Revealing Ugliness

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Today’s Devotion: Numbers 8

The important thing for the child of God today is not how you walk, but where you walk. “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). You see, the light is emphasized in this chapter and I read it to mean that when you walk in the light, you see that there is imperfection in your life. Then you go to the laver to remove it, which symbolizes the confession of your sins.

Have you ever washed something, like your kitchen floor, and walked away as though it were clean. Upon return you turn on the light and all of a sudden streaks appear or the corners that once hid dirt revealed all of your ‘missed spots.’ If not your kitchen floor, I’m sure you can visualize something that you thought was clean, until you put it under a light.

This is how it is with sin. We think we’re clean, after all, we shower almost every day. That is until we begin reading God’s Word and realize that we’re not so clean, sin makes us dirty. Jesus is the light in our lives who reveals the ugly parts of our hearts and souls. Even when we come to the Him in praise and think everything is all good – it’s not all that good.

My takeaway from this chapter today is to be reminded that I need to take this time to pause and pray, repent and rejoice. I don’t need some ceremonial process in the tabernacle to cleanse me (wash away) my sin. I have Jesus. I’m also not some martyr who keeps trying to find my dirt to bury myself in self-misery or self-loathing. It’s the reverse. I’m acknowledging my sin, my need for a savior and the price Jesus paid that I have life and have it to the fullest none-the-less! (John10:10)

So here I am, about to start another day that God has given me, with a Godly perspective on what it means to walk in the light.

Gifts That Count

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Today’s Devotion: Numbers 7

The second to the longest chapter in the bible and a very monotonous chapter at that. Eighty-nine verses and very repetitive as it describes each of the gifts that the princes brought to the tabernacle from each of the twelve tribes. My mind wandered as I read this chapter (confession), and I couldn’t help thinking about the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” Every time the chapter shares which gift the prince presented I thought, “And a partridge in a pear tree!” I hope you see the humor – I was simply feeling the warm of the Christmas season as my Christmas tree glistens next to me, 12 tribes, 12 princes, 12 gifts.

Although, this chapter is much more serious than that; a very important message to you and me today. As much as this chapter seems to repeat itself, one of my applications that I believe God was speaking to my heart is how much He notices what we give. Some of the princes, namely the very first two, gave the identical gift. God couldn’t have said, “The first two princes gave a silver platter?”No! He spends paragraphs/verses describing it.

Why? Because we bring Him gifts and He pays attention – He notices. This is convicting to me because I just adjusted my monthly budget and reduced my offering. After all, its Christmas, I just got my tax bill in the mail, I’m going to be moving at the end of the month and with moving comes additional expenses. I justified, to myself, that I would ramp up my offering after things settled down.

I realize this is my issue and I’m personalizing God’s message to my circumstances, but that’s the beauty of God’s Word. It’s how He speaks to each and every one of us. You can read chapter 7 and get something completely different. If you do, and He does, please share it if you are comfortable.

The message I have for this cold, Wisconsin, Monday morning is that God cares. He cares not only what we give, but in the spirit in which we give it. God will continue to bless our Christmas season, provide for our tax bill and incur the cost of a move. It’s my flesh the fears, tries to control and withhold from the LORD feeling as if I need to “take care of things.” If you are feeling anxious about finances this season, based on what God showed me today, I have to say, “Put your trust in the LORD!”

Don’t Vow Lightly

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Today’s Devotion: Numbers 6

I write this with a heavy heart. Sometimes I read God’s word and I am reminded of just how small I am in the bigger picture of God’s greater plan. Here in chapter 6 we learn about the Nazarite vow. Essentially, any man or woman of Israel could take a vow for a period of time, or a lifetime, and become a Nazarite. This isn’t just a go-through-the-motions kind of decision, this is all in.

I made a vow to the Lord that I wanted to be a Christian; a follower, believer and  a woman of God. I surrendered it all 10 years ago in that church pew and God took me in. I have had quite a journey with Him and I see the world through a completely different lens still today. My vow, back then was, “LORD, take my business, take my daughter, take my life. I can’t please people anymore, I don’t know what is right or what is wrong. I can’t keep trying to live my life on my own, take it – it’s yours!”

