Hypocritical Sacrifice? What's That?
- Pastor Michael Heil
- Jan 12, 2018
- 1 min read
"The people of Israel love their rituals of sacrifice, but to me their sacrifices are all meaningless. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt." -Hosea 8:13
In the years before their captivity in 722 B.C., Israel knew the outward sacrifices to God and even performed them, but their heart was not in them. Israel went through the motions, but their heart was caught up in things of the world (pleasures, reputation, sex, greed, anger, malice, bitterness). In Hosea 8:13 God says "the Lord has taken no delight in them".
It is the same with the church, my devotion, my heart is to be first, foremost, and fully on Jesus and His kingdom. Church service, ministry, and fellowship should be the by-product of my love for the Lord. When it comes from a heart committed and in love with Jesus, it bonds us together, it heals wounds, it expands the gospel, it changes the world.
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