~ Click on this link for today's readings ~
Leviticus 19:1-20:21 ~ Mark 8:11-38
Psalm 42:1-11 ~ Proverbs 10:17
Old Testament - Today in Leviticus chapter 19 we read about holiness! What a tiny but powerful little word - holy. This chapter is of interest to me in that I continue to struggle with the call to holiness in my life. I understand grace. I get grace. I'm good at receiving grace... :) But holiness? Well, that's a bit trickier for me personally. I guess where I am at these days in my walk with the Lord is really trying to balance grace and holiness. I know we are saved through grace, not works - but, I also believe there is a call to holiness in our lives once we have received that gift of grace. You know I love Bob Deffinbaugh's writings over at bible.org. "Learning to Love Leviticus" is of course one of his writings that I will promote year after year in the One Year Bible. I think Bob's writings on Leviticus chapter 19 called "How to Spell Holy" at this link is up there with some of his best stuff. Please check out this link, and make sure you scroll down to read about Bob's take on perversions of holiness - 1. stained glass holiness 2. positional holiness 3. equating holiness with the miraculous 4. isolational holiness 5. holiness by redefinition. Great stuff...
You'll notice lately that I've been punting over to Bob on many of the Leviticus chapters... I'd love to tell you that I'm honestly not finding as much time as I'd like to spend on this blog - and study & prep for it - and this would be true. But, I also think Bob's writings on the Old Testament chapters are powerful - and so here he is on Leviticus chapter 20 at this link.
New Testament - The last few verses in Mark's readings today are some of the most powerful verses I think we can really reflect upon in our lives today. I wish I reflected on these verses more often. Check out chapter 8 verses 34 through 38 and spend a few moments really reflecting on these verses and on how they speak to how you are living your life today - "Then Jesus called his disciples and the crowds to come over and listen. "If any of you wants to be my follower," he told them, "you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life for yourself, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake and for the sake of the Good News, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul? If a person is ashamed of me and my message in these adulterous and sinful days, I, the Son of Man, will be ashamed of that person when I return in the glory of my Father with the holy angels."
Wow... those are incredible verses. I think the first obvious question these verses open up to us is simply this - do you want to be a follower of Jesus? If the answer is yes, then the instructions that follow are simple and yet not so easy in our fallen world: 1. give up your own selfish ambition. 2. shoulder your cross. 3. follow Jesus. How are you doing on these 3 points in your life today? And what a profound truth there is in that we will find true life if we give up our life for Jesus - the Good News. I actually have been thinking about this point quite a bit lately. And my thoughts have revolved around "my identity" - and where I get my identity from. I think so often I get my identity from my work or my ministry or my friends or my social life - the problem in all of this is that you'll keep seeing the word "my" in my identity. And I'm realizing more and more that my identity should be in Jesus alone. Jesus should be the identity. The reality. I think that I am really searching for true life in all the wrong places - in my work, in my friends, etc. And true true life is really only found in one place - Jesus. How about you? What is providing your identity in your life today? Do you think it is possible that your identity could simply be found in Jesus? Do you want this to be the case? I think each of us will do well to not be ashamed of Jesus and the Good News in these adulterous and sinful days...
Psalms - Psalm 42 verse 1 in one of my favorite verses in the Bible! "As the deer pants for streams of water, so I long for you, O God." Wow... that is so right on. Lately these days I have been longing for God more than ever - and I love that. I am thankful for that. There have been seasons in my life - which probably could unfortunately be called "dry" seasons - where I have not longed for God. Where I have not longed for the true Living Water. I just love the picture this Psalm paints in my mind - a deer in the wilderness is fleeing from hunters. It is literally dying of thirst as it runs. It is tired. It is weary. It is running from death. And it needs water. It pants for streams of water. Like this deer, I pray that I long for God in the same way. As I flee from sin. As I am tired. As I am weary. As I run from death. I need God. I long for God. How about you? Do you long for God these days as a deer longs for water? Are you consistently drinking from the true Living Water?
Proverbs 10 verse 17 is a wonderful reminder to allow God to change us, transform us and correct us along the Way - "People who accept correction are on the pathway to life, but those who ignore it will lead others astray." The second part of that Proverb is powerful too - if we don't accept correction, we'll not only be off the pathway, but we will be leading others astray too... that's a scary thought. If you don't accept correction, you'll be bringing others down with you....
What verses or insights jumped out for you in today's readings? Please post up in the Comments section below!
