My heart is weeping today for myself and the church.
Many worry about the Jezabels among us but we seldom grieve over the Saul's and how they have multiplied among us. Unfortunately the Sauls have multiplied in excessive numbers behind our pulpits.
In short, the Sauls are man-pleasers rather than God-pleasers.
Sauls are of both genders. Sauls have wholeheartedly fallen into the snare of man because their prideful image is at stake.
The Sauls behind our pulpits have gone beyond "seeker friendly." They have exalted their image up on a pedestal and worshipped it.
One of the saddest things about Sauls is that they once had a heart to serve God but turned back from serving Him and have chosen to walk in their own ways.
They still want to look good; still want the think they are following God and keeping His commandments. But the truth is they are still following in their own stubborn ways, justifying themselves when they know they did not give the Lord obedience.
Sauls want to look good in front of the people and be honored when they know they haven't truly honored God.
Fear of people rather than fear of God.
God forgive me for the times I've given into that kind of thinking. How it grieved your heart and caused me pain. May I become more like a David who humbled himself before his King who is worthy!
EvaNell Gillock
The scripture says that the fear of the Lord is the beginnng of all wisdom David and Saul committed almost identical sins.
ReplyDeleteSaul lost his kihngdom and the love of his God. While David was promised that he would never fail to have a descendent to sit on the throne. He is also remembered as a man after Gods own heart.
I believe that your word is on target and that God is calling Christians everwhere to lay down this Saul spirit and become like David, unafraid of man's opinion and accomplish the things that God speaks to our hearts.
It is so true when you wrote:
ReplyDelete"They still want to look good; still want them to think they are following God and keeping His commandments. But the truth is they are still following in their own stubborn ways, justifying themselves when they know they did not give the Lord obedience."
A case-in-point is when Saul, having disobeyed God's clear instruction on how to deal with his enemies, returned to the prophet Samuel with a herd of captured sheep to offer to God as an offering. It was then that Samuel spoke these famous words: "It is better to obey than to sacrifice!"
Those who are of the same attitude-of-the-heart as Saul can be recognized by two characteristics:
(1) Saul extends himself plenty of grace when he has been disobedient to God [the King of Heaven], but for those who are disobedient to Saul [the King of Israel], he is merciless and swift to pronounce and to implement the death penalty. (i.e. Saul's murder of the Priests whom he deemed were disloyal to him).
(2) Saul does not even offer as a sacrifice that which is from his own personal riches. Instead, he intends to sacrifice to God as an offering that which he was told by God to destroy in the first place. In other words, his sacrifice to God has no meaning or impact upon his own heart, it costs him nothing personally. And yet he expects God to somehow be pleased with it, and that somehow his disobedience will be waived because of the "extra special gift" he is giving to God by way of a so-called sacrifice.
In contrast to Saul, when David becomes King and someone willingly offers to provide him with all the animals needed for a great big sacrifice of praise and worship to God, David says, "I will not offer to the Lord my God that which costs me nothing."
David is careful to obey God, and careful to sacrifice to God an offering of praise and worship that costs him his own heart!