Back on January 4th God nudged me as I sat reading and listening to my https://DAILYAUDIOBIBLE.com podcast. A small whisper, but it spoke volumes. At first I shrugged it off. I was hesitant to commit to a year-long project because I know how easily I get off track. Even worse, there are countless times in my life I’ve started things and never finished them.
God is so subtle when He wants to make a point. Definitely keeps me on my toes. It just occurred to me that He answered one of my prayers with that nudge. I have been asking Him to help me to stay focused, pick a task and stay with it, so I can accomplish His will in my life. ‘Pretty sure this is an answer to that prayer, because now that I’ve said it outloud, and committed in writing to my private Facebook group, I cannot turn back. I don’t even have followers, really. Just people that look and never comment, and honestly probably don’t read it. But if even ONE person does, and it changes their heart, mission accomplished!
Isn’t it also funny that I’ve historically never finished anything I was doing for myself, but have always finished things for other people? Are you like that?
I posted my first installment on the book of Genesis on January 4th. It was the equivalent of a short-short story, lol. I would have done it sooner, but my sister’s 80th birthday preparation and the festivities zapped a week out of my life. When my daughter went home and my life went back to semi-normal is when my mind was quiet enough to even feel the nudge.
I decided I would write for unchurched, unbelieving people. After all, that’s why I started this blog to begin with. I wanted to help newcomers, especially stubborn, messy ones like myself, understand it all. With that in mind I am including explanations of events and customs of the ancient cultures so people can get a grip on some of the strange things in the Old Testament, especially. Because just like our modern, bizarro world, ancient times were what started it all, no? Let’s be honest.
We are currently in the book of Leviticus in the OT, and Mark in the NT. Also included in the year long study are readings from Psalms and Proverbs. I have not taken the time to include them, except today. Psalm 37:3-4>> Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
This doesn’t mean He will give you whatever you wish for. Most of us wish for things that are no good for us. What your true heart desires isn’t really the things of this world, but to please and spend eternity with our Abba.
I DO trust in the Lord, and delight in Him – now. And He HAS given me so much more than I deserve! We tend to take our blessings for granted. Gratitude gets stale, even though we (Americans) are lifted above the clamor and the hopelessness of much of the rest of this world. Even the poor in the United States are better off than so many on our planet. Be grateful kids, not spoiled, bratty kids.
Mon, Feb 19, 2024
Today’s readings:
Lev 7:28-9:6 * Mark 3:31-4:25 * Ps 37:12-29 * Pr 10:5
From Leviticus, chapter nine…
The Priests Begin Their Work
9 After the ordination ceremony, on the eighth day, Moses called together Aaron and his sons and the elders of Israel. 2 He said to Aaron, “Take a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering, both without defects, and present them to the LORD. 3 Then tell the Israelites, ‘Take a male goat for a sin offering, and take a calf and a lamb, both a year old and without defects, for a burnt offering. 4 Also take a bull[a] and a ram for a peace offering and flour moistened with olive oil for a grain offering. Present all these offerings to the LORD because the LORD will appear to you today.’”
5 So the people presented all these things at the entrance of the Tabernacle,[b] just as Moses had commanded. Then the whole community came forward and stood before the LORD. 6 And Moses said, “This is what the LORD has commanded you to do so that the glory of the LORD may appear to you.”
7 Then Moses said to Aaron, “Come to the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering to purify yourself and the people. Then present the offerings of the people to purify them, making them right with the LORD,[c] just as he has commanded.”
8 So Aaron went to the altar and slaughtered the calf as a sin offering for himself. 9 His sons brought him the blood, and he dipped his finger in it and put it on the horns of the altar. He poured out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 10 Then he burned on the altar the fat, the kidneys, and the long lobe of the liver from the sin offering, just as the LORD had commanded Moses. 11 The meat and the hide, however, he burned outside the camp.
12 Next Aaron slaughtered the animal for the burnt offering. His sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it against all sides of the altar. 13 Then they handed him each piece of the burnt offering, including the head, and he burned them on the altar. 14 Then he washed the internal organs and the legs and burned them on the altar along with the rest of the burnt offering.
15 Next Aaron presented the offerings of the people. He slaughtered the people’s goat and presented it as an offering for their sin, just as he had first done with the offering for his own sin. 16 Then he presented the burnt offering and sacrificed it in the prescribed way. 17 He also presented the grain offering, burning a handful of the flour mixture on the altar, in addition to the regular burnt offering for the morning.
