Something New - Lev. 26-27 & Mark 2

It's hard to change isn't it? Especially when it involves something that you hold near and dear to you as foundational. But God requires change sometimes. When Jesus came, the religious folks had a lot of problems with Him (as can be seen in Mark 2 - today's passage). Jesus came with something new from God. He came with a relationship to replace laws. He came with forgiveness and grace to replace judgment and punishment and guilt. The Pharisees were very leery of Jesus because of this - they thought God would never "change" things on them like this.

We see a similar thing happen in Acts 10. Peter, a devout Jew, was on the roof praying when he had a vision from God, in which a blanket full of "unclean" animals was lowered down to him. God told him to "Kill and eat." This happened three times. Then some men arrived and asked Peter to come with them to Caeserea to talk with their master (who happened to be Greek). With the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, Peter went. He even told Cornelius upon his arrival that speaking to him was against the law (for Jews). But God led Peter nonetheless. Peter witnessed to them about Jesus and His resurrection and the Holy Spirit fell on them all. Peter was amazed that God was opening up this opportunity to them! But God is not afraid of change.

I wonder what things we are holding so near and dear to us that God wants to change? Are we open to God's leading still?