Sheep or a Goat? Lev. 8-12 & Matt. 25b-26a

The story Jesus tells in Matthew 25:31-46 is so powerful, so in-your-face. We debate and discuss how salvation is by faith and grace, not works, yet it seems that Jesus might have a different answer. Not that Jesus would say we can earn salvation - we absolutely can't! That is clear. However, I think we often offer "cheap grace" instead of a new life to people. If we are to have a relationship with Jesus, we must follow Him with our lives. As Jesus' brother James says in his epistle (2:17) "Faith without works is dead."

Jesus tells how He will divide people when He comes in His glory - dividing them into two groups; 1) sheep and 2) goats. He will tell the sheep that they fed Him, clothed Him, invited Him into their homes, visited Him in jail and they will say, "What?! When?! We don't remember ever seeing You." And He will reply, "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to ME." And the scene will be the same for the goats except opposite. Instead of being welcomed into a Kingdom prepared for them, they will go to an eternal fire because they did not take care of the least of these.

Nice story, huh? It's easy to read this story and agree with the message........BUT,

How about you and me? Do you take care of the least of these? Do you even know any "least of these?" If not, you might want to get busy making some new acquaintances or opening your eyes to those in your life who are without.

Pretty big stuff regarding our faith...may we not take it lightly.

The Reality of Sin - Lev. 4-7 & Matt. 24b-25a

Leviticus 4,5,6,&7 all talk about different types of offerings the people and the priests were to give to God. Sin offerings, guilt offerings, ordination offerings, and peace offerings. I'm so thankful that we don't have to go through all of these procedures to receive forgiveness and grace from God. It's awesome that God came and offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice for us. But in a weird way it's unfortunate that we don't have any kind of offerings or commandments that we must do when we sin or when we want peace between us and God.

Think about it, I mean I know these chapters are boring to read b/c they don't apply exactly to our lives, but when you imagine all these people had to go through it had to really affect their lives and their thoughts the next time they were tempted to sin. They had to go out in their fields a find a spotless animal (which was worth some decent money to them), they had to put a leash on it and walk it to town, they had to lay their hands on it - symbolically transferring their sin onto the animal, slice it's neck, watch the priests cut it up and drain the blood, burn it, etc. It was a big ordeal! And it was work and it was gross and it was....memorable and costly.

Now we just pray. We sin, we feel a little guilt, and we say a quick 'I'm sorry' to God.....then we just move on in life. So the next time we're tempted to sin it's easy to forget that we just messed up the same way a few hours ago.

Again, I'm so thankful for Jesus and His ultimate and perfect sacrifice for us, but I hate that I take sin so lightly.

Consider with me ways we can take our sin more seriously so we don't continue in it.

Continue to praise God for His unending grace and forgiveness and love in your life.

Never think that you're too far from God, or that you've messed up too much, He loves you as a Father and desperately wants you to return to Him.

Jesus' Return - Lev. 1-3 & Matt. 24:1-25

I will most likely be focusing on the New Testament readings for the next couple of months due to the nature of the material in Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy - although I will comment on the OT when something catches my attention...

Today in Matt. 24, Jesus is questioned by His disciples about the end times when He comes back. It's neat to hear Jesus teach about this, especially considering that His teaching is not very similar to a lot of stuff you hear (even - or maybe especially - by Christian authors).

Here are some of the highlights for you:

"Don't let anyone mislead you, for many will come in my name, claiming, "I am the Messiah." They will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don't panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won't follow immediately. Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world. But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come."

I highlight some of Jesus' words in bold, because so many people are freaked out about Jesus' second coming. They say that there are false prophets around, and we've seen numerous earthquakes and famines....Jesus is coming soon! But the truth is that there have been false prophets around for centuries and there have been earthquakes and famine all over since the Bible days. Jesus says these things are only the beginning....don't panic! He goes on to say in verse 23 that, '...if anyone tells you, 'Look, here is the Messiah,' or 'There he is,' don't believe it."

As you read on (into tomorrow's passage) Jesus says that His coming will be like lightning flashing across the sky. He says that the sun will get dark and the stars will fall from the sky. And He will send out His angels with trumpets and they will gather His children.

So in light of these things, don't be freaked out about Jesus coming back. Don't hear me wrong - you should get yourself prepared spiritually - but if you have a relationship with Jesus and walk with Him daily you can relax and look forward to His coming. Don't believe all of the manipulative scare tactics out there. Look to the Bible for answers.

