Sometimes in the grind, it’s easy to forget the magnitude of God’s sacrifice.

I was reading about King Saul’s rebellion against God and I was really struck by the stinging indictment the prophet Samuel gave Saul:

“Does the Lord delight in burnt

offerings and sacrifices

as much as in obeying the voice

of the Lord?

To obey is better than sacrifice,

and to heed is better than

the fat of rams.

For rebellion is like the sin of

divination,

and arrogance like the evil of

idolatry — 1 Samuel 15:22-23

Living Sacrifice

The cross is at the center of history. Every person will have to deal with this fact—God gave His Son for us.

Have you ever noticed how the messages of the world and messages of Scriptures often come into conflict? This video hits a little too close to home for me. I hate to admit that I have fallen prey to some of these slogans and ideas and yet a quick glance at my life would reveal it’s true. What about you?

 What does your faith in Christ cost you? Jesus warned repeatedly that following Him would be costly and yet often I don’t think faith in Christ costs us much, especially here in the Western world.

What could you give some one as a gift if they just saved your life?

Galtians, 48 of 66

Warning:  You’re about to see a picture of Joe from high school.  Your “Jealous-o-meter” may go through the roof.

You’ve been warned.

Isaiah, 23 of 66

Isaiah is an interesting book.  Keep in mind that chapters and verses are not inspired by God like the words of Scripture — chapters and verses were added several hundred years after Scripture was complete to help in the corporate study of God’s Word.  Having said that, it certainly seems like God was overseeing some of those chapter/verse assignments.  It’s almost like Isaiah is a Bible within a Bible when you look at through its chapters and verses.  Check this out:

 

 

 

 

 

 

    1.    There are 66 chapters in Isaiah, there are 66 books in the Bible.

 

    2.    There are 39 chapters in the Old Testament, 27 in the new.  Isaiah 39 ends with captivity (like the OT) and chapter 40 starts with the proclamation of “comfort” for God’s people (ie.  The coming of the Messiah, which begins in Matthew the first book of the NT — book #40 in our English Bibles)

 

    3.    Isaiah ends with final judgment and salvation…the Book of Revelation is all about final judgment and salvation.  In fact, the last three verses of Isaiah speak of the “new heavens and new earth” — just like Revelation 22!

 

C’mon, you know that’s cool!

I went into the woods because I wanted to live deliberately. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life…to put to rout all that was not life; and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
~Henry David Thoreau

 "I want the presence of God Himself, or I don’t want anything at all to do with religion…I want all that God has or I don’t want any."

-A.W. Tozer

One of the dangers of following Jesus is becoming complacent: Grace becomes ordinary. Jesus’ sacrifice becomes familiar. God’s love becomes normal. The power of the Spirit becomes something we teach about but never experience. Prayer becomes boring. Life becomes mere existence.

The faith we are a part of is no less than extraordinary. Unless we constantly remind ourselves of the enormous lengths of God’s everlasting love, we will miss out on the life that God designed for us.

Today as you ponder these verses, your life, and God Almighty, let God remind you of the deep and remarkable life He has for you.