February 28, 2010, Leviticus 22:17-23:44, Mark 9:30-10:12, Psalm 44:1-8, Proverbs 10:19

Heavenly Father, We are but children in our understanding of you. Forgive our immaturity and use our thoughts and our words, we pray, to build your Kingdom according to your grand and glorious design.

Response to Leviticus 22:17-23:44

Reflecting on today's reading from Leviticus 22:17-33 regarding acceptable offerings, God is not interested in our leftovers.  He wants our very best.  But this is not just a push for money!  Roman's 12:5-13 explains offerings in our modern stressed economy: "we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Share with God's people who are in need. Practice hospitality."
 
It is interesting that today's reading and our Levitical passage both talk about vows. So, let me share Jesus teaching about marriage as this is a modern application that affects both the family man and the child of God.
 
Matthew 19:3-12 is the sister passage to Mark 10:2-12 which is in our reading for today.  It says:
 
Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?"

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator made them male and female, and said, For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."

"Why then," they asked, "did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?"

Jesus replied, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery."

The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry."

Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."

This may seem like a hard teaching.  As a married man, I struggled for a long time making my relationship with God a priority over my relationship with my wife.  Yet, I found the more I devoted time to her, the tougher our relationship became.  As I released the chain that attached me to her and invested more time in service for the Kingdom, my relationship either improved, or my patience did.  I'm sure this may be different for different couples as they deal with feelings of being smothered or abandoned, but in such situations, check your priorties and allow your spouse the real emotions they are experiencing.  A married man will generally have a tougher time making God a priority, yet, they may find that in working on making God that first priority, the difficulties in commiting to the marriage vow becomes easier.

Single men, there can be a great fulfillment as you fill your lives with spirituality and service for the Kingdom in the absence of marriage.  A good reading on the marriage vow and making God a priority is found in I Corinthians 7. Check it out with the Bible Gateway tool to the right of this blog.  The point of this discussion is that we make our vows and commitments in purity, giving one another and God our best!

Leviticus 22:26-30 symbolizes the number seven regarding the animals to be sacrificed.  Just as in the laws of circumcision the male child must be presented on the eighth day, so the newborn bull, sheep, or goat may not be presented as a sacrifice until the eighth day.  'Seven' appears to represent a purity and a completeness. Also, the eighth day has seemed to represent newness and the beginning of a union with God. God came on the eighth day in Leviticus 9, Christ rose from the dead on the first day after the Passover week. Presentation of sanctification and purity. Triumph, celebration, and dedication.

Leviticus 23 concerns festivals. Verses 1-3 deals with the weekly sabbath days.  The Jewish sabbath remains on the 7th day of the week, Christians celebrate on the eighth day - the first day of each new week in honor of Christ's resurection. As I do not know as much about Jewish days, but feel their observance would bring glory to God in our own lives and a dedication to understanding our brothers of the Jewish faith, I recommend visiting the following website to know some of the dates and festivals throughout the year.
http://www.religionfacts.com/judaism/holidays/holiday_dates_calendar.htm

The following is a recommended book and offers detail on the festivals of Leviticus 23. As always, your  Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated.

http://vmoodyart.com/chapters.html#weeks

If you would like more information or wish to purchase Valerie Moody's book, her is the information.

http://vmoodyart.com/books.html

Response to Mark 9:30-10:12

The focus of Jesus ministry changed following the "Mount of Witnesses" we discussed yesterday.  in Mark 9:30-32 (also see Matthew 17:22-23 and Luke 9:43-45), Jesus continues to explain to the disciples that He must die.  However, as they could not accept this due to their understanding of scripture, and given their belief in who He was, their hearts and their ears were stopped and they refused to believe. They dared not question, due to the stern rebuke given to Peter in Mark 8:33.

According to what we have read in Mark, up until this time, Jesus ministry was marked by mobs seeking signs and Jesus and His disciples were often apart.  Now there is a time of bonding and closeness as Jesus continues to prepare His disciples for His death, resurection, and departure. Mark 9:33-50 is also reflected in Matthew 18:1-9 and Luke 9:46-50.

I have noticed as we share together that the Bible is written in such a way as to seek and to save the lost, yet to discipline, or condemn if you will, the believer.  God knows our hearts and speaks to each of us wherever we are on our journey. None of us can stop growing today! Although Matthew speaks of coming to God as a child, Mark speaks of accepting the children.  This not only represents little kids, but the new believer also.  We'll come back to this after looking at verses 38-41.

