Showing posts with label Leviticus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leviticus. Show all posts

Wednesday 11 March 2020

Lord, You are the God of perfect holiness. You are the God of perfect love.

Leviticus 18:24-19:37
Lord, You are the God of perfect holiness. You are the God of perfect love. You call us to a life of holiness. You call us to a life of love. How are to live this life of holiness and love? We need the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of love. Without Him, we cannot even begin to live this new life - the life of holiness and love. We thank You, Lord, that You have not left us to live this life in our own strength - "the Holy Spirit ... lives in us" (2 Timothy 1:14).

Lord, we hear the questions ...

Leviticus 24:1-25:24
Lord, we hear the questions, "Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?" and "Who shall stand in His holy place?" - and we say, 'This is too much for us." We thank You, Lord, that there is Good News for us. There is One who has ascended the hill of the Lord. There is One who stand in Your holy place. Jesus has ascended the hill of the Lord. Jesus stands in Your holy place. He has ascended Your holy hill - for us. He stands in Your holy place - for us. He has "received blessing from You" - for us (Psalm 24:3-5). When , Lord, we come to worship You, help us to come in the Name of Jesus: Just as I am, without one plea but that Thy blood was shed for me ... "

Teach us, Lord, that what You have done for us is always so much greater than anything we could ever do for You.

Leviticus 25:25-55
Teach us, Lord, that what You have done for us is always so much greater than anything we could ever do for You. You gave Your Son, Jesus, to be our Saviour. Your Holy Spirit has come to live in our hearts. He's changing us. He's making us more like Jesus. You give us the privilege of serving You - sharing, with others, the wonderful love of Jesus. You've done so much for us. You've given so much to us. What have we done to deserve all of this? - Nothing! It's Your gift. We can only say, "Thank You, Lord."

We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world."

Leviticus 1:1-2:16
We thank You, Lord, that Your Son, Jesus, is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). In His death for us, we see Your love for us. Help us to come to the Cross of Christ. Help us to worship You in the beauty of holiness. Help us to celebrate Your love in the spirit of thanksgiving.

Lord, help us never to think, "We are blessed because we are obedient."

Leviticus 26:1-46
Lord, help us never to think, "We are blessed because we are obedient." Help us always to say, "We are blessed because You love us and Jesus died for us." Your love for us, Jesus' death for us:  This is where the blessing comes from - and it's where our obedience comes from! We think of Your great love for us. We think of Jesus, crucified for us.  We say, "Lord, You love me. Help me to love You." We say, "Jesus, You died for me. Help me to live for You." This is how Your blessing comes to us - You show us how much You love us, You put Your love into our hearts, the obedience grows stronger - and so does the blessing!

Saturday 25 January 2020

The Food Of Our God

Leviticus 20:1-21:24
The Lord calls us to be holy – because He is holy (Leviticus 20:26). We are to be like Him. He has set us apart as holy (Leviticus 21:8). We are “dedicated with the anointing oil of our God” (Leviticus 21:12). We may take this “anointing oil” as symbolic of the presence and power of the Holy Spirit. We are to “eat the food of our God – what is holy and what is very holy” (Leviticus 21:22). Here, our attention is directed towards Christ, who is our spiritual food – “the Bread of Life” (John 6).

Atonement

Leviticus 15:1-16:34 
Each of us is unclean before God. Each of us needs Christ, who has given Himself as “a sin offering” to “make atonement” for us (Leviticus 16:16). Christ is the perfect Saviour, who “bears all our iniquities” (Leviticus 16:22). Concerning His great sacrifice for us, the Word of God says, “On this day shall atonement be made for you, to cleanse you; from all your sins you shall be clean before the Lord” (Leviticus 16:30).

Lord, what are we to do about our sin?

Leviticus 14:33-15:33
Lord, what are we to do about our sin? What can we do about it? It keeps on spreading. We can't do anything about this. It just gets worse and worse. What can be done about this? We can do nothing - but Jesus can do something about it. He's our Saviour. He comes to us in love. He comes to us in power. He forgives our sin. He gives us a new beginning. The past is put behind us. Jesus leads us on to Your eternal glory. Hallelujah! - "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes" (Psalm 118:23).

Saturday 11 January 2020

The Anointing

Leviticus 8:1-9:24
Aaron was anointed with “the anointing oil”, set apart or “dedicated” to the Lord for “holy duties” (Leviticus 8:12,30). Anointed by the Lord and dedicated to Him, “Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord commanded, through Moses” (Leviticus 8:36). Concerning the Lord’s commands, “Moses said, ‘The Lord has commanded you to offer these sacrifices so that you may see the Lord’s glory'” (Leviticus 9:6). Together with Moses, Aaron was obedient to God, bringing the blessing of God to the people – “Then the Lord’s glory appeared to all the people” (Leviticus 9:23). The principles of God’s blessing are still the same. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He calls us to obedience. This is the way of receiving God’s blessing. This is the way in which the glory of God comes down upon the people of God. We receive God’s blessing when the Holy Spirit comes down upon us in His mighty power.

Friday 10 January 2020

The Blood Of The Offering For Sin

Leviticus 4:1-35
The word, “blood, appears often here. We may note, in particular, the phrase, in Leviticus 4:25, “the blood of the offering for sin.” In the final verse (Leviticus 4:35), we may note why “the blood of the offering for sin” was shed – “forgiveness” and “peace with the Lord.” Reading about this, our thoughts turn towards Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who died that we might be forgiven. Out of love for us, He gave Himself for our sins so that we might have peace with God (Romans 5:8,1).

