God is an Exacting God.

We, the people of this earth, tend to make God out to be what we want Him to be.  We worship Him in ways that we want; we form our own opinions as to what He is, what He expects of us, what He will do with us when we pass from this life.  But the truth is contained in the Bible, His Word, given to us as a pattern to follow. 

We can learn a lot about God and what He wants of us by reading the Old Testament and the New.  What we find after doing that is that He is an exacting God.  He is God, and He has a right to make the rules, if you will.  Let's take a look at a couple of examples from the OT; and keep in mind that there are endless examples, but we will let a couple suffice. 

In Leviticus 10, there are a couple of priests who took it upon themselves to worship God in a little different way that they had been told.  They burned incense before Him in an act of worship.  The Lord was displeased and had them killed immediately by fire.  The point was clear that one doesn't worship the Lord in a false way, an unauthorized way. 

In 2 Kings 5, we read of a noble man from Syria who was told by a prophet in Israel that God would heal him if he did exactly as God instructed.  He was told to go dip in the river Jordan 7 times and his leprosy would be healed.  The man, Naaman, was very angry.  He said, "We have better rivers in Syria than this dirty river Jordan."  But his advisers convinced him that he should try it.  (If you don't know this story, read the details in 2 Kings 5--it is quite interesting.)  So he dipped once, twice, three times, and so on and nothing happened.  But on the seventh dip he was completely healed.  The point here is that we must realize that when God gives instruction, we must follow it exactly.  The Lord means business.

And God doesn't change.  He tells us in the NT, sometimes by example, what it is He wants from us.  We should take that seriously.....and do it His way.....not ours.  That is true in our worship, our lives, the church, and in every way that we read in the NT.  The NT is God's Word, His plan for man; and He tells us a lot there.  Yes, there are some things that require judgment; but there is a lot given for us to follow.  Let's do it His way.

Thanks  for reading.  Have a great week....and feel the love.