Obedience is More Important Than Sacrifice

Samuel was choosing the next king of Israel. Saul was rejected because he was not obedient. In the preceding chapter, Saul was supposed to annihilate the Amalekites...every person and every animal. 

“But Saul and the army spared Agag and the best of the sheep and cattle, the fat calves and lambs—everything that was good. These they were unwilling to destroy completely, but everything that was despised and weak they totally destroyed.”

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭15:9‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Obedience is more important than sacrifice. 

God chose David instead of Saul. These two chapters of 1 Samuel show the first and second kings of Israel.  If you consider the life of Saul, he does not have the traffic record of David. 

But God spoke of David as a “man after his own heart.” Again, many things about David’s life was not sin-free. He was a murderer. He was an adulterer. He was not a good dad, in many respects. 

In my worldly thinking, Saul would still perhaps be my choice of king. He kept the good stuff to offer it the Lord as a sacrifice. He had a tender heart and did not want to kill Agag. I wouldn’t want to kill him either. He was not a wicked king at all. 

But when Samuel pointed out his sin, Saul always had an excuse. Do you always have an excuse for your disobedience? Do you blame it on your parents? Perhaps, when you know that you need to give a tithe of your money, do you blame it on your financial problems? You justify that you are pretty good overall. No murders in your life. Keeping a few sheep to sacrifice here and there. 

“ The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.””

‭‭1 Samuel‬ ‭16:7‬ ‭NIV‬‬

David’s heart. When God convicted him of his sin, David wept over his sin and then accepted God’s forgiveness. He believed that God forgave him.  

I want to follow the Lord with all my heart. I want to love the things the Lord loves.  I want to accept his forgiveness and know that it is removed “as far and the east is from the west.” I don’t have to earn this forgiveness. Can’t earn it. I want to not try to offer a sacrifice with my church attendance or of reading the Bible everyday or acts of service. Can’t earn a badge. 

Saul looks good to the church goers of today. David does not try to post things that the Christian community gives a bunch of likes to reward. He reveals his weakness and his desperation. 

Brain Surgery

“We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles. So we think about what we cannot see, not what we see. What we see lasts only a short time, and what we cannot see will last forever.”

‭‭2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:17-18‬ ‭ERV‬‬

I love, love this verse. I love living with eternity in mind and not living for the 80 or so short years that we are going to live. The Lord is revealing  a small trouble in Mark and mine’s lives. 

I have been wondering why my brain has been “freezing” up for 30 seconds spans.This has been been going on for at least 5 years. I went to a neurologist about three years ago and he convinced me that I was too busy and stressed. When I retired, these problems would disappear. 

When I retired about a year and half ago, I noticed that the problems were increasing. Interesting. My sweet sisters noticed at thanksgiving that my mouth was drooping on one side. They said that they would nag me until I saw a neurologist again. I went to my regular doctor and he noticed I was talking with a lisp. He scheduled an MRI. 

Wow! This saved my life. I have a slow growing, large tumor that is pressing into my brain. Even though this is scary, it finally makes sense. Even more important, there is a medium sized aneurysm growing in my brain. It would have gone unnoticed and could be deadly, if not fixed. 

Mark and I want this to bring fame to our sweet Heavenly Father. He is so kind. I am not fearing the outcome but it looks promising. If one person that reads this will hear the Lord speaking to their heart, what a blessing that would be. He created you for a purpose, bigger than what you thought. This small life here is the temporary part. There is eternal part that you need to decide about.

 January 13th is first surgery to remove the tumor. The second surgery will be a few weeks after to fix the aneurysm. Thank you for those prayers. I’m ready for this 😄😄😄.

Too Much To Do

“Meanwhile, the people in Judah said, “The strength of the laborers is giving out, and there is so much rubble that we cannot rebuild the wall.””

‭‭Nehemiah‬ ‭4:10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I read an article by Rick Warren this morning. He states: 

“Think of the rubble as the trivial things that waste your time and energy, those things that prevent you from accomplishing what God has called you to do. If you are discouraged, you may need to clear away some of the rubble in your life.”

I have spent my life trying to do three things at once...literally. It was almost a challenge to try to see how many plates I could spin at the same time. A year and a half ago, I retired from my full time job. Because I did not know any other way to live, I tried to put more things in my life so that life would be “normal feeling.” 

I want to digress at this point. I absolutely do not think that a person needs to cancel every event in their life. Many times when people think they are too busy and stressed, they cancel the things they need to keep. 

I think the most common event for people to cancel is going to church and being a part of a community group. The rationale is this a day of rest and relaxation, their only day off. 

Another common thing to cancel is exercise. No time to take care of yourself physically and frees you up for more TV watching. 

Another thing to cancel is serving others. No way for time to observe that God has placed some people in your path that need you. 

Definitely most people cancel having a quiet time with the Lord. We rationalize that God wants us to rest. We cannot wake up earlier and read His incredible word and talk to him about life. 

I have noticed that when people start canceling rubble from the life, the most important things are sometimes the things are dropped first and should be kept. 

To clean out rubble, real trash, means to be able to hear what is rubble and what is not. Nehemiah and his crew got tired...real tired. They did not make time for social media and watching their favorite TV show. 

God gave them wisdom to know who to ignore and what to ignore.

“so I sent messengers to them with this reply: “I am carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and go down to you?” Four times they sent me the same message, and each time I gave them the same answer.”

‭‭Nehemiah‬ ‭6:3-4‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I want 2020 to be the year that I plead for wisdom to know the difference. If I lay out my life for God to examine, he would love to reveal to me what is my purpose and what is not.