Obedience

Is it just me, or does it seem like every message preached and every topic you study out in the Bible eventually leads back around to obedience?

When God was showing me about grace, and how much more it is than my finite mind could fathom, it came down to "the power to obey", or more specifically, "God’s empowering presence within to do what truth demands of us" (See the blog dated 9-17)

When Matt was speaking this morning on worship, it came down to obedience; and he was sharing about how much better obedience is than sacrifice. How interesting, as Matt made the observation, that when someone makes a sacrifice of some kind, they are highly revered in the church, but if a person is going along, just quietly doing what is right, it is rarely mentioned. – Just a thought!

Then, when Aaron Crider was speaking in the main service about Offenses, (what an awesome message! Get the CD!), he mentioned the story of Cain and Abel and how, if Cain had just been obedient to give God an acceptable sacrifice, it might have kept him from killing his brother.

So, obedience, why is it so hard for us to just obey? It started way back in the garden I guess, just like everything else. Adam and Eve were allowed to eat of anything they wanted in the garden – except for the fruit of one tree. And, you know the story; they disobeyed and forever changed their future and ours. Now, since we inherited the ‘sin nature’, we constantly have to fight against the flesh to do what is right.

But, back to grace – sweet grace! We can draw on that grace (that power), which we received through salvation, to lay down our lives and worship Him; to NOT take offenses; and to simply – OBEY!