Opening to 1SAMUEL 16:
Yesterday's reading told the story of Saul's incomplete obedience and God’s 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.
We turn to for the first time to 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.
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