a generation of Israelites that still hadn't learned their lesson and whose hearts were still distant from God. How could anyone put up with such people? And what does God's patience towards Israel teach us about the ho...

In response to Israel's continued profession of innocence, and their accusation against what they perceived as God's failure, God made a promise of a coming purification of his worshippers and judgment against the ungodly. Time and again, the behavior of people demonstrates we are hopelessly unable to change ourselves. Though we can rightly identify what we should do, we prove unable to do...

There's an account of Josef Stalin's death which stated that Stalin died with his arm outstretched "shaking his fist" at God. This is an amazingly ironic act from a man who lived a life claiming there is no God. Historians estimate that Stalin was responsible for more than 25 million of his own people's deaths. And yet from the account of his own death, we see Stalin had a he...

In Malachi 2:10-16, God rebuked the men of Israel for faithlessness in two covenant relationships - their relationship with him, and their relationship with the "wife of their youth." Israel's OT history is rather frustrating and confusing. Things went well when they obeyed God, and were miserable when they broke his commandments. Why didn't the people just change after learning...

Recorded for Impact Radio broadcast week of September 23, 2026.

The opening of Malachi 2 shifts from condemnation of the congregation of Israel to condemnation of its priests. God gave the priests two main duties. They were to intercede on behalf of the people leading them in proper worship, and they were to teach the people God's words accurately. In Malachi 2, we find the priests completely failing in both these categories. What parallels can we connect...

God's second rebuke against Israel in Malachi 1 was about how the Israelites were profaning and despising God through acts of worship that failed to follow God's prescribed methods of acceptable worship in the law. This made the Israelites' worship so empty and meaningless that God actually declared he would prefer they closed the doors to the temple rather than continuing their curren...

Colossians 2:7 exhorts believers to "abound in thanksgiving." When we consider much of the dialogue between people, it's easy to observe that people are more apt to complain than they are to be grateful. In fact, it seems complaints are often most prevalent in cultures and parts of the world where they have least to complain about. In the opening statements of Malachi, we find the pe...

Today, we begin a new series on the book of Malachi. Malachi is the last of the OT prophet group. He seems to have ministered around 100 years after Cyrus the Great had decreed the Jews could return to their homeland. The contents of Malachi portray God as frustrated by spiritual apathy and empty religion prevailing amongst his people. In spite of their knowledge of their ancestors' history, t...

Recorded for Impact Radio broadcast week of September 16, 2026.

After Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species," there has been a concerted effort within the scientific community to deem religious people as "non-intellectual." But in the past 100 years, modern scientific discovery has actually proven Darwin's theory, and therefore all who base their worldview on his theory, as incorrect. In spite of these discoveries, little change has t...

In the conclusion of Haggai, God addressed a message of hope to Zerubbabel, a descendant of David, who was acting as governor of the people in Jerusalem. Studying God's predictions of the end-times is certainly the most challenging part of Bible study. We understand that part of this is intentional as "It is God's glory to conceal a matter," and "the secret things belong to...

How do you diagnose difficult circumstances in your life? While Jesus told us we could expect trouble every day in this world, can you be honest with yourself when you are actually the one who caused the trouble? In this study from the book of Haggai, we look at God's exhortation to the Israelites to consider why all of their labor kept being frustrated. In this example, it was because Israel...

Can gifts offered to God be unacceptable and even offensive to him? That's exactly what we find in Haggai chapter 2. The Israelites were going through many of the motions of lawful worship, but there was a key feature they were missing: true obedience. Throughout scripture, God consistently tells people he desires obedience and not sacrifice. What implications does this have for us, and how mi...

For most of us, the Christian life will be a marathon, not a sprint. In Haggai chapter 2, God gave the Israelites' an encouragement that though they felt like the temple structure they were rebuilding was small and less glorious than Solomon's, there was coming a greater and final glory for God and his people. The implication of that encouragement, and how believers today still foreshadow...

How do you measure successful Christian ministry and living? Many times, we might become discouraged and disheartened over what we hoped might happen but hasn't, or by comparing ourselves with others who, at least appear, to have accomplished more than we have. In this lesson, we consider God's statements to the people of Israel when they were feeling this way about the rebuilding of the t...