Enjoy the snow! (We got about 5-6 inches last night!)

Tough reading - Ex. 39-40 & Matt. 23:23-39

I don't have much to say about today's Scripture readings, but I do want to talk briefly about where we've been and where we're going in the OT. Yesterday I pretty much summed up Matt. 23 so I don't have anything to add to that and Ex. 39-40 just describe the final touches for the tabernacle. So all I have to say about that is congratulations! we made it through the second OT book.

I admit, this point in the yearly Bible reading plan is a time of testing. The end of Exodus is pretty boring reading and then you go into Leviticus and Numbers which are tough as well, only to head into Deuteronomy - which is a recap of Exodus, Leviticus, and Number! It's a tough stretch of reading to be sure. But be assured that there is a point to it and we need to learn from it. (And meanwhile, enjoy the NT readings!!! Stay strong and eventually we'll reach the book of Joshua, which is a little more exciting. But since we're heading into Leviticus let me prepare you for it...

I'm reading through the New Living Translation of the Bible and I really enjoy its readability. It's written on a 6th grade level, so that suits me well! But my NLT Bible is also a Life Application Bible and I really enjoy some of the notes. One thing that I really like are the book introductions, especially for a book like Leviticus that makes you wonder what in the world this has to do with your present life. Some of the points in my Bible's intro to Leviticus are:

1. The overwhelming message of Leviticus is the holiness of God. So it talks a lot about our need to be holy and how to deal with sin so we can continue to approach our holy God.
2. It also talks about standards and guidelines for our lives, because we are to worship God with how we live our lives. This is obviously applicable to our lives and thoughts today.
   
3. The final aspect of the book deals with celebration. The book gives a lot of instructions for festivals. These were specific times for the people to remember and focus on God. We have special celebrations throughout the year too. Perhaps this book can help us to think about how to be even more intentional with our celebrations to keep God as the focus.

Remember these themes as you struggle through this book. Stay strong, you'll be surprised how God will speak to you as you remain in His word.

What's Important? - Ex. 34-38 & Matt. 22b-23a

Today's (and yesterday's) readings are powerful. The OT readings deal with Moses going back up the mountain to get the Ten Commandment tablets re-made and then more instructions regarding the making of the tabernacle (which doesn't make for the most interesting reading).

Then in the NT reading for yesterday and today we have some wild stuff. We have religious leaders asking questions and trying to trip Jesus up left and right, we have some brilliant answers from Jesus, and THEN we listen in as Jesus puts the smack down on the Pharisees - WOW!

Let me first say that it is so awesome to me that Moses got to spend 40 days and nights with God. And it is even more exciting that when Moses came down out of God's presence, people couldn't even look at him! Wow. That's holiness. You can't spend a whole lot of time in the presence of God without being changed. May we all "let our light so shine..." (Matt. 5:16). Then as I mentioned the text in the OT goes into more details about building the tabernacle, which is boring as all get out to read, but once again, it is very cool to think about because the reason for the precision and detail of these things is that they represent God! I wish we had the kind of respect and reverent fear of God that would lead to our careful worship of Him. He is so worthy!

But what really hit me today was the NT readings. Holy cow! Honestly I'm still reeling and don't know quite what to make of Jesus' words. What I mean by that is that His response to the Pharisees is just not what we consider a Christian response, yet it was Christ who said it - so obviously it was a Christian response - but wow. And what I can make of Jesus' words is this - God is not playing around. In chapter 22 we have the famous passage of the guy asking Jesus what the (notice the singular) most important command of Moses was and Jesus giving the Great Commandment - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and most important commandment. And the second is equally important:'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" So Jesus, although asked for THE most important command had to answer by giving two commands - and this is important - because you cannot separate loving God and loving your neighbors. They are tied together and Jesus says that these two commands sum up every other teaching. That's huge. And then Jesus goes into the rampage that I alluded to in chapter 23 where he gives seven woes to the Pharisees. And again, there's a lot more I need to swallow as God gives me wisdom, but what I do know is that Jesus was very serious about these teachings. And what was the main topic? Hypocrisy. That is saying or teaching or even believing one thing, while living another. Jesus does not care about how we look (or even act) on the outside as much as He cares about our hearts and motives. This is taught over and over by Jesus and yet we still focus on actions and looks. This is a huge lesson I'm learning and trying to figure out how to better teach my kids and my youth so as to help them change their hearts and convictions, not just actions, but it is indeed a hard lesson.

Keep reading friends, this is powerful, life-changing stuff!