If one reads the Book of Malachi, the last book in the Old Testament, one thing should become crystal clear; God is saying, “I am not so hard up for worship that I will accept second or third-rate obedience from the sons and daughters of Adam. My name is dreadful among the nations. I am the giver of life and the conqueror of death. From the rising of the sun, even to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the nations. Bring to me a pure offering. Bring to me your best. I am God and there is none else.”
Malachi is the book wherein God declares, “I am the Lord. I do not change.” (See Malachi 3:6). And Malachi is the book wherein God declares, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” (verse 7, same chapter). And it is Malachi that reveals to us that God has a book of remembrance written before Him, evidently by a recording angel, and in that book it is noted who has reverenced God, speaking to one another of the things of God and who have meditated upon God and His Word. (See Malachi 3:16). And God declares “They shall be mine on the day that I make them my jewels, and I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.” (verse 17, same chapter).
I couldn’t care less if my name is on a street sign, a school, or some public building. Name your cities, and towns, and villages for presidents and kings. Just write my name in God’s Book of Remembrance. With that I will be more than satisfied, for this present world is going to be cleansed by fire and all the works that are in it will be burned up, but God’s Book of Remembrance will endure throughout the ages. I want my name in that book. I want my name in God’s social register, not man’s. And I do not want it blotted out. Someday I would like to approach an angel, have him take me to that book and then point to my name, saying, “There it is!” I want your name to be there, too.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley