May 26, 2024
1SAMUEL 16:
Yesterday's reading told the story of Saul's
incomplete obedience and the rejection of Saul as king— by both God
and Samuel. In the process Samuel said some of the most important
statements in Scripture, which I will underline here:
Listen! Obedience is better than
sacrifice,
and submission
is better than offering the fat of rams.
Rebellion is as sinful as
witchcraft,
and
stubbornness as bad as worshiping idols.
A second quote:
He who is the Glory of Israel will not lie, nor will he change his mind, for he is not human that he should change his mind!”
PSALM 100:
This
psalm probably ranks second in the most-memorized psalms, next to
Psalm 23.
ROMANS 6:
Mankind can at best only hope for the kind of
partial obedience we have seen in Saul. We can't just ‘try harder’
to please God. We always ‘fall short’ of ‘God's glorious standard’—
as we have heard before in Romans chapter 3. The only hope for us
is for God to recreate us. This is done through our
understanding and applying spiritual realities which we cannot see,
and one of crucial importance is found in chapter 6.
We have a short reading today. I encourage you to take time to think about the spiritual concepts Paul has been talking about in these last chapters— particularly Romans 5-6. The way to apply unseen spiritual realities in your life is to ask God to help you fully understand and believe them.
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.