A soothing aroma to the Lord

Leviticus 1:1-3:17
We may note the frequent recurrence of the phrase, "a soothing aroma to the Lord" (Leviticus 1:9,13,17: Leviticus 2:2,9,12; Leviticus 3:5,16). The presence of the Lord is "like a fragrance that fills the air." Not all people welcome the presence of the Lord. To some, it is "the aroma of Christ", " a life-giving fragrance." To others, it is "a deadly fragrance" (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). We are to pray that our life - in every part - will be pleasing to the Lord, bringing glory to Him. This will involve our worship in the holy place. It will also involve our living for the Lord in the many and varied situations of everyday life.

Tuesday 7 January 2020

Living A Holy Life

Leviticus 10:1-11:47
It is vital that we know "the difference between what is holy and what is unholy" (Leviticus 10:10). God calls us to "be holy", to "live holy lives" (Leviticus 11:44). This is the central point we must see in all the many unfamiliar details of ancient Jewish worship. This is the "permanent law" (Leviticus 10:9,15). This is the teaching which must be passed on to "generations to come."

The Anointing

Leviticus 8:1-9:24
Aaron was anointed with "the anointing oil", set apart or "dedicated" to the Lord for "holy duties" (Leviticus 8:12,30). Anointed by the Lord and dedicated to Him, "Aaron and his sons did everything the Lord commanded, through Moses" (Leviticus 8:36). Concerning the Lord's commands, "Moses said, 'The Lord has commanded you to offer these sacrifices so that you may see the Lord's glory'" (Leviticus 9:6). Together with Moses, Aaron was obedient to God, bringing the blessing of God to the people - "Then the Lord's glory appeared to all the people" (Leviticus 9:23). The principles of God's blessing are still the same. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. He calls us to obedience. This is the way of receiving God's blessing. This is the way in which the glory of God comes down upon the people of God. We receive God's blessing when the Holy Spirit comes down upon us in His mighty power.

Christ's Cleansing

Leviticus 12:1-13:59
Again and again, we read the word, "clean." Looking beyond the teaching "regarding health", we may recall that "the blood of Jesus Christ - God's Son - cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). This is the cleansing which everyone needs. No matter how healthy we may be in our bodies, we are spiritually diseased because of sin, and we need Christ's cleansing.

There is blessing for those who learn to obey the Lord.

Leviticus 26:1-46
There is blessing for those who learn to obey the Lord (Leviticus 26:3-13). There is judgment for those who persist in sinning against the Lord (Leviticus 26:14-33). The opportunity of blessing remains even for those who are in despair and are wasting away because of sin (Leviticus 26:36,39) - God says, "I will remember My promise" (Leviticus 26:42). Those who have sinned against the Lord "must accept their guilt." This is the way of coming to know the blessing of the Lord who says, "I will not reject them of look at them with disgust" (Leviticus 26:43).

The blood of the offering for sin

Leviticus 4:1-35
The word, "blood, appears often here. We may note, in particular, the phrase, in Leviticus 4:25, "the blood of the offering for sin." In the final verse (Leviticus 4:35), we may note why "the blood of the offering for sin" was shed - "forgiveness" and "peace with the Lord." Reading about this, our thoughts turn towards Jesus Christ, our Saviour, who died that we might be forgiven. Out of love for us, He gave Himself for our sins so that we might have peace with God (Romans 5:8,1).

Set Apart For The Lord

Leviticus 27:1-34
The underlying theme of this final chapter is giving ourselves to the Lord to belong to Him, to be dedicated to Him, to be set apart for Him, to be holy. Such dedication to the Lord is to affect the whole of our life. We learn this from the variety of details in this chapter. There must be no turning back from following the Lord. Those who turn back do so at great cost. They become spiritually dead through their disobedience to the Lord. Let us keep up our dedication to the Lord.

Thursday 2 January 2020

Don't Let Your Light Go Out.

Leviticus 24:1-23
If our light is to be keep on burning continually, we need pure oil (Leviticus 24:2). The emphasis here is on keeping close to God. It is only through closeness to God that our light will be kept burning. In Leviticus 24:15, we read, “Whoever curses his God shall bear his sin.” This is followed, in Leviticus 24:16, by some words of explanation of what bearing his sin meant: “He who blasphemes the Name shall be put to death.” As we read these words, our thoughts move to Christ, the sinless Saviour who bore the sins of many – “He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good, that we might go at last to heaven, saved by His precious blood.” Through Him, we are brought close to God. Through Him, we are brought out of darkness and into light.

Thursday 19 December 2019

Look Beyond The Old Testament Sacrifices - To Jesus Christ, Our Saviour.

Leviticus 5:1-7:38
In the descriptions of different offerings, we catch a glimpse of our need and Christ’s salvation. There is the “offering for sin” (Leviticus 5:6), the “fellowship offering of thanksgiving” (Leviticus 7:15), the “guilt offering” (Leviticus 7:34), the “ordination offering” (Leviticus 7:37). There is teaching here which we must build on in our understanding of our Christian experience. Christ died for our sins to remove our guilt and bring us into fellowship with God. Grateful to Him, we give ourselves to Him, confident that He has ordained that we should bear fruit for Him (1 Peter 3:18; John 15:16). All of this arises from the Old Testament details: – “the burnt offering, the grain offering” (Leviticus 7:37). We must always look beyond the Old Testament sacrifices to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Clean!

Leviticus 12:1-13:59
Again and again, we read the word, “clean.” Looking beyond the teaching “regarding health”, we may recall that “the blood of Jesus Christ – God’s Son – cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). This is the cleansing which everyone needs. No matter how healthy we may be in our bodies, we are spiritually diseased because of sin, and we need Christ’s cleansing.

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