What if you saw a brother of a different color - a believer of a different denomination or faith - performing good works in the name of God? Would you try to reform such a brother to your way of thinking, telling Him about the real Jesus from your point of view? Would you respond just how the disciples did in verse 38; "Lord make him stop - he is not one of us!" Jesus responds to us the same way today: "No" If someone is seeking God and doing good works in His name, who are we to condemn.  As a brother, we might become a friend and talk about Jesus! - growing up as brothers into the full knowledge of God. We must remember who we are following. Is it Christ who separates us from the Love of God? Or is it God's Love that Christ was sent to unite us in? He provided the only access to the Father for all who seek after the Creator, believing that He exists. (see Hebrews 11:6 and John 3:16-17). We're just sharing the Good News.

Therefore, if we would cause one who is immature in faith to lose their faith through our preaching of condemnation, God would rather tie a rock around our neck and shut us up in the depths of the sea where our hand may get caught motivating us to cut it off to save our life rather than to remain in the depths where our foot may get snared causing us to cut it off so that we could rise again rather than suffer in the depths where our eye may keep us in darkness forcing us to leave it behind rather than remain in the depths where death consumes and despair never ends. 

The refining fires of condemnation continue to spice up our life and inspire our spirituality.  So, accept the condemnation and discipline of God as it helps you to grow, but be at peace with your brother and share the Love of God.

We visited the sister verse to Mark 10:2-12 in our study of vows in Leviticus today. We are introduced to Mark's teaching about marriage with Mark 10:1 setting the place and the scene of Jesus again teaching those who had come to listen.  The Pharisees were there to test Jesus understanding of the law. Jesus turned the question around so that everyone could hear the law they spoke of.  He then used one of my premises in that the prophet always speaks to the heart and understanding of the individual. If we were to tell the young believer to believe every word they hear from the Bible and they turned to Deuteronomy 24:1-4, they would be confused and find justification to break their vow.  Jesus speaks to the heart of the law - beyond the words of Moses, and to the heart of the issue.  Quite often, it is better to listen to the Spirit of God within, who teaches us right from wrong and makes us Holy, rather than expecting a scripture verse to give us all truth.  All scripture may be inspired, but so is your mind and you must discern the scriptures. If it doesn't feel right and you call it into question, there is probably a good reason. You are a child of God. His Spirit within is the greatest Prophet you've got! Don't take the easy way out by justifying your behavior on a few verses from the Bible that agrees with what you know in your heart to be wrong, regardless of what your earthly teacher, including me, may say.

In writing this blog, My prayer is very similar to Solomon's in I Kings 3:7b-9a (NIV) "I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number. So give your servant a discerning heart."

One of the reasons I felt called to write this blog is that I was offended by the amount of hatred and hostility from the Christian community as President Obama rose to office.  I read "Audacity of Hope" and had a strong sense that President Obama also seeks the Lord's will. I saw a world at war between people who sought after God, yet hated one another, and decided I wanted to understand the truth in a better light.  So, here we are. 

I have come to see the writers of the books of the Bibles as the humans they were with the ideologies and experiences they had. I feel welcomed to discern their writings as led by the Spirit within.  Paul wrote in I Corinthians 2:12-16 "We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: "For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

So, here's my question. If we have the fruits of the Spirit which come from the mind of Christ, how can we have hate, enmity, strife, anger, selfishness, dissension, self-conceit (see Galatians 5:13-26).  Allow me to pose this answer.  There is one Spiritual man, and He is Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, the Son of God the Father Himself, born of the virgin Mary.  We are all at war within our bodies as the Holy Spirit of God fights against the desires of the flesh.  It is unfortunate indeed when that war spills out onto the landscape of life and we pit our desires of the flesh against one another.

Romans 7:22-25 (NIV) puts it this way: " For in my inner being I delight in God's law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!


So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. Therefore, all of us can rededicate ourselves to Romans 12:2 "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

I know, Jesus answer to the Pharisees in Mark 10:2-12 was a lot shorter.

Response to Psalm 44:1-8

Read the Psalm again and remember the battle is not against flesh and blood, but between the Spirit of God and the spirit of the flesh within. He will fight our battles for us if we will just follow in His wake! If we veer off course, as fun as that may be, He has a way of pulling us back tow. Enjoy the ride, if you let go of the rope, you're bound to get wet and you must have faith in the life preserver. Remember, there are a lot of children in your wake, hanging on behind you. Their ride depends on you staying safely in line with the captain.

Response to Proverbs 10:19

Perhaps I was long winded today as I believe "sin is not absent," I hope that you have received insight from God's word, and I thank you for your time.

Sincerely;

Rick.