Don't Throw the Baby Out With the Bath Water

# 214 - Today's Du-votional comes from: 1Sa 15:22 Then Samuel said: "Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. (1 Sam 15:22) Every time I read this passage I think of one of Keith Green's songs called “To Obey Is Better Than Sacrifice” Here are the lyrics: To obey is better than sacrifice, I don't need your money, I want your life And I hear you say that I'm coming back soon, But you act like I'll never return Well you speak of grace and my love so sweet How you thrive on milk, but reject My meat And I can't help weeping of how it will be If you keep on ignoring My words Well you pray to prosper and succeed But your flesh is something I just can't feed To obey is better than sacrifice I want more than Sunday and Wednesday nights Cause if you can't come to Me every day Then don't bother coming at all To obey is better than sacrifice I want hearts of fire Not your prayers of ice And I'm coming quickly To give back to you According to what you have done According to what you have done According to what you have done.” Keith was never one to mince words.....and neither is the Lord. This passage from Samuel can be simply restated as follows: “Doing church is good, but obeying My words is better.” Some people make a mistake and say, “I don't need to “do church,” I just need to be obedient.” But read the passage carefully. The Lord has great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice (doing church) but He just happens to delight even more in obedience. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water! This passage is not a testimony against organized religion, rather it is a testimony against hypocrites. Sadly, there will always be hypocrites in church, but to allow a hypocrite to keep you away from something the Lord delights in and commands, (“not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together) (Heb 10:25) makes you just as big a hypocrite of the ones you despise in church.