Monthly Archives: November 2013

No Strings Attached

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puppeteer

Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 8

Simon says, “Hop on one foot.” Simon says, “Touch your toes.” – Close your eyes! (Gotcha!)

Do you remember the game? It gets me every time. When I first came into a relationship with Christ at age 32, this is what I felt like my relationship with God looked like. Gods says, “Do not lie.” God says, “Do not steal.” God says, “Honor your Mother and Father.” God says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.” – Read your bible every day! (Oops!) The worst part – as a sinner – I blew them all.

Rule bound; as if the human race is a bunch of puppets on a string. I couldn’t understand free will because I didn’t feel like I had any. I had this new found comprehension of what a horrible, sin-filled, undeserving human that I was/am and was clinging to the rules to protect me.

In Leviticus, God gave them very specific instructions and they had to obey every word. Why? They weren’t covered by the blood of Jesus. During Aaron’s ordination, they were not be worthy of being called a Priest until they were fully consecrated. Consecration isn’t a promise to go out as a missionary or to do something else for the Lord. Consecration means to come to the Lord with empty hands and ask, “Lord, what will You have me to do?” He does the filling! That is consecration.

As we now know, the rules won’t get us into heaven. It takes something much more intangible… belief and faith. I shared with my 9th graders in Sunday School on Sunday, the longest distance to heaven is the twelve inches between your head and your heart. The head represents rules. Rules that we learn, follow, practice and sweat over. Your heart is about belief, humility, confession, forgiveness (of yourself and others) and faith that God literally sent His one and only son and belief in Him so we can have everlasting life. (John 3:16)

The day I figured this out, I was a tear-filled blubbering mess. My whole life I lived under the rules and rituals of religion, but finally understood what it mean to be a Christian; a true believer. In turn, we receive a writ of passage into heaven. Aaron was appointed by God to be the one who could approach God and be given the ability to bless the Iraelities and present offerings to God.

I’m so glad that we can go directly to God and have a relationship with him with no strings attached. No priests, intercessors, animal sacrifices, rules, turbans, robes, and alters. What freedom we are given through Christ and because of this we live our lives in obedience, not because of the rules that He gave us to follow, but because of our hearts desire to honor Him with our lives for the sacrifice He made for us.

Face Plant For God

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Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 7

Have you ever read a book starting with the last chapter first? I can’ say that I ever have, but I love the last couple verses at the end of chapter 7. If today is one of those days where you only have time to catch two verses, make these your verses today.

“23 Moses and Aaron then went into the tent of meeting. When they came out, they blessed the people; and the glory of the Lord appeared to all the people. 24 Fire came out from the presence of the Lord and consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And when all the people saw it, they shouted for joy and fell face down.”

Does God ever stop you in your tracks? As I am reading Leviticus chapter 7, I am trying to capture every word and tie together all of the logistics of the offering, comprehend what God is trying to teach us – and then I get to verses 23 & 24 and “KABOOM!” God speaks.

Moses and Aaron bless the people and the glory of the Lord appeared to them? Have you ever been to a worship service and are so moved that your eyes pour tears or the words of the song mean so much that all you can do is follow along, but you can’t sing? Have you ever been in the middle of prayer and your mind goes blank and you just pause in the quiet moment or when you’re reading God’s Word, the words seem to be printed in bold print, as if to be jumping off the page, and speaking only to you?

I have.

These verses reminded me of those moments. God doesn’t show himself literally. He warned Moses in Exodus that if he were to see God, he would die. So however God really appeared to them (or showed his glory) on that day, the very last words of this chapter say that the people shouted for joy and fell face down.

This chapter is a reminder to throw ourselves down before the Lord. Just stop. Stop what we are doing. Stop our agenda. Stop working so hard, fighting for something, striving for more, better, best. It is a reminder to take in the glory of God, pause, and capture a moment of recognizing all God has blessed us with. If we do that, we may find ourselves humbled to our knees; more likely on our faces planted into the floor in worship.

Just listen:

Sin Substitute

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Slushy Mess

Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 6

My daughter and I were at Target on Saturday and she asked for a cherry slushy from their concession area. It was one of those self-serve stations and when the red liquid froze it eroded like a volcano all over her hand, the counter top and floor. She looked at me with big blue eyes and said, “Mom! It blew up!” I was feeling a bit embarrassed for her and overwhelmed by the messy project before us so I asked the cashier for her help. She came over with the most genial, light-hearted spirit and said, “No big deal, that happened to me once.” Bless her for her sweetness, she took the awkwardness out of the moment and even offered some humor amongst the mess.

She cleaned it up and gave us a new cup for a second chance. As she walked away I said, “Thank you for taking such good care of us.” Another woman, within range of my comment, gave me a very strange look. My look back at her must have been equally odd so she qualified her reaction with a statement, “I am sorry, I just had to see who said that because it is so unusual to hear someone be pleasant and complimentary these days.”

