God's priority is mercy, not sacrifice

"For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
Hosea 6:6

How would God desiring mercy more than sacrifice fit into our world today?

Some leaders seem more concerned about the unborn than they do about those that are born in poverty.
Some leaders are concerned about handouts to the poor, but not about huge sums of money given to corporations.

What would Jesus say to that?

Jesus was shaking things up as he wandered around Israel teaching. The religious leaders of his day had a long history of following God, and they were God's chosen people after all. So who was this new young rabbi coming along doing things that went against tradition?
He healed on the sabbath. He and his disciples also gathered grain on the sabbath. The religious leaders took very seriously the sabbath. it had been ordered by God, and they were determined to keep it no matter what.
Rules were rules after all, and pretty soon you will have chaos if you don't have rules. Right?
Well that was the case until Jesus came along.
Twice in fairly short order, in Matthew 9 and again in Matthew 12, Jesus was in conflict with the religious leaders. In both instances he quoted the Prophet Hosea, 6:6, which says: "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings."
It is true the burn offerings were required, but throughout the Old Testament it is clear that God wants us to take care of each other, and that God desires mercy and justice more than details of rules to be followed.

In Matthew Chapter 9, Jesus forgives a man's sins. Well this was blasphemy of the highest order. They didn't know Jesus was God yet, and only God could forgive sins.  He forgave a man who was paralized. When they objected, Jesus took it a step further by healing the guy. They didn't have anything to say to that.
But a bit later Jesus calls Matthew to be his disciple. This was no ordinary Matt. The text says he was a tax collector. What this meant was, he was a representative of the Romans who were taking tax money from people. These people were also nortorious for taking some extra for themselves. So if you owed $10, they may say you have to apy $15, and keep the extra.
Matthew believes and drops what he is doing and follows Jesus. Then he has jesus come home for dinner and also invites all his other tax collector buddies.  The writer says "sinners" also, so there were some other nefarious characters around too.
Of course the pharisees had to question this. If Jesus was really a good rabbi, he wouldn't be hanging around with these people.
But Jesus response was to quote Hosea.
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’a For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Then again in Matthew 12, Jesus and his disciples again get into a row with the pharisees over the sabbath. They were walking through a field and were eating some of the grain. Of course this was a violation of their sabbath rules, but not a violation of any old testament scripture.
Again Jesus points them to Hosea, where it says God desires mercy and not sacrifice.

How would God desiring mercy more than sacrifice fit into our world today?Our religious leaders worry about bathrooms and gay marriage, but are not concerned about homeless people or people going without health care.
What would Jesus say to that?



<a href="http://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=756318&u=1334164&m=6425&urllink=&afftrack=">Engage in Bible reading like never before with "The Story", the bible that reads like a novel! Now 75% off at ChurchSource.com.</a>

Presidential order lightens already lax scrutiny on churches involved in politics

I have always thought the separation of church and state was an excellent idea. This gives the church freedom to promote the kingdom of God without interference. Part of this means that pastors may not promote a candidate, or a church may not promote a candidate, and could lose its tax exempt status if it does so.

But just how much of a crisis is this, or how big of an issue is this?

I have heard churches complaining about it, and pastors complaining about it, but apparently anyone actually getting in trouble is pretty rare.

There is only one documented case of a church actually losing its tax exempt status. That was in the early 90s when a church took out an ad in a newspaper warning people to not vote for Bill Clinton. That was way past using the pulpit. Even then, they were told they could reapply as long as they didn't do that anymore.

They were not even required to pay any taxes. The only actual “penalty” was that those people who had made donations were not allowed to claim those donations on their taxes for that year.

So it is not like the IRS is spying on churches trying to defrock them of tax exempt status.

Still, it could set a precedent and embolden some pastors to start using their pulpit for political purposes.

The IRS was already not paying attention, and will be paying even less attention now, so its real likely a church can start getting away with more politics.

The president's executive order is allegedly for religious freedom, but it is not about that at all. It is largely a meaningless gesture that could inspire churches to get more political.

The act tells the IRS to be selective – or use their own discretion, when investigating cases where a church may be in danger of losing its tax exempt status. It does not change the law, but does give the enforcement agency a ton of leeway as to enforcement.

This means basically, if you like the same candidates that the IRS likes, you can get away with violating the law because they wont be enforcing it. It could mean that if you like candidates they don't like, you might get a lot more investigation than you would otherwise.

If the IRS ever did start investigating, or if they were told to by the president, they might just start pulling exempt status from those that don't agree with his policies.

I am still against churches getting involved in politics. The church does not need politics to accomplish the purposes of God.

Will the church start using the worldly system and worldly ways to accomplish heavenly tasks?

Rambling thoughts on the election

Political polls show that few people really like either of the two main candidates. Nearly 40 percent of the people on both sides are voting for their choice just to stop the other one from getting in. The majority of voters on both sides are voting against someone rather than for someone. The two main candidates have not gathered admiration or even respect in most quarters. Ive not actually heard anyone say "I like him," or "I like her."

It is also true that they rarely talk about actual ideas or plans to improve things. There are people who try to make one seem to be the "Christian" choice. You have to ignore a whole lot of baggage to make that claim. You basically have to say my candidate's sins don't matter but the other side's sins do matter. Jesus had some choice words for this type attitude - and hypocrisy and den of thieves comes to mind.

There are also those that say Republicans are against abortion, and therefore a vote for them is a vote against abortion - which generally is a "christian" position to take. The only problem with that, is when the Republicans were in power, they did nothing about abortion. In 2000 Republicans held the Presidency, Congress, the Senate, and a majority of the Supreme Court justices were conservative. It was a perfect storm. The issue never even came up. Why should we believe them now, especially when it has not been very significant in the campaign rhetoric?

There are other issues, or should be. Things that are Biblical, like social justice and taking care of poor people. Healthcare is another issue that should matter, as well as the economy in that there are policies that are more fair than others.

There are I suppose reasons to vote for either candidate, and you really are voting for a political party more than in individual. That isn't such a good thing either, but that is where we find ourselves.

But realize, no political party will "save" us. No political party will bring about the Kingdom of God, nor will any political party actually be righteous.  God is not sitting up in Heaven worrying about who we are going to elect. God already knows, and it will fit perfectly into his overall plan for the universe.

I think a more pertinent question would be to consider what is God telling us. Certainly God can raise up leaders, and we see our choices. But these are choices we have chosen as well. Is it not a comment on our culture that we have two candidates that basically no one likes?

     Proverbs 19: 21      Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
         but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails.