Tiny Devotional for Saturday, 08-21-2021

 A great good morning to all my friends and neighbors in Internet Land! And to family members who have dropped by, breakfast with the Men’s Group.

To do righteousness and justice
Is preferred by the Lord more than sacrifice. 
Proverbs 21:3, NASB

Church clothes, 1957
l-r: Me; Carol; Bobby; Stan

Since we don’t perform sacrifices as part of our worship, what do we do with verses like this?

Wait just a minute there, Bubba! Who said we don’t perform sacrifices?

Sacrifices in the ancient world were governed by laws that stipulated who could offer what, and when; still, the core element in all sacrifices is implication “this belongs to God now.”
We “offer up a sacrifice of praise,” don’t we? 
When I was a boy, I had a set of ‘church clothes,’ that I NEVER wore on any other occasion. I think that was a sacrifice, although the point could be made that it was a sacrifice to southern custom, rather than to God.
Let’s look at another example of that.
My friend Bruce sings beautifully. He told me once that he had to quit singing in church, because it was interfering with his worship.
Yeah; roll THAT one around for a bit. 
For Bruce, singing had turned into an exercise in performance, and it made him think about how well he was singing, instead of God’s goodness. Fortunately for the rest of us, he got beyond that, because he really DOES sing beautifully. It was hard for me to understand his point, since I sang next to him in the choir, but eventually, I realized:
If we are thinking more about the act than we are about God, it’s a worthless sacrifice; but seeking righteousness and justice won’t lead you wrong. 

Peace be on your household.

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