Waist Deep 2018 - February 15


I Samuel 15: 22 “To obey is better than sacrifice.” (NIV)


No amount of religious ritual can substitute for doing what God commands.*


Sacrifices were a part of the law so it would seem that if you sacrificed, you were being obedient. But sacrifice was not meant to be an empty ritual. One could maintain the appearance of obedience by merely going through the motions - with no heart involvement at all.  Obedience that God requires isn’t just an outward act – it’s a condition of the heart.

The Jews in the Old Testament “sometimes viewed their animal sacrifices . . . not as an act of commitment and fellowship with God, but as a way to manipulate God into putting his stamp of approval on their plans.”* Like the Jews, we are often guilty of trying to make deals with God, such as promising to go to church if he will heal a loved one’s cancer or help us get that new car; or we throw money at a need in the church in hopes that it will be an acceptable substitute for bringing our thoughts and will into submission to his will. We, too, can go through the motions of obedience and still be guilty of disobedience. Sacrifice that God finds acceptable requires the involvement of the body and the heart.


What God seeks in every person is not sacrifice, but a humble spirit, and a devotion to the Lord that is expressed in obedience.*


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waist Deep 2018 - November 21

Image
Colossians 4: 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. (NIV) While we’re concerned about being fresh and creative in teaching, it’s wiser to make the Bible simple and clear because it’s so powerful in itself.* Knowing the answer is not the same as knowing how to answer. That conversation of ours that Paul says should be full of grace – that is the answer: the Good News. We make it even better by adding some salt so that people can stomach what we are telling them. Adding salt does not change the content of the dish, it merely serves to make it more palatable. Some people like more salt than others. We have to know how much salt to add to suit each person’s tastes – that is, we have to know how to answer them. While we should flavor the message with salt to suit the person’s taste and the occasion,* we must not compromise on the rest of the ingredients. We must remain true to the reci...
Read more

Waist Deep 2018 - September 30

Image
Acts 16: 6–10 Paul and his companions traveled throughout the region . . . having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. . . . they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they . . . went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia . . . begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” . . . we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach . . . to them. (NIV) God is in charge of leadership, the destination, and the way church growth occurs.* The people in the province of Asia, and in Bithynia and Troas, needed to hear the gospel as much as the people of Macedonia. There was no earthly reason for Paul and his team not to go to any of those places. But the doors to these mission fields were closed to them. Their “Macedonian Call” meant that they would trade one fertile field for another. Modern missionaries sometimes h...
Read more

Waist Deep 2018 - February 25

Image
I Chronicles 22: 8 “But this word of the Lord came to me: ‘You have shed much blood and have fought many wars! You are not to build a house for my Name.’” (NIV) God always writes the last chapter.* Life doesn’t always turn out the way we thought it would. I graduated from Bible college and thought I would spend my life in “full-time Christian ministry.” Didn’t happen. I took a few wrong turns along the way but most of my life has been lived according to God’s direction. I have been blessed beyond anything I could have dreamed up on my own - but it wasn’t the life I expected.   David probably didn’t expect to be a man of war. He was a shepherd, a poet and a musician. But life (and God) took him down a different path. He shed so much blood in his day that God would not allow him to build the temple. He had blood on his hands – and some of it was innocent blood - but David was following God’s direction when he led Israel into battle. Perhaps it wasn’t entirely ...
Read more