{"id":4547,"date":"2023-02-03T20:23:21","date_gmt":"2023-02-04T02:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4547"},"modified":"2023-02-03T20:23:21","modified_gmt":"2023-02-04T02:23:21","slug":"devotional-on-1-samuel-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-1-samuel-23\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on 1 Samuel"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-ZqYKCZO0RKE\/Xdv1e8rBBPI\/AAAAAAABC6A\/GRPXDRk8K6g4LaYz8ipaTEEK5FLnJfcuwCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_3634.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1195\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2015 &#8211; Pinnacle Mtn State Park, AR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The bigger they come&#8230;<br \/>\n1 Samuel 13: God is out looking for your replacement right now.<br \/>\nOn the surface, Saul&#8217;s failure seems minor. All he\u2019s doing is offering his own sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to do it for him. Beneath that, though, is a fault line that means catastrophe. Any king of Israel must rule only as a servant of God. Things are to be done God&#8217;s way. From the beginning of Saul&#8217;s story his position has been clearly defined. Samuel is the man chosen by God to provide spiritual leadership and that includes making ritual sacrifices. Saul has crossed that line, claiming authority that\u2019s not his. Because of that God is rejecting him as king. Since he doesn\u2019t accept God&#8217;s way of doing things another king will be found. I need to remember here that Saul isn&#8217;t making a mistake in this incident. Rather, he\u2019s acting with full knowledge of what he\u2019s doing. Simply put, he\u2019s pushing God&#8217;s will to the side and taking what he thinks is a better course of action. While it\u2019s true that God is testing him with the circumstance of Samuel&#8217;s late arrival it\u2019s also true that he miserably fails the test. The Lord seeks another king because Saul, by his own decision, makes himself unworthy to be king. As I apply this to my life, I see that I must never forget that he is Lord. I&#8217;m not free to do whatever I want to do. While I know God is gracious and merciful, I also know that, in my own free will, I can push God too far. It doesn\u2019t have to be that way, but I know that it remains a tragic possibility.<br \/>\nTake Away: If I\u2019m to be God\u2019s man I have to do things God\u2019s way. He\u2019ll have it no other way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The bigger they come&#8230; 1 Samuel 13: God is out looking for your replacement right now. On the surface, Saul&#8217;s failure seems minor. All he\u2019s doing is offering his own sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to do it for him. Beneath that, though, is a fault line that means catastrophe. Any king of Israel [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1473,7],"tags":[114,277,336,373,501,654],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4547"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14235,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4547\/revisions\/14235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}