Archive | May 2015

Leviticus 11 & 12 – Acceptable in Gods eyes

May5

Good afternoon y’all. Today I’m combining Leviticus 11 and 12 together.

A common theme runs through both chapters (actually, it’s through all the chapters for this week).  The theme is: being acceptable by God and being holy.

As I read the chapters, I realised that God takes the issue of being clean/holy very seriously. He gives specific instructions on what makes the Israelites clean and unclean. He didn’t just stop there though,  He made provision for how to become clean, if in case they ever get themselves unclean. What a loving God He is 🙂 .

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God demands holiness from us because He is a holy God. In verse 44 and 45 he tells the Israelites :-
“I am the Lord your God, and you must keep yourselves holy, because I am holy. I am the Lord who brought you out of Egypt so that I could be your God. You must be holy, because I am holy”. (Leviticus 11:44-45 GNT)

I believe the same applies to us today, yes we are no longer under the law but the truth is God never changes. If He demanded holiness from the Israelites back then, He is also demanding the same from us today. In 1 Peter 1:15-16 we see Peter repeating the same instruction to us.

“But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:15-16 NLT)

God has standards for us. Throughout the scriptures He tells and shows us what is acceptable and unacceptable by His standards. The blood of Jesus cleanses and makes us holy and acceptable before God but I believe we also have a part to play to ensure we do not defile ourselves by going back to the lifestyle or things we used to do before we met Jesus. That’s why Paul urged us in Romans 12 to offer our lives to God as pleasing sacrifice, holy and acceptable in His sight.
“And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him”.(Romans 12:1 NLT)

The same Paul also tells us in Eph 5:1 to copy God in all that we do.
“Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are His dear children”.( Ephesians 5:1 NLT)

Sin is the main blocker to living a holy life and according to psalms 119 verses 9 & 11, one of the ways we can prevent ourselves from sinning against God is to keep his word close to us and obeying them.

“How can young people keep their lives pure? By obeying your commands. I keep your law in my heart, so that I will not sin against you”.(Psalm 119:9, 11 GNT)

Today, lets pursue holiness in all that we do and let’s get rid of all that makes us unholy.

“With promises like this to pull us on, dear friends, let’s make a clean break with everything that defiles or distracts us, both within and without. Let’s make our entire lives fit and holy temples for the worship of God”. (2 Corinthians 7:1 MSG)

Thanks for joining today.

Have a blessed day 🙂

***With God all things are possible***

Leviticus 10 – taking God for granted?

May1

Good afternoon y’all. Happy New Month 🙂 . I pray we will all experience God in a new dimension this month, in Jesus’ Name. Amen.

Today we are studying chapter 10. Whoop! Whoop! We made it to chapter 10. All glory to God.

Be blessed 🙂

In the beginning of the chapter, we see two of Aaron’s sons disobey God and got killed instantly by God.

“Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he had commanded. So fire blazed forth from the lord ’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the lord”. (Leviticus 10:1-2 NLT)

The same God who in the previous chapter displayed His glory to all and fire consumed their sacrifice, now same fire appears as one of wrath and consumes the priests. Friends, God takes disobedience seriously. He is a Holy God. Merciful yet at the same time can execute judgement.

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The priest were clearly instructed on how to approach God and how to minister in the temple, but Aaron’s sons chose to ignore it and assume God would be okay with it. They took God’s word casual. Didn’t see it as important to be followed to the letter. One translation says they offered strange fire to God…

“That same day Nadab and Abihu, Aaron’s sons, took their censers, put hot coals and incense in them, and offered “strange” fire to God —something God had not commanded. Fire blazed out from God and consumed them—they died in God’ s presence”. (Leviticus 10:1-2 MSG)

To think God took time to dot the i’s and cross the t’s when he was giving Moses the instructions for the people to follow, so why then would they think God wouldn’t care if they didn’t follow the instructions to the letter? Perhaps they were in a hurry and rushing to carry out the task or were just plain lazy.

Moses response to the event even got me thinking the more…

“Then Moses told Aaron that this was exactly what the Lord had meant when he said: “I demand respect from my priests, and I will be praised by everyone!” Aaron was speechless”.(Leviticus 10:3 CEVUS06)

Disobeying God is a sign of disrespect to Him.

Afterwards God told Aaron and the other sons they must learn the difference between what’s holy and what’s not, and must also teach the Israelites all He has commanded them.

“You must learn the difference between what is holy and what isn’t holy and between the clean and the unclean. You must also teach the people of Israel everything that I commanded Moses to say to them”. (Leviticus 10:10-11 CEVUS06)

This is very crucial. We must learn with the help of the Holy Spirit what is holy and what’s not, what is acceptable by God and what’s not. Not just learn but put it into practice as well.

We need to be careful not to take advantage of God’s grace, that we do not become too familiar with Him and stop seeing Him as a Holy God.

Today let’s examine ourselves for those areas where we are offering a ‘strange’ fire to God.  It’s true we are living in an era of grace but let’s not forget what happened to Ananias and Saphirra (Acts 5: 1-11). They were in an era of grace as well, yet when they lied (disobedience) God killed them instantly. See let’s remember God is a holy God. Yes He is merciful, but can also show wrath. Yes He is loving, but can also show judgement. Let’s pray for reverential fear and the grace to walk in total obedience to God.

Thanks for joining today

Have a blessed weekend 🙂

***With God all things are possible***