Cafeteria Christianity

# 206 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 15:7-9, “And Saul attacked the Amalekites, from Havilah all the way to Shur, which is east of Egypt. 8 He also took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, and utterly destroyed all the people with the edge of the sword. 9 But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were unwilling to utterly destroy them. But everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. (1 Sam 15:7-9) Initially it sounds like Saul was very successful in carrying out God's command against the Amalekites....then we read verse 9. “But” King Agag was spared along with the best of the livestock. We read that the people were “unwilling to destroy them.” Well, what's the big deal right? It is a big deal because when God puts something to the ban, He means all of it. This is a picture of what we are to do with sin in our own lives. It must be “put to the ban.” Now, pay attention to what the people chose to do and learn from it. They chose to destroy only those things that they deemed worthless, and to keep those things they valued. Friend this is an Old Testament illustration of what is called “cafeteria Christianity.” It's a Christianity that picks and chooses what it will obey and conform to in the Word of God. It picks and chooses what it wishes to believe and it is a huge problem in the church today. I think we are all guilty of it to some degree. It's easy to like that command to not kill, but not so easy to like that command about letting go of anger and unforgiveness and gossip. It's easy to blast homosexuality while our own sexual appetites find an outlet in fornication, adultery, and pornography. This should not be so, we must not pick and choose, rather we should pray daily, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. Ps 139:23) Pray this with your whole heart and then allow God to help you make those tough choices you face every day.