I meant it too. I realized that day that I was done pleasing people and I wanted to live to please the LORD. Oh how I have a short-term memory. I have trampled over that vow many, many times. Some intentionally and some completely unknowingly.

So, why does chapter 6 hit me so hard? Well, it is a reminder of what a vow looks like and how people (Israelite/Nazarites) would willingly, voluntarily subject themselves to not drinking wine or shaving their hair. Pure sacrifice. I can’t say that my life has been a sacrifice. Stuff gets in the way of my relationship with God – busy, selfish, prideful, earthly, human stuff.

Although, God knows I am not capable of being everything Jesus was when He came to earth and He also knows that I do love Him and desire to please Him. Life is so complicated sometimes and sometimes right and wrong aren’t black and white. So this one thing I know… He has a plan for my life and even if I make a mess of it, He will still be my LORD and Savior.

Sometimes when I’m feeling inadequate, these are the promises I rest upon. Perhaps if you feel the same way, we can take the example of the Nazarite vow and remember that God gave us a new day. Take a deep breath and appreciate oxygen, your beating heart, the sight of His creation and know that with this new day, His mercy abounds.

Jealous For You

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Today’s Devotion: Numbers 5

Some of my commentary resources question why this chapter singles out a woman committing adultery and not a man. Evidently man is dealt with in in future chapters and the penalty is severe, which is stoning. One of the lessons we can take away from chapter 5 is the reference that a man is jealous for his wife. Verse 14 says, “And if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure.”  To go so far as to say that if a man truly loves his wife, he will be jealous for her – just as God is a jealous God. I conclude that jealously is a Godly quality.

Exodus 34:14 says, “Do not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.” What exactly is jealously? According to dictionary.com jealousy is a intolerant of unfaithfulness or rivalry. Hummmm…. Interesting.

In GotQuestions.org, it supports this to say, “If a husband sees another man flirting with his wife, he is right to be jealous, for only he has the right to be with his wife. This type of jealousy is not sinful. Rather, it is entirely appropriate. Being jealous for something that God declares to belong to you is good and appropriate. Jealousy is a sin when it is a desire for something that does not belong to you. Worship, praise, honor, and adoration belong to God alone, for only He is truly worthy of it.”

God desires after us and doesn’t want us to make idols and worship idols instead of giving Him the worship that belongs to Him alone. God is possessive of the worship and service that belong to Him. I’m glad God desires after you and me – He deserves our love.

 

 

Best Me I Can Be

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Today’s Devotional: Numbers 4

What do you think of when you see the words limited edition? I think that there are very few, it’s special, unique, set apart, not available for an indefinite period of time. Numbers chapter 4 makes me think that’s what Christians are!

  • Matthew 7:14 says, “But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (There are few)
  • 1 Peter 2:9 says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” (We are special).
  • Psalm 139:13 says, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.” (We are unique)
  • Psalm 73:26, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.” (We are only on earth for a short time.)

The three families of the tribe of Levi had service to perform about the tabernacle. This chapter tells us who is to serve, what was the order of their service, and how many there were in the tribe who served. As this chapter unveils, each Levite had his assignment, just so, every Christian has a gift and a job God wants him to do. I believe God will reward us for doing what He wants us to do. We are not to do what we choose to do, but we are to exercise the gifts that He has given us.

God created us with gifts, spiritual gifts. These are unique to us and were given to us for God’s service. When we use our gifts we perform naturally and effortlessly. This is why we call it our gift-zone, strengths, natural abilities and talents. Collectively, every believer together makes up the body of Christ and are able to be so much more together than we are apart.

I see how God arranged people according to their gifts and talents and to perform the work of the tabernacle seamlessly, efficiently and effectively for Him. As a Christian, created and called to serve God with our own unique gifts and abilities, let’s approach today and be the best that we can be in service to God.

