DECEMBER 31 "IT'S THE FINAL COUNTDOWN"

  New Year's Eve is all about the final countdown! And our reading today, our last reading of the year is also about the final countdown.  The ending of Malachi and the ending of Revelations blend together all too well. In Malachi, we are reading about the coming of the Lord and how everything and everyone will pass through the fire, nothing will pass that is not pure, refined or holy. The same message we read in Revelations.  In Malachi God is disputing with the people about their bad relationship, or horrible relationship, let's say, that they have with Him. And each time they come back and challenge God on His assessment of them and each time God comes back with concrete evidence and even quotes back to them what they are saying about Him.  In revelations God sums it up as "those that live a lie". Mirroring in essence what He is telling them in Malachi, it's really quite amazing. Then we read in Psalms, you could say, the finality, "let everything that has breath praise The Lord".  What more is there to say....Don't live a lie, God's judgment will reveal all that are true, and reveal those that are false, that lived a lie. I believe the most miserable people in Hell will be the religious. A whole life dedicated to a religious lie only to find themselves in hell, neighbors with some of the lewdest sinners that ever existed. The reading today is the last reading of the year, read once every December 31st, but it actually a reading that would be very healthy for a daily reading throughout the year. You could say the summary of the Bible then is, "Don't live a lie", allow God to correct you and let everything that has breath Praise the Lord!

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