The Sweet Aroma God Requires - Hosea 6:6

For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
 - Hosea 6:6

    How many of us have placed our ritual practices front and forward as evidence of our piety? Of our faith? Think about it for a moment. Have our pharisaical robes supplanted the contents of our hearts? God couldn’t care less for our theatrics. He doesn’t care about profession; He cares about possession.  Do we possess the love for one another that God demands of us? “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.” - Colossians 3:12-14.
    Our religious trappings mean nothing compared to what we hold in our hearts. As Christians, we can fast, say Novenas, rosaries, the stations of the cross. We can sing in the choir,  tithe until we are financially broken, or we can fast ourselves to death! None of that matters. There are so many traditions of men that dilute what God wants from each of us, and what God wants and expects from us is . . . love. “Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.” - Romans 13:8.
    We seem to avoid the obvious lessons of Jesus Christ when we seek to appease God with our traditions and rituals. All the time believing we are pleasing Him with the perfume of our offerings. But are we guilty of the sin of proclaiming our belief and faith in God yet failing to fulfill His law? “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”- Galatians 5:14. Do we? Do we?
    Do we absolutely love our neighbors as we love ourselves? Can any of us stand before a mirror and proclaim that we absolutely love our neighbors as we love ourselves? But more important: can we stand before God and make that claim?
    We boldly state that we understand God’s will for us. But God demands that we know Him. If we know Him, we know His will for us. “O righteous Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me. And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” - John 17:25-26.
    The knowledge of God must produce in us the love of Him and our neighbors. “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.’”- Matthew 22:36-40.
    God doesn’t require sacrifice, burnt offerings, or any other contrivance to show our knowledge or love for Him. He requires we put on love for both Him and our neighbors. Love is the sweet aroma God requires.

God’s Law Is the Benchmark - Deuteronomy 6:6-9

   
 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” - Deuteronomy 6:6-9

    One of the most confrontational issues of the 21st Century is the subject of morality. If you want to inflame any social gathering just bring up the subject of morality. Better yet, paraphrase Pontius Pilate when he asked Christ - “What is truth?” - John 18:38. Substitute the word “morality” for truth and you will likely be accused of setting the fields on fire. Yet it need not be this way.
    Using the most conventional language, leaving theology out of it, and entering the laboratory we would all have to agree that a base understanding of the sciences requires that we create and maintain a “set point of reference” for the purpose of measurement. This way, unlike modern math, every equation has one specific right answer. Regardless of which side of the aisle you stand on, this is hardly a contentious position. It is, in fact, the only logical and rational hill to die upon. And when defining a set point of reference we use words like standard, benchmark, model, guideline, yardstick, or norm. Yet when discussing such an ethereal concept as morality, all the conventional points of reference become skewed by the shrill, insistent, and arbitrary demand that there can be no one set standard for morality. “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 21:25. After all, we are no longer talking science here. Well, so goes that argument.
    The problem with this assertion is that once we leave the security of the laboratory and switch the controls  from benchmark to arbitrary, we wind up with this hot mess we call “the world.” And every problem we are forced to deal with in this world, i.e., crime, hatred, war, deceit, greed, corruption, racism, sexism, poverty, et al, can be traced directly back to the inability to standardize human behavior because the devil’s minions uncompromisingly declare that “what is right for you isn’t necessarily right for me!” Why?  “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.” - Romans 8:7.
    So mankind arbitrarily chooses to obey the standards that suit him at the moment while brazenly disobeying those he chooses to ignore. And the fundamental argument is that you cannot force me to follow your morals because I have my own code of morality that I prefer to follow. Can you imagine a world where there were no standards, guidelines, or norms for us to follow? You don’t have to imagine it; that is the world we live in and we have seen the results of such arbitrary compliance. “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” - Proverbs 14:12.
    We have visited the laboratory and seen the human experiment in morality gone wrong. It is time to return to God’s creation and the benchmarks He has provided for us. Clearly, there must be a standard we are to follow if we are to live out our days as we are meant to and that standard doesn’t include erroneous delusions of carpe diem, seizing the moment, the Millennial’s cry “you only live once, or the Nike mantra, “Just do it!”  God’s law is the benchmark for all men to follow, not just some men. We ignore His law at our own peril. “But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men.’” - Acts 5:29.
    Now there are many who will say that we are not saved by the law; the implication being that there is no pressing need to follow the law. This view is held by the Antinomians who contend that “the law is dead” and therefore there is no need to adhere to moral, religious, or social norms. This long-held belief is pure and unadulterated heresy! For while we may not be saved by God’s law, we are certainly for the sake of ourselves and our fellow men to follow it and live by it. Christ Himself issued the proclamation - “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” - Matthew 22:37-40.
    When it comes down to whose morals we practice it’s not a contest between yours and mine. There is only one set point of morality literally carved into stone for all men, and that benchmark is God’s law.

Deo Volente - Luke 22:41-42

And He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done.” - Luke 22:41-42

   Christ agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying to His heavenly Father to remove Him from  the fate of death by crucifixion . . . if He was willing. In lieu of that plea being granted Christ went on to say, “not My will, but Yours, be done.” In short, Jesus prayed for His deliverance from death . . . God willing.   
    How many times in our lives have we heard the desire for a particular outcome petitioned with the small prayer, “God willing.” Even unbelievers will sometimes use the expression revealing their fervent desire for a positive outcome. But in reality, the remark truly describes the decretive will of God. We must make no mistake here: God’s will shall be done. Whether it is the birth of a child, the tragedy of planes hitting buildings, that unexpected promotion at work, or the death of a loved one; they all have one thing in common - they are reflect the will of God. “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure . . . .’” - Isaiah 46:10.
    Many will object to the negative events, especially when such calamities involve tragic losses to ostensibly “good people.” How could God do such a thing? How could He allow it? Why would He allow it? All are legitimate questions when seen from a perspective clouded by ignorance of God’s absolute sovereignty. Think about it for just a moment: how do you define God? Perhaps your definition is faulty. Among other traits, God is the absolute. He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent; all powerful, all knowing and always present. Consider this: only if God was not all-powerful could bad things happen in spite of His authority and if He is not all powerful then He is not God! It is precisely as the late R.C. Sproul so eloquently said - “If there is one maverick molecule in all the universe, then God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, He is not God.” So what are we left with? We are left with God, who does all things according to His will. “. . . your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” - Matthew 6:10.
    Many people, both believer and unbeliever alike have a serious problem with this concept. But because a concept is uncomfortable we can’t simply dismiss it for something we find more palatable. The fact is, everything that happens in our fallen world happens according to the ordinance of God Almighty and for no other reason! If it happens, it’s because God ordained for it to happen. “All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing; He does according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’” - Daniel 4:35.
    The question “why” still remains. Why do terrible things sometimes happen? The simple fact is that we just don’t know. The finite mind of man can never understand the infinite mind of God, nor should we try. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” - Isaiah 55:8-9.
    Praying against the will of God is futile. All we can do is pray for God’s will to be done. “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’;  whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” - James 4:13-15.
    Of course, there will always be “need” in our lives. We all “need” material possessions simply to function: it is a mark of our humanity. But remember that God is all knowing. He already knows our needs and Jesus has assured us - “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” - Matthew 6:31-33.
    We must understand the sovereignty of God before we can come to terms with what happens in our lives or the lives of others. And while there will certainly be both happiness and heartache, if we understand God’s will we can face anything, knowing His will for us is without error. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” - Romans 8:28-30. In God’s glory resides our own glory that we receive through faith in Jesus Christ who prayed, “not My will, but Yours be done.”