Firstborn Blessings

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Today’s Devotional: Numbers 3

In Numbers 3:13 it says, “For all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They are to be mine. I am the LORD.” I think today He still asks every family to give Him not only our possessions but to give Him the members of our household. Have you dedicated your own to the Lord? Have you turned them over to Him? It is a wonderful thing to be able to dedicate your own to Him. The firstborn belongs to the Lord.

I remember the day I dedicated my first daughter to the Lord. I didn’t know what I was doing actually. Ironically, I gave her to the Lord out of fear. I remember sitting in the pew at church, feeling very overwhelmed with my life at the time, and crying out to God, “LORD, please take my business, my daughter, and my life!” I didn’t know I did something magical that day. Not only for my daughter (who is blossoming into a beautiful child of God), but for me. That day, I meant it… I surrendered it all. That was 14 years ago and here I am today. Thankful for what God has done in my life and continues to do.

God loves children. He says himself in Matthew 18:3-5, “And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.” That day in that pew, I was like a little child. I gave my daughter and my life to him with a pure and innocent heart. It was the day my life changed and I will never forget it.

Numbers 3 takes me back to that moment and gives me a sense of acceptance and love. My hope for the readers of my blog that you have that same feeling – that God loves you and you have peace in knowing that you are also one of His own.

Get In YOUR Place

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Today’s Devotion: Numbers 2

Numbers 2:1 – 2 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: “The Israelites are to camp around the tent of meeting some distance from it, each of them under their standard and holding the banners of their family.”

What is your standard and if you had a banner for your family, what would it say?

God has Moses gather all the families to surround the tabernacle in a specific order and each of them is allowed to represent themselves according to how they want to be represented. This is God’s army of people who He gathered. I’m so fascinated by the order and even more fascinated by God’s logic. God really has things all figured out.

It makes me realize that God has each of us in a specific place in the world, at a specific time and for a specific purpose. We need to be who were are. Have you given up on trying to be what everyone else wants you to be? I became a Christian about 10 years ago and I learned that my life wasn’t created to be molded into what the world wanted me to be, I was created for a specific purpose that God created me to be.

That was the day I stopped taking anti-depressants. I didn’t need them anymore. When I was working hard to fit in and be what I thought the world wanted me to be, I was burdened so heavily that it was actually doing me harm. Once I came to accept who I was, in Christ, and focus on doing what God created me to be and do, I was set free from that bondage of pain, suffering, depression, anxiety and stress.

Not sure how all of that came out of my reading of Numbers chapter 2, but I was prompted to write it. Perhaps to encourage you today? For whatever reason God laid that on my heart, I hope you can be encouraged that God is with us and it’s such a beautiful picture to know we are exactly where he wants us and it is our turn to create our standard and hold our banner that best represents who we are.

Christian Pedigree

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Today’s Devotion: Numbers 1

We did it! Another milestone. Yesterday concluded our study through the book of Leviticus and today begins our new journey through the book of Numbers.

Right away God is teaching us how amazing He is. He’s counting Israelities to form an army. Can you image, as the census is taking place, men are asked, “Are you an Israelite?” What if they said they were not sure, maybe, think so, live like an Israelite and so by association should qualify to become an Israelite, or worse, are working really hard at becoming an Israelite?

Do you think if they are NOT born Israelites that God will give them a pass? NO! These are His people – God’s chosen – that Moses led out of Egypt. If they are not children of God, they will not be given the right to be a part of God’s army.

And so it is with us. I talk to people who give similar answers about their citizenship in heaven. If you asked them if they were going to heaven they would give similar responses…. “I’m not sure, maybe, I think so, I go to church or most common of these, I am a good person, I work hard at it.”

These are not enough and that’s not my Words, it’s God’s (Ephesians 2:8-9). The sad thing is that we can have absolute assurance that we will be in heaven and are children of God, but it takes re-birth. What is re-birth? It’s surrendering our lives to Jesus. It’s giving God headship of our lives. It’s believing, by faith, that we can’t get to heaven on our own and that we need a savior. Then we are given the Holy Spirit, our counselor, and our lives are transformed.

