Better Than Sacrifice?

I was reading through the Bible recently and came across a passage that I have read many times before.  This passage is where Samuel and Saul were having a discussion about the Lord’s displeasure in how Saul had been going.

But Samuel replied, “What is more pleasing to the LORD: your burnt offerings and sacrifices or your obedience to His voice?  Listen!  Obedience is better than sacrifice, and submission is better that offering the fat of rams.”   (1 Samuel 15:22 NLT)

Obedience is better than sacrifice.  

I have heard that phrase many times before.  I have even used that phrase and passage in preaching and teaching many times.  This time reading through it, one thing stood out more than before: obedience over mindless rituals.

God desires our obedience more than anything else including our religious rituals that we perform. Sacrifices are events that were set up to show one’s trust in God.  As important as they are, God desires one thing more: our heart.

We can do all the sacrifices in the world – church attendance, giving, serving, – but if God does not have the loyalty of our hearts, then it is pointless.  We can walk through the motions of religious duty all day long and completely miss the whole point.  Any person can learn how to do the “routines.”  It takes the work of the Holy Spirit to change a person’s heart and get it involved in the acts.

Are we truly obeying the Lord today, or are we just going through the motions on a religious checklist?

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Give Thanks Day 14

Today, I would like to express my thanks for prayer. I have not always been the greatest or the most consistent with my prayer life, but I am learning more and more with each passing day that prayer is not a chore but a privilege.

The more I think about it, it baffles me that the holy God of the universe has opened His throne room to us. He is sinless and without stain. He is able to see all of our imperfections and blemishes and still welcomes us into His presence. He even went so far as to send His Son to be a sacrifice that tore the veil that separated His presence from us (Matthew 27:50-51).

The reality that God doesn't just lord over us but wants to have a loving relationship with us is most clearly seen thru prayer. It is in prayer that we share our hearts with Him and He with us. Every relationship has to have a means of clear communication to thrive. God opens that door every time we bow our heads.

May we express our thanks to God for prayer by our participation in it.

"Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know." (Jeremiah 33:3 HCSB)

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Bookends

Bookends are some things that we see in various places. There are some that are elaborate. Others are very common. No matter the value of them, all bookends have the same function: to hold some books in place. They may be made of plastic or 14kt gold. Their function is all the same.

I noticed something today as I was reading the Bible. It's amazing how much detail God went to share His heart with us through His Word. I would encourage you to take some time today and allow Him to show you some awesome things through His Word. Back to what stood out this morning...

What stood out was the bookends that were wrapped around the Law of God as it was summarized in Deuteronomy. The first bookend comes in Deuteronomy 6:5 where it says, "Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your stength" (HCSB).  This is what Jesus pointed to as the first and greatest commandment (Matthew 22:36-37).  This is where it all started.

The other bookend is found in Deuteronomy 30:6 where it says, "The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul, so that you will live" (HCSB).

Bookends are meant to hold things together.  In between these two bookends in Deuteronomy, one will find a summary of the Law of God - the rules that God desires His people to live by.  These two bookends not only hold the Law together, they show what God truly desires: our heart. 1 Samuel 15:22 says, "... to obey is better than sacrifice...".  God doesn't want us to just jump through some hoops and follow rules.  He wants a relationship with us.  He wants our heart.  When God has our heart and a relationship with us, the obedience to His commands will come.  No amount of rule-following will give that relationship though; It comes only through His Son, Jesus.

How are these bookends making a difference in your life today?

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Earn An Audience

It seems strange to me how often people think that they "automatically" have an audience because of who they are or what they have to say.  Just because you may have a title beside your name or a list of degrees that trail your name or does not necessarily give you an automatic audience with people.

As a Christian, I feel that too many times I fall in to this category of thinking I have an automatic audience.  I mean, there is a huge epidemic that is effecting every single person on the face of the earth (sin - Romans 3:23; Romans 6:23), and I have the remedy (the Gospel of Jesus Christ).  Why wouldn't I have an audience?  Not only am I a Christian, but I'm a pastor!

I was listening to a radio program on the way to my office this morning.  I caught the program about halfway in so I'm not quite sure who it was that was talking about what I heard.  That didn't matter really because what was important was what I was hearing not who was speaking.  I believe it was a church leader in Oregon who was talking about different ways in which they have reached out to their community (cleaning up of local public schools, mentoring, foster care for homeless students and more). The guy on the other end of the radio was quick to say that they do not barge into the schools preaching, but rather share the Gospel one-on-one as a relationship is built with whomever God allows them to serve.

This got me to thinking some more... How often do we as Christians actually take the time and make the investment to earn an audience?  The Gospels of the New Testament are accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ while He was here on the earth.  When one reads through them, it is interesting to see the times where Jesus would actually meet someone's physical needs before talking to them about their spiritual needs (Matthew 8:1-17; Mark 5:1-20; Luke 17:11-19; John 9).

The old cliché rings true: "People don't care what you know until they know you care."  Sadly, many people are turned off to hearing the Gospel simply because the people who have come to "share it" with them in the past were only worried about getting another star on the "conversion chart".  People need the Gospel of Jesus.  They need to hear it (Romans 10:8-15).  Without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ, people cannot be redeemed from the sin that has left them spiritually dead.  The question becomes then, "Are we making it easy for them to hear and receive the Gospel?"