Grace,
Mike
mike, i love what you say about mark - this is the key pivot in the gospel as it divides quite well into two. up until peters confession of jesus as Christ it has been about the fact that the Christ has come - 'the kingdom if God is among you... 1v15'. but now Jesus turns the story and says that the Christ must die. This is something Peter cannot grasp - possibly because like us he hasn't grasped the die-to-live, last-shall-be-first, upside-down nature of the kingdom.
Ironicall the first guy in the gospel to achieve a synthesis of these two halves (incarnated God and dying God) is the centurtion at the cross, who looks at Jesus' corpse and says 'truly this may was the son of god'. as i meditate on this, i am reminded of the cross i need to bear myself.
rob
Posted by: rob | February 26, 2005 at 02:34 AM
Leviticus 19:1-20:21
I click on the links to read Bob Deffinbaugh’s commentary on both the 19th and 20th chapter of Leviticus and I like Mike, love his writing and the spirit in which he writes so lovingly and plainly.
I believe Mike has asked the question before in one of his comments but I don’t remember the date or the passage but perhaps it was at the beginning of Leviticus. I know that holiness is not just rituals, clothing and practices; holiness is a lifestyle, a way of thinking and being. For holiness to be achieved one must allow God in to direct your life because without the presence of God all you will have is the appearance of godliness but holiness will be far from you.
In the 20th chapter we find this, 7 So set yourselves apart to be holy, for I, the LORD, am your God. 8 Keep all my laws and obey them, for I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
What we have read in these two chapters are for a people to do in setting themselves “apart” from those around them, but it is God who makes us holy. There is nothing in and of ourselves that makes us holy. We are required to prepare ourselves by lifestyle choices, by changing the way we think and redefining our relationships with our neighbors and friends under the guidelines God has set, but then it is God that comes into our lives and imparts holiness.
There is also something in this 20th chapter that has caused me great trouble, not the edicts but the “problem,” and that is “devoting children to the god of Molech as a burnt offering.” What troubles me is we believe we don’t do this to our children because we don’t actually place our children on a sacrificial alter and light the fire, literally; however, we, as a nation, do this to our children figuratively and symbolically. When a child is sacrificed to Molech, it is for the benefit of the adult doing the sacrificing to insure their prosperity for future endeavors.
When children are neglected because parents feel they are a drain on their resources or because it is inconvenient or costly to invest their time, talent and resources into these little ones, who did not ask to be born, we are in effect placing these little ones on Molech’s alter. We sacrifice the children on the alters of our personal pleasures, lust and desires.
A good friend reminded me about a year ago that it was an alter of Molech and an alter of Chemosh that King Solomon built to honor his many foreign wives (1 Kings 11:7). Both were gods of Lot’s descendents conceived from incest. Chemosh required “sex” upon his alter with temple prostitutes, male and female, and Molech required child sacrifices. It seems that indiscriminant sex outside of the bonds of marriage produce a society that will sacrifice its children for the furtherance of its own pleasure and lusts. Placed in this context one can see that God honors the “marriage bed” and requires the two parties that have become one to be responsible for the children sexual intercourse produces unlike the other gods. Placed in this context one can see why Leviticus 19 and 20 are so very important.
Mark 8:11-38
27 Jesus and his disciples left Galilee and went up to the villages of Caesarea Philippi. As they were walking along, he asked them, "Who do people say I am?"
“Who do people say I am?” That is the most important question. What matters is not what someone else thinks but what you think. I believe one must follow Jesus out of a personal commitment and belief, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. (Hebrews 11:6) You can’t come on your church’s faith, you can’t come on your mom’s, dads, grandmas or grandpa’s faith, God doesn’t have grand kids.
My desire for everyone who comes to this site that they receive a revelation of who Jesus is, Amen
Psalm 42:1-11
Do I “pant” for God like a deer who has traveled miles to reach the watering hole? Or do I just stick my tongue in just enough to keep my lips from getting chapped? Is my desire for God so strong that I know that I know if I don’t drink deeply I will die from thirst? Am I trying to quench my thirst on the soft drinks of life that contain sugar, caffeine and phosphates but no God? How I want to desire God as that deer desiring the water that will sustain it to live another day.
Proverbs 10:17
Do I have a teachable spirit? Teach-ability is the only way one will be able to receive correction. Am I on that pathway of life or am I leading others into the microwave oven to be zapped?
Grace and peace,
Ramona
Posted by: Ramona | February 26, 2005 at 02:39 PM