18 Then Aaron slaughtered the bull and the ram for the people’s peace offering. His sons brought him the blood, and he splattered it against all sides of the altar. 19 Then he took the fat of the bull and the ram—the fat of the broad tail and from around the internal organs—along with the kidneys and the long lobes of the livers. 20 He placed these fat portions on top of the breasts of these animals and burned them on the altar. 21 Aaron then lifted up the breasts and right thighs as a special offering to the LORD, just as Moses had commanded.
22 After that, Aaron raised his hands toward the people and blessed them. Then, after presenting the sin offering, the burnt offering, and the peace offering, he stepped down from the altar. 23 Then Moses and Aaron went into the Tabernacle, and when they came back out, they blessed the people again, and the glory of the LORD appeared to the whole community.
So, there you have it. More about animal sacrifices and rules and regs for the priests. Down to the tiniest details!!
If you’ve never read any of this before, and you didn’t grow up with any religious background at all, this all sounds eerily like bizarre cult behavior, does it not? Yet another reason some people are so turned off by religion in general, and the OT in particular.
All the freak things we’ve heard of over the years regarding blood and weird ceremonies is a bit much. The Hebrews were not alone in this behavior, however. The Greeks and many other pagans in the ancient world followed this custom. I’ve included a photo of a page in my Bible that illustrates this in the highlighted print on the bottom.
These OT stories are not meant to scare us twenty-first century folks away, but to make us painfully aware of how much we needed Jesus to be the final sacrifice – for HIS blood to cover us all, to hide our sin from the Father, to make us clean and holy and acceptable in His eyes. Forever. All we have to do is BELIEVE that Jesus died for us, and this is why: We couldn’t possibly live up to God’s expectations.
Do you believe it? I didn’t ask if you understand it. Our human brains cannot comprehend, and that’s why it’s called faith. “Believing in things unseen.” I just want to know if you believe it?
If you’re analytical, like I am, and this is all new to you, you don’t really buy it. If you grew up in a church that didn’t teach you these things, you’re probably bitter and scoffing and have a less than glowing response to it all. But you’re here! And you’ve read this far! Bravo!!
If you need more ‘evidence,’ and an explanation that makes sense, there’s a man named Lee Strobel that wrote a book called THE CASE FOR CHRIST. He did all the legwork for you. It’s a movie, too! Look for it. And remember, just like you can’t explain why algebra works, no one can truly nail down the Trinity, the story of God’s plan for an eternal family, or how Jesus’ blood washes His followers clean.
Keep researching until you believe. Because what if we JesusFreaks are right? I would rather look like a fool for Jesus and spend eternity in bliss than the alternative.
******
In the book of Mark today we finished chapter three and moved into chapter four.
Mark 3:31 – 4:25
At the end of chapter three Jesus is being harassed by the religious leaders. They see He is gaining momentum and they don’t like it. I get it! He’s a rebel. He hangs out with the dregs of society. Like bikers and homeless people, tax-collectors, and even Gentiles! And He claims to be the Son of God!!
If someone like that came along now, how do you think our contemporary religious leaders would react? And our political leaders? How would you react?
Jesus fulfilled prophecy and performed several miracles and wonders by this time in the story. But if they believed Him, it would seriously mess with their own jobs and lifestyle and power. Those in authority were seriously threatened at just the thought of being usurped.
28 “I tell you the truth, all sin and blasphemy can be forgiven, 29 but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will never be forgiven. This is a sin with eternal consequences.” 30 He told them this because they were saying, “He’s possessed by an evil spirit. 31 Then Jesus’ mother and brothers came to see him. They stood outside and sent word for him to come out and talk with them. 32 There was a crowd sitting around Jesus, and someone said, “Your mother and your brothers[f] are outside asking for you.”
33 Jesus replied, “Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?” 34 Then he looked at those around him and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. 35 Anyone who does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.”
I always love Brian’s commentary and I must share what he wrote yesterday:
“God is on the move in the world, and He has no problem doing things through people that we do not understand. But when we then label what He does as evil because we do not understand it, or it’s happening through a person whose life we do not approve of, we are acting like the religious leaders who confronted Jesus…When we deny the Spirit of God within those we love and instead speak words of death and darkness over them, we are also cursing the Spirit within them. And a family splintered by feuding will fall apart. We would do well to consider just how scary this is. May we consider what our lives are saying abou the Spirit of God in our thoughts, words, and actions.”
Today’s reading included those last few verses of chapter three before getting into four. Chapter four has parables in it, and it includes my very favorite; the farmer sowing seeds, also known as the parable of the four soils, because, as Brian puts it, on page 48 of THE GOD OF YOUR STORY,
“…hope for the harvest had much more to do with the soil in which it was planted. The seed and the soil are equally important, revealing once again the collaboration required between the human and the divine in God’s Kingdom.”
