Dearly Beloved,

DOING THE RIGHT THING RIGHTLY

"[David] said to [the priests], 'You are the heads of the Levitical
families; you and your fellow Levites are to consecrate yourselves and
bring up the ark of the LORD, the God of Israel, to the place I have
prepared for it. It was because you, the Levites, did not bring it up
the first time that the LORD our God broke out in anger against us. We
did not enquire of him about how to do it in the prescribed way.'" (1
Chronicles 15:12-13, NIV).

How often people do the right thing wrongly. Some do so out of
ignorance. Some do so out of zeal. Others do so out of negligence.
Each instance does not bring good and desired result in most cases.
Rather, they all bring adverse effects on the doers and/or people
around them. This was what happened during the reign of David as the
king of Israel. He was zealous for the Lord in appreciation of what
the Lord had done to him. So, he wanted to bring the ark of the Lord,
the symbol of the presence of God, to his capital city. However, he
did the right thing wrongly, and it cost the life of Uzzah, a layman
that was recruited to guide the sacred object (see 1 Chronicles
13:7-10). David later retraced his step: he recruited the priests that
had been set apart for that duty (see 1 Chronicles 15:11-15). The
latter action was successful because David did the right thing
rightly.

No matter how a cause may be good, it has to be done rightly. This is
the fact that most people that especially want to serve or worship God
do not know. They think that can just serve Him anyhow. Some of them
are ignorant of the right way to serve Him. Some are too zealous to
serve Him the right way, but they do not, even when they know the
right way. Others are serving Him out of negligence because of their
so-called familiarity with Him.

Have you realized that you can do the right thing wrongly? This may
have an adverse effect on you and/or people around you. Therefore,
what are you doing presently? Are you doing it rightly? Are you
worshipping God rightly? Peter said, "...And there is salvation in and
through no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given
among men by and in which we must be saved [except the name of Jesus
Christ]" (Acts 4: 10-12, AMP). Any act of worship to God (no matter
how good it is) that is not through Jesus Christ will lead to doom.

In His service,

Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).



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_________________________
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
+234 805 515 9591
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/spiritualdigest2003/

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will
have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted
in my body, whether by life or by death. FOR TO ME, TO LIVE IS CHRIST
AND TO DIE IS GAIN" (Philippians 1:20-21, NIV).