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Wednesday, October 02, 2013

Devotion::The Exception

"Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, EXCEPT that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places."  1 Kings 3:3

King Solomon took over where his father David left off.  He walked the talk.  Yet this passage tells us that even in King Solomon's life there was an "exception."
Reread that passage above, slower this time...

Solomon loved the Lord, BUT he still stumbled to obey.  He followed the lead of others around him (v.2) rather than leading them.

I had an old pastor who would say constantly, "You don't legislate for the exception."  In this case, however, Solomon was not an exception, but deeply human.  Like all of us, he had periods of faithful obedience, and then seasons of forgetful disobedience.

The good news is that God did legislate for the exceptions, because He sent his Son Jesus Christ to earth to demonstrate full faithful obedience to the Father to the point of death--even death on a cross--in order that He would be not be taken up onto a high place, but buried low into the ground.  And after three days when all of his friends felt hopeless, Jesus came back from death's grip, having paid for all of our sins.  

We don't have to make sacrifices, we don't have to burn incense, we don't have to do anything for God's love.  We get to...that's the ultimate exception.

How are you showing your love for the Lord this week?  Are you doing things trying to earn His love?  Where are the exceptions in your faith walk?  How might God be helping you clean them up?

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