It is unfortunate that our retail and food service employees take such abuse from their customers, its even more unfortunate that it is uncommon to see someone treating them with dignity and respect. This story is timely, of course, because you know I’m going to make this story about our devotional this morning.  Isn’t there a parallel to what God is doing with the sin offering?
In chapter 6, the instructions are again given to the priests. The sin offering, which speaks of the work of Christ on the cross, was to be offered where the burnt offering was sacrificed. The burnt offering speaks of the person of Christ. Christ must be holy, harmless, and free from sin to be a satisfactory offering for sin. He must be able to save. This is why the virgin birth is essential in the plan of salvation. This is the One who was conceived by the Holy Spirit in a virgin. The sin offering was holy because Christ was free from sin—though He was made sin for us. It was my sin and your sin that caused Him to die, not His sin. He didn’t die simply because He was arrested by the Romans. He could have stepped off this earth at any moment. He told Peter that He could call for legions of angels, if He wished to do so. He was made sin for us and He died in our place.

Just as we had a chance to make another slushy, God gave the Israelities a chance to right their wrongs. In verse 5 God tells Moses,  “Or whatever it was they swore falsely about. They must make restitution in full, add a fifth of the value to it and give it all to the owner on the day they present their guilt offering.”

Jesus paid it all – even the restitution we could not pay. What a great perspective to start the week.

 

Sassy Mouth

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mouth

Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 5

We have all heard the phrase, “Ignorance is no exception to the law.” I don’t like that phrase. It basically says, “Even if you have no clue about what is taking place, you’re guilty by association.” That, my friends, is a very helpless place to be. It implies that just because you are physically present to the crime, you are a criminal. If you are in proximity of a robbery, you are a thief. If you hang around with people who are gossips, you are a gossiper and if you are in the company of slobs, you are a slob. True or not – God is saying intentionally or unintentionally, aware or unaware, we are guilty.

Verse 4 jumps out at me, “Or if anyone thoughtlessly takes an oath to do anything, whether good or evil (in any matter one might carelessly swear about) even though they are unaware of it, but then they learn of it and realize their guilt.”

My paraphrase, “Don’t make promises that you aren’t going to keep or carelessly swear.” Do you know what I think is the most misused, but unintentional sins. Saying the words, “I will pray for you.” How many times have you become aware of someone’s hardships and you throw out these words aloofly. Perhaps you really planned to pray and forgot? I’ll go ahead and throw myself under the bus here, “I’m guilty!” Because of this, I make a point of NOT saying that phrase unless I mean it and WILL do it. None-the-less, I think it proves that point that God is making in Leviticus 5:4.

Then there is that tongue of ours; James 3:7-8 says, “All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” It was amazing when I first became a believer, God cleaned up my language. Slowly and over time some of those nasty little verbs have crept back into my vocabulary.

Leviticus 5 is a reminder to me today (and hopefully you) to become more consciously aware of my sin and clean up my act. At the same time, this chapter has made me aware what I will continue to fail AND there may be a host of things that I don’t even know I need to clean up, fix, or stop doing. The Holy Spirit is our counselor, so I have every confidence that He will prompt us to become aware of our shortcomings, but at the same time we can have peace that Christ covered them all – past, present, and future. I’m reminded, once again, to turn my eyes to the cross and humble myself to all Christ has done for me – even stuff I don’t even realize He has covered. Isn’t that a beautiful picture of God’s grace?

The Source Of Guilt

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hands in prayer

Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 4

Like the first four chapters and those yet to come, this chapter has a theme – a big theme. Sins of ignorance; sins of the priest; sins of the congregation; sins of the ruler; sins of the common people; the law of the sin offering.

To rephrase this, the following are not exempt from sin: People who don’t know any better, Pastor’s, the church-goers, government authorities, you and me. That pretty much covers everybody! Notice something a bit more disturbing. Look at these verses…

2 “Say to the Israelites: ‘When anyone sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands—

13 ” ‘If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, when they realize their guilt.

22 ” ‘When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the Lord his God, when he realizes his guilt.

27 ” ‘If any member of the community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the Lord’s commands, when they realize their guilt.

Two words are repeated throughout this chapter,  sins unintentionally and realize their guilt. WOW! In other words, people that don’t even know that they are sinning will feel guilty about it. I can relate.

Have you ever had the silent treatment from someone who is mad at you, but you don’t know what you did wrong or why they are upset or mad; you could just tell that something wasn’t right? Even without knowing the cause you give that person a gift and try to get back in good graces with them because you don’t like the tension or dissonance. You have no idea what you might have done, but you want to make it right – if it isn’t your fault – at least try to cheer them up. Meanwhile you are doing a search of yourself trying to figure out what you did or said that would have hurt or offended them?

I think this is what this chapter is trying to teach us. I’m not trying to say we need to live our lives in guilt and constantly fight for His love, attention and forgiveness. What I am trying to say is that through our love of God, we desire to please Him.

I feel sorry for those who don’t have a relationship. No one is exempt – even those who don’t know any better. That explains why we, sinners, feel that something is missing in our lives. We mess up. We may not even be aware of it, but our guilt draws us toward God and helps us realize we need Him.

I pray that this chapter would have us praying, not only for our own shortcomings, but the hearts of the lost whom God is trying to get their attention. Those burdened with guilt and don’t understand its source. Bring Him an offering of prayer and acknowledge Him. I say this as I bend my knee right now…