I believe that when we take the time to actually build a relationship with a person and use the gifts that God has blessed us with to meet their needs, they will be more receptive to hearing what you have to say.  As Christians, we have the most important message in the history of mankind: Salvation is here and available in Jesus Christ!  May we not stand in the way of that message by thinking we are above serving those to whom we share this message with.  Remember the words of Jesus...

You know that the rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and the men of high position exercise power over them.  It must not be like that among you.  On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life - a ransom for many.
(Matthew 20:25-28 HCSB)

What are some ways in which you are "earning an audience" with people to share the Gospel?

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Family Resemblance

It amazes me how often people will say something to the effect of, "You look just like _______." Most of the time it is a family member. For me, it was comparisons to my uncle. I was never sure what people meant because I never saw the resemblance. Of course, I was looking at it through the lens of my own perspective. I never saw the resemblance until I saw some pictures of my uncle from the days when he was a child and teenager.

Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.”

So God created man in His own image;
He created him in the image of God;
He created them male and female.

God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.” God also said, “Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the surface of the entire earth and every tree whose fruit contains seed. This food will be for you, for all the wildlife of the earth, for every bird of the sky, and for every creature that crawls on the earth—everything having the breath of life in it. I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw all that He had made, and it was very good. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.

So the heavens and the earth and everything in them were completed. By the seventh day God completed His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, for on it He rested from His work of creation.

These are the records of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation at the time that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. No shrub of the field had yet grown on the land, and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. But water would come out of the ground and water the entire surface of the land. Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils, and the man became a living being.

~ Genesis 1:26-2:7 (HCSB)

This is the recording of when God created man and woman. The intention of God was to create human beings with a unique characteristic: resemblance of the Creator. Though we will never be God, we can reflect the One true God through...

Being relational. God is a relational being Himself. Even with Himself, there is perfect relationship - the Trinity.

Being moral beings. God reveals to the world that He is the source of morality and enables human beings to be creations with a moral compass. No other creature has the moral capacity to know right from wrong.

Being authoritative. God gave authority to human beings over all things upon the earth. They were to be the constant image before all creation that God is in control and has placed humans here to care for and keep everything in order.

When people look at you, who are they mistaking you for? Are they seeing the family resemblance of the King or are they just seeing a created one trying to build a kingdom for themselves?

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Friendships

The past couple of days have been a great time for my wife and I. We have had the opportunity to spend time with some great friends. Thursday, we had dinner and shared some laughs with a young family in our faith family. Yesterday, we got to have lunch with some good friends who we do not get to see very often. Today, we will celebrate the birthday of one our best friends' daughter at their house.

This all seems so casual and "no big deal," but when you have not had many close friends over the past few years, it's a HUGE deal. Though we have been surrounded by people on every side, it has not been easy building friendships with others.

I've heard it said that those in ministry have a hard time building quality friendships with others because of various reasons. I know that there have been numerous things that have tried to keep us from building some good, quality friendships.

I am so thankful for the friends that I have personally. I know that I can speak on behalf of our family in saying that we thank God for the good friends we have. We also look forward to making some new friendships that we can celebrate later down the road.

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Book Review: "Searching For God Knows What"

Searching For God Knows What is the first work that I've read by Donald Miller.  I've seen some of his stuff before but never taken the time to sit down and read it all the way through.  This book seeks to show that "relationship is God's way of leading us to redemption." Miller seeks to deal with an issue that in today's world many have just taken a formulaic view of God, and this is not good.

I personally thought that this was a pretty good read.  Miller does have a humor about him and can easily bring that out in his writing.  Who doesn't want something that can make you chuckle every now and then?  I will say that this book seemed to be a slow start for me.  I appreciated the stories and all that were contained in the first few chapters, but it didn't seem to kick into gear until you almost got to the end.  When it did kick in, Miller had some great things to say.  One of my favorite quotes from the book was...

"It would be most tragic for a person to know everything about God, but not God; to know all about the rules of spiritual marriage, but never walk the aisle."

If you are looking for something that will entertain you and give you a few things to really think about and ponder, I would recommend checking out Searching For God Knows What.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

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Last Post of 2008

It looks as if this will be the last post that I make here in 2008.  Come tomorrow about lunchtime, me and Naomi will be heading off for a  little vacation... just the two of us.  We have left our little man at the grandparents' house and are going to attempt to see what it was like some 2 years ago (before children).  I must admit, it is very weird feeling... not having the little man running around and getting into things... not having to wonder who's going to give him a bath tonight and tuck him in.

I've been reminded today about just how much our Heavenly Father wants to be near us.  As I drove away and looked through the rearview mirror into an empty back seat, my heart dropped.  God reminded me that when His children aren't where they're supposed to be... it saddens His heart, too.

Where are you in your relationship with the Heavenly Father?

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Spoonfed?

The other day I was listening to a radio Bible study on Daniel. The speaker reminded his audience that Daniel was in exile and had nothing but his prayer life for spiritual nourishment... no temple... no priest.

This got me to thinking, what would happen if we didn't have our nice church buildings? What would happen if we didn't have many copies of the Bible in our possession? I'm not against nice church buildings or having many copies of God's word (just ask my wife). I do wonder if all of these things were taken away, would we be able to thrive in our faith? Would we be able to survive?

In being totally honest, I think that we might not be as spiritual as we think. We depend so much on things like church services, small groups, and Sunday School to feed our spirits, but these aren't to replace that one-on-one time building a relationship with God. Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying. Church services, small groups, and other things like are great tools, but if one depends just on these to grow in their faith, then they're just being spoonfed and need to learn to feed themself..

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