Blind, lame, and sick; yet faster than you!

I am sitting in my office this morning trying to listen to CD sermons that have been sent to me by pastoral candidates. I know that this may never happen but I just keep hoping to hear a pastor that reminds me of my grandfather. I wouldn't expect his content to be the same (grandpa was one of a kind) but I would love to hear a similar level of excitement in the voice. Teaching the Word should be fun. That excitement should be evident to the listeners. Am I aiming too high?

In an unrelated matter, I have taught two lessons so far from the first chapter of Malachi. The first week I covered the first five verses. In those verses it appears that the Israelites thought God "owed" them love. After all, they were descendants of Abraham. God was very clear that Esau was a descendant as well. However, he loved Jacob, and hated Esau. God does not owe anything! God loves because that is his nature. This becomes very important as we get to the end of chapter 2 and into chapter 3. There will be more about this later.

The second week we covered verses 6-8
A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the LORD of hosts unto you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, Wherein have we despised thy name? 7Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar; and ye say, Wherein have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table of the LORD is contemptible. 8And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? and if ye offer the lame and sick, is it not evil? offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person? saith the LORD of hosts.

The Lord has not let these verses out of my mind for almost two months now. I know that we are not "under the law" and that we are not sacrificing as in the Old Testament, but we still offer things to the Lord every day. Are we presenting our best to him? "offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person?" These words really hit home. If I gave my employer the time that I give to the Lord, would he be pleased? What does the Lord deserve, and what do we find reasonable?
You see, we are a reasonable people. It is not reasonable to think that we should give the Lord the time that we give to television. It is not reasonable to think that we should give the Lord the time that we give to our spouse or children. It is not reasonable to think that the Lord really requires the time that we are giving to our family, hobbies (hunting), relaxation, gossip, or sin. Surely the Lord understands that we are a busy people. Don't we have an excuse? Can't we be sold out on Sunday's? That's really all he wants, right? Oh, no, Sundays won't work; Sundays are family days!

Well, I'll tell you what...

No, before I share what I want to say, let me tell you a story first. This story may be new to you but the concept will be familiar.
I went backpacking with a group of men in the Wind River Range of Wyoming about 9 years ago. We were to be in the mountains for 6 days and had to carry in (and carry out) everything that we were going to need. Every man was supposed to be in good shape for the trip. The idea was that if we were all in good shape, we could cover more ground and easily make it to our chosen camping spot before dark each night. (We always tried to hike to a lake so that we could have fresh fish for dinner. I do not like fish but I figured that if I caught fish for everyone else, maybe they wouldn't finish the food that they brought to eat and I could help them with that.)

As we hiked in on the first day, you could see the men looking around and sizing each other up. They were trying to see who was working harder and where they fit in with everyone else's level of fitness. I was amused at the banter that was going on and told two of the men that if they wanted a challenge they could walk on ahead and the rest of the group would catch up later. They considered it for a minute but decided against it. When I asked them why they were staying with the group, one of the men looked at me and said "I am not sure that I am faster than Al, but I know that I am faster than you. We just saw bear tracks a little while ago and the way I figure it, if I stay with the group and we run across a bear, I don't need to be faster than everybody, I only need to be faster than one-body."

Now, I'll tell you what I am thinking. We have let that same mentality creep into our spiritual lives. It is not reasonable that we give God all of our time, lets just give him more than the guy next to us is giving him.

I have to tell you, I have been struggling lately with why I am doing what I am doing. If I am not doing it with joy, I am doing it for the wrong reasons. Am I giving to God, or am I giving to man? My actions may be right, I may be in the Lord's will, and yet my heart may still be wrong.

I do not want to offer the blind, the lame, or the sick. Do you?

Let's not compare ourselves to others, let's compare ourselves to Christ!