Repost: No "Except That"

One of the elders at my church, Dale Stonecipher, sends out a weekly e-mail in which he reflects on Scripture and makes application. They are devotional in nature and I cannot remember reading one from which I failed to draw encouragement. God has truly blessed our body with his service, a gift for which I am truly grateful.

This week's e-mail was especially challenging/encouraging and I wanted to share it with you. Thanks be to God for the ways He uses others to encourage and lift us up through His Word. I pray that we will not be characterized the the phrase "except that."

Soli Deo Gloria,

J
---------------------
Dear brothers and sisters in the Lord,

I am listening to the blessing of the rain from our gracious God as I write this. How many ways He blesses us!

As I was reading from 1 Kings this morning, two words jumped out at me. Those words were "except that." The passage is regarding Solomon's being established as king of Israel after the death of King David. Scripture states that Solomon loved the Lord, walking in the statutes of his father David, except that he sacrificed and burned incense at the high places. The "except that" is the problem in that sentence.

The "high places" had been pagan worship sites and the Israelites had been told to destroy those sites and build their own for the worship of the Lord. Others before Solomon had built altars for the worship of God prior to the construction of the Tabernacle.

Solomon apparently continute worship at the established high places thinking it was not a big issue and would not lead to any problems. In the previous verses, we are told he also married Pharaoh's daughter and made a treaty with her father, probably a political move, but still marrying a foreign woman rather than one of Israel. These might seem to be small things at the time, but later Solomon's heart was turned from God and he even built high places for the worship of pagan gods for his other wives.

This tragic story of Solomon made me question my own life and what I allow in my life that I might consider to be small issues, but which are not pleasing or acceptable to God. Might if be said of me that I love the Lord, "except that".......

Even sins we might consider to be small are a big deal to a holy God. Indulging in sin, even those we consider small, is an offense against our God.

It is scary to think of small allowances we might make and where they might lead. Might an issue that we think is not a big deal lead to a turning away of our hearts later, as did Solomon's. God calls His people to "be perfect", an impossible task, of course, but nevertheless a goal for which we strive.

May God give us grace to remove the "except that" from our lives and love Him with our whole hearts.

Dale