Like the Israelities, you can’t be an Israelite [Christian] by association, you must be born [re-born] to it (John 3:5-8). If you’re not there, you are someone who is not sure or working hard to get into heaven, please stop working on your Christian pedigree and cross the line, by faith, into the kingdom of God.  All you have to do pray. Confess that you can’t get their on your own and ask God to be LORD of your life.

If you did that welcome in and congratulations for making the greatest decision of your life! Mark this, the day after Thanksgiving, as your birthday into the kingdom of God. If you need guidance on where to go from here, please email me. If you are already there, I would love to hear your testimony in the comments below. How and when did you receive Christ and how has your life changed?

Thanksgiving Day Perspective

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Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 27

What is better?

  • When someone does something for you out of obligation or does something for you out of generosity?
  • When someone does something because you tell them to or because they want to?
  • When someone does the bare minimum or goes above and beyond?
  • When someone does something and brags about it or something that has been done and is a mystery as to how it happened?
  • When someone gives you something because you asked for it or someone who gives you something because they want you to have it?

I think you will make the same choices as I would – they seem obvious. As I was reading the 27th Chapter of Leviticus it seemed as though this chapter was out of place. Then I realized that in all of the preceding chapters of this book, God had mandated laws, while in chapter 27 the laws given are voluntary – It’s like an addendum that God is saying, “Not because you have to, but if you want to.”

It’s Thanksgiving morning and I am reflecting on all of the blessings that I have in my life. Then I take all of my blessings and correlate what God is trying to teach me in Chapter 27. Here is my conclusion…

We aren’t bound by those same laws because we live Leviticus Chapter 27 kind of lives.

  • God gave us His son to die on the cross for our sin; not because we we told him too, but Jesus is God’s gift to us.
  • We do not nor should we live our lives out of obligation, but because we love Him.
  • We live by the law, not because He commands us to, but because we want to honor Him for what He has done for us.
  • We can go through the motions of living a Christian life or we can live humbly, as if we don’t deserve what Jesus did for us on the cross.
  • We can surrender our lives as an act of worship and live each day in gratitude and thanksgiving or we can work hard at living a perfect life, only to fall short and grow defeated.

On this Thanksgiving day, as you are taking an inventory of all of your blessings, please don’t neglect to recognize that loving God and how we love God is voluntarily. He doesn’t command it – it’s optional, just like the laws in chapter 27 are optional. We do it because we want to, choose to, and desire to.

May God bless you and your family abundantly on this day of Thanksgiving.

If, Then… It’s All On You

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Today’s Devotion: Leviticus 26

In this chapter there are nine “if’s” and twenty-four “I will’s.” What does that say about our part and God’s part? For example: When God says in verses 3-4, “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit.”

It looks to me like we have the choice and He has the promises.

I have always been interested in understanding whether or not we [people] are given free will. I learned from one of my biblical mentors, early in my Christian walk, that there is no such thing as free will. The argument stands that if we are sinners and can’t help ourselves, so we are slaves to sin and therefore, have no free will.

The counter argument is the opposite. We have free will because we are conscious of our sin and therefore, we have the liberty to make the right choices on how to live so we do have free will.

This chapter, in my opinion, supports the latter. God is making it very clear that He will respond to the choices we make. If we sin, He will punish. If we obey, He will reward. I suppose we could get really petty over the causes and effects of decisions we make the the way God responds, but for today, I’m good with knowing that making the right choice will always work out in my favor. If I rebel, disobey, or try to live outside of God’s will, God may take me through a time of pruning, character building, personal growth, desert… whatever you want to call it.

And of course, in Romans 8:28 we know God makes all things work for the good of those who love Him AND we also know that because of Jesus our sins are covered; past, present and future. But, that certainly doesn’t mean we get a free ticket to sin. It means we have choices and I appreciate that Leviticus 26 is reminding me that making Godly choices ultimately rests on you and me.