"Obedience is Better Than Sacrifice..."

It is so easy for us to get distracted doing things for God, even good and right things, instead of doing what God tells us to do. God criticizes King Saul for this in I Samuel 15:22. God had commanded King Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites. Instead he kept the choice sheep and other cattle as well as King Agag alive. Samuel the prophet criticizes and speaks to Saul about this.

1Sa 15:22 And Samuel said, Does Jehovah delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of Jehovah? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams!

As a result of not obeying, Saul is rejected from being King and David ends up taking his place. Saul had had many failings in his life, both personally and as King of Israel, and this seems to be the clincher. The next verse states,

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idol-worship. Because you have rejected the Word of Jehovah, He has also rejected you from being king!

How often are we willing to "make sacrifices", to give up our own "personal time" or belongings "for God" instead of doing what He has told us to do. Nothing that we have is our own. Not even our time. It has been given by God and belongs to Him. It is a good thing to spend time with God, to work in the church and be involved, to help support ministry, but if God has told us something and we are doing "good things" in the church or our personal life instead of what He has told us to do, isn't that rebellion as it says here in I Samuel? Isn't it iniquity and idol (self) worship? "to obey is better than sacrifice! To listen is better than the fat of rams!"

So where do we go from here? What do you/i/we do now?

Image from pandiyan used under cc license.

Feast Without Famine is Gluttony. Famine Without Feast Brings Drudgery.

It amazes me sometimes how much a person grows and matures in difficulties. So often we want things to be easy. We want to have things given to us. We don't want to have the difficulties, and yet... that is the only way that we can grow. With troubles and trials comes growth. With problems and adversity comes the potential for maturity. When everything we want is handed to us, we tend to grow lax and uncaring. It is only when we go through the hard times that we can learn to understand and appreciate the good times.

A speaker in Bible college used this analogy once and i thought it was fitting. When the trials come flooding in. It can be a very difficult time. When you are surrounded by the flood waters of trials and troubles it tends to show what you are really made of. The difficult times come and we seek God. We go through the hardships and look to Him because we can't do it alone. He in turn works in us strengthening us and sweeping away the built up junk. When the flood waters subside and everything returns to normal, that is when the real trials begin. During that time of flood new seed is brought in. New growth occurs, and we have the potential to grow in new and stronger ways. However it is during the good times, the easy times, the seeds that the flood brings in sprout into new life and the potential really begins.

What do we do when we are in the easy times. How do we handle it when the times are good. Who or what do we become with the seeds that were planted in hardship. It takes work to make growth, but it is easy to fall into lax when the going is no longer tough. So what are we, what am i doing with what i have been given?

Image from [beta] used under cc license.

What do We do When it All Falls Apart?

Our lives are filled with so much frustration and difficulty sometimes. Most of the time it is of our making, but not always. The question becomes, what do we do with them? When our world starts to fall apart, what do we do? How do we handle it?

The job that i currently have to pay the bills is one dealing with people. It is a job in which i talk to random people, help them with their problems, and bring them to a solution that hopefully involves the inclusion of some of our products. I talked to a gentleman yesterday who wanted one of our products to help him remain in touch with a family member in a correctional facility. When he was brought over to me he was in high spirits. He was ready to tell the world that i and the last person that he talked to were the best things since baked cake. I spent a little bit of time talking to him about his situation in order to find the best solution. I got things cleared up as much as i could on our end and began to tell him what he needed to do from the other end of the problem to get it fully resolved. As soon as he found out that i wasn't going to be able to just solve his problems for him right then and there, he fell apart. Suddenly i was the enemy and how dare i say what i say. The conversation went from a pleasant conversation on philosophy and relationship to anger, yelling, and threatening in a matter of moments. I could not have found a better example of severe bipolar or manic depressive behaviors if i had made it up. Now, that's not to say that this guy was severely bipolar or manic depressive, but that was certainly how he was acting. Either way, it took a while but i was able to, through the yelling and threatening, help him understand step-by-step what he needed to do next to get the problem solved.

The whole situation got me thinking about how we react to our problems. When our difficulties become more than we can handle, what do we do? Do we bear up the burden; strapping it to our backs like another bag on a camel? Do we spread it around to everyone around us like a capsized bowl of soup? Do we shrug it off as one would a well meaning remark from an in-law who has no idea what they're talking about? One of the nice things about God is that we can give it to Him. When our lives seem like they are falling apart, we're not in it alone. He can take those troubles and frustrations and in their place, put a peace that is beyond understanding. He puts a strength that is beyond comprehension, and a hope that goes beyond any circumstance. We certainly can't do it alone. Thankfully, we don't have to.

Image from anticline used under cc license.