Some of the seeds landed on the path, some on rocky soil, some among the thorns, and some in good soil. When my high school health teacher, Dave Scheer, planted that seed in me, it landed on rocky soil. Almost forty years later, with the help of another of Christ’s ambassadors, somehow that seed finally germinated and slowly sprouted. So it didn’t really die, then, did it?
That it took another fifteen years for it to grow into a small tree, well, what can I say? I’m thick-headed and a control freak. God made me this way for a reason. I suppose I had to have enough time to really mess up my life so I could identify with more men and women like me!
5 Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain.
Only mine didn’t die. It lay dormant for lots of years, lol!
Brian asks whether or not our own hearts are good soil. Is yours? Mine took forever to be good again. But doesn’t that give you hope if you’re someone who is still dormant? Still doubting?
In all those years I was in and out of belief. My spiritual connection with our Creator was a serious roller-coaster ride, simply because I wouldn’t surrender, not because I didn’t really believe.
“…if the seed is only on the surface, it will get snatched away. If our hearts are hard and stony, there is nowhere for the Word of God to take root. If we are distracted by worry or seduced into chasing wealth or any number of other desires, then the soil of our hearts is thorny and will choke out God’s Word…” says Brian.
Hmm. This just occurred to me. I guess I was a combination of two soils. Maybe that’s why the seed Dave planted didn’t really die. I was seduced away by my desire for men, so the soil of my heart wasn’t rocky as much as it was thorny.
******
In the book of Psalms we are already up to Ps 37:12-29. I haven’t touched on Psalms at all and I’m sorry about that. I keep saying I’m going to share my favorite ones with you and I haven’t done that yet. I will share part of today’s, though, because in THE GOD OF YOUR STORY, Brian has used it as a meditation.
Ps 37:3-4
The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the LORD holds them by the hand.
And I can tell you, He does hold me by my hand. I stumble daily. Either in my thoughts or actions. I’m human, not divine. But the Spirit of God in me is alive and well, and I tune into Him every day, without fail. When I get distracted first thing in the morning and start other things before my time with my Abba, boy…my day just isn’t right. My head and my heart aren’t right.
My husband came into my life ten years ago, with the same past experience as I regarding our teens and our early Christian experiences. We both accepted Jesus in 1972, as high school sophomores. Same teacher, same early exuberance, and same falling away, for the same reasons. And here we are 😊 Because He never lets go of your hand. He never stops pursuing if you pull away.
It’s funny. I was telling a woman yesterday how he and I ended up together, having grown up knowing each other since the age of five but losing track of each other for forty years. I told her I swore I would never marry again, and about telling God if there was ever going to be another man in my life He would have to pick him because I obviously didn’t know how. Then I told her how He gifted me Stephen.
I had been single for ten years by then, not counting the on again, off again efforts to continue a long-distance relationship with my ex. That’s another story. I honestly had no desire to have another man in my life. I was perfectly happy being single and serving at my church, learning and growing and helping others do the same.
One day, in our singles’ Bible study, we had that conversation about seeking compatible partners. I said it would be hard for me to find a Christian man that could accept me with all my mess, so I really had no hope of finding a man I would be comfortable with anyway. I wasn’t looking or wanting. It wasn’t long after that when God blessed with the only partner that could possibly fit me…
God is so good. Stephen needed a break, an epiphany, and a partner to help him get back to God, and God knew I probably would struggle to remain single and celibate the rest of my life, lol. So He put us together 🙂 Such a good, good Father.
I’m going to post a couple of photos from my study Bible regarding the book of Mark and Jesus’ original twelve disciples. I pray you have a blessed day on this Monday in February 2024. Peace in Christ.
The photos below are from my late sister’s NIV Life Application Study Bible. I bought her this Bible when she first decided to come to church with me. Praise God she was baptized that year and came to love the Lord. The only thing that eased her troubled mind and body as she battled her last two cancers was reading Psalms in this Bible. She would sit out on the lanai, smoking her cigarettes and talking to Jesus. The last thing I said to her as I held her head against my chest, before she breathed her last was, “Pat, have you apologized to Jesus for being such a pain in the ___?” She muttered, “mmhmm.”
God is so good. And it made her passing so much better to know we would laugh together again one day. My prayer for you is that you, too, will laugh with your believing loved ones that have moved into the mansion in the sky. And that you will come to know Peace in Christ.
God Loves Bad Girls, Too! 