Woman: Time to Relax & Enjoy the Beauty

I think that the fall has hit women harder than it has hit man. While man was created out in the wilderness and before the garden; woman was formed from man when man was in the garden. When woman was created, her very first experiences were in this perfect luxury. It was the best of every part of creation all come together. What she saw and what she knew was the beauty, the scents, the sounds, the comfort of the garden. As a result, this is one of woman's Base Experiences. This is what she was born into. This is what she knows. This is one of the main experiences that helps to define Eve as well as the entire female sex that succeeds her.

The more i look at the fall, what occurred, the more i realize how much it has affected us. Adam & Eve were driven out of the garden and into the wilderness. For the man the wilderness is where he had come from. The garden had been extra. It had been the icing on the cake. It had been the Sunday night football game relaxing in the recliner with some snacks and a drink rooting on his favorite team on a big screen HDtv. It was nice but not necessary. For woman, on the other hand, the loss of the garden was devastating. Everything that she knew was lost. It was going from the comforts and luxury of a new home, to being kicked out on the street.

Thus when woman needs a break. When she is looking for something to help ease the stresses and problems of life, she tends to look to what we would now consider luxury. The garden. The scents. The sounds. The comforts. For most woman, the ultimate getaway is a luxury spa. It is the attempt to regain that lost Garden Experience. Something that she will never have again in this world.

Image from victornuno used under cc license.

So What?

I guess that i just don't get it sometimes. It amazes me how important it is to people, how important it is to me at times, to win. As time has gone by i'm starting to recognize more and more how driven we are, not only to do well and succeed, but to be number 1. Not that being number one is necessarily bad, but too often being number one comes at the cost of everything / everyone else.

I like to watch movies sometimes. They can be very entertaining. Every movie has a lesson. Every movie has a purpose. Every movie attempts to teach you something. At least every good movie does. Time and time again what i see in movies is the attempt to succeed. It is the attempt to overcome. It is the attempt to defeat everyone else and come out on top against all odds. It's about showing / proving to someone or something that you are better than them. There have been a couple of movies that i have seen lately that have had this common pattern, this common theme, and when i see them i walk away wondering, "So what?"

So the main character won, so what! He beat his opponent. He beat him soundly, so what! All he succeeded in doing is proving that he could win. The character won the battle, but in the end he lost the war. He overcame all of the obstacles. He defeated all the challenges. He succeeded! He won! So what? I saw a movie recently, i don't remember what it was, but i do remember walking away thinking. He won, who cares. I think that the statement would have been stronger and the movie better if he had in showing that he could win, instead of destroying and humiliating his opponent, rather let go and let his opponent win. I think it would have turned the movie from a mediocre one to a blockbuster. Instead, it was all about winning at the cost of everyone / everything else. Maybe the opponent deserved it? So what? Is the success worth the price? It's funny what people are capable of, what i am capable of, when it's all about Me, the big "I".

Image from Robby Garbett used under cc license.

Man: "You Can Take the Man Out of the Wilderness, but You Can't Take the Wilderness Out of the Man"

Everybody knows that there are differences between men and women. Some try to deny them and state that the only difference are those created by our societies in order to push women down, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize the obvious problems with that argument. Either way we're not here to argue that debate at this point. I did want to help us understand better how and why some of those diffences came to be.

As a stereotype (thus not 100% the case) women tend to seek comfort and luxury while men tend to seek mastery and experience. Believe it or not, the reason for this can be easily seen in the first two chapers of Genesis. When God created man on day 7 of creation, he was the last thing that God created. He was formed in the midst of God's other creations. As has been noted before, everything that God created on each of those 7 days relied upon what had been created before. In order for the seas and oceans to be sustained, they need heat & light or they would turn to ice. Land without water, heat, & light is just rock & dust. So on and so forth. The same thing with man. In order to survive man needs everything created before him.

What is interesting to note is that man was created in the wilderness. He was created on the 7th day after all of the water, land, plants, and animals had been created, but notice this...
Genesis 2:7-8 "And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And (after this) Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the man whom He had formed."

Man existed in the wilderness before the Garden of Eden was ever planted. As a result, when man looks for relaxation and a break from the daily grind, oftentimes he wants to go fishing, or camping, or hunting, or he wants to be out playing sports, etc. He seeks and enjoys the challenge of the outdoors... of the wilderness. Golf for instance is all about mastery over the environment. It is man seeking to have mastery over both the land and the little ball. It is man and his simple tool (his club) proving mastery over a miles of land and a little white ball.

The comfort and luxury of the garden was created after man. It's nice, and good, and all, but it just doesn't compare to the wilderness and our need and desire to gain mastery over it. Thus deep down inside that desire and craving exists in all men. You can take the man out of the wilderness, but you can never truly take the wilderness out of the man.

... more next week!


Image from thatjonesboy used under cc license.