February 8, 2010
Hello
My Friend/Guest,
Today is Monday February 08, 2010 and we are
reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the
reading of the Book of Leviticus chapters 19-21. If you would like to
read the chapters along with us here online you can Click
Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser:
http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-8
Title:
Bible
Study: I Am The LORD Your God
As
we read today's chapters we learn more about keeping the body holy,
“And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto all the congregation of
the children of Israel, and say unto them, Ye shall be holy: for I
the LORD your God am holy. Ye shall fear every man his mother, and
his father, and keep my sabbaths: I am the LORD your God. Turn ye not
unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods: I am the LORD your
God. And if ye offer a sacrifice of peace offerings unto the LORD, ye
shall offer it at your own will.”
- Leviticus 19:1-5. The phrase, “I am the LORD” or “I am the
LORD your God” in mentioned here several times in these chapters.
We do not have to be a genius to understand that what God is saying
here is that, “I am God, the one and only LORD, whom is in control
of all things, and you are mine.” Now, with that said, He gave all
the right to choose whether or not they wanted to be a child of God,
also known as the free will. Now, today as Christian's this same rule
applies, we are to of our own free will accept to receive Jesus
Christ into our lives, God will not force anyone to come to Him. You
know, before Jesus came, God's laws were somewhat harsh, if a man or
woman got caught in adultery, or doing something that was immoral,
the penalty was for it was death. There was no escaping His judgment.
The Law and all the ordinances were given to the nation of
Israel as a means of revealing to the world that they were children
of God that was provided with wisdom, correction, godliness, and even
the loving kindness of their LORD. The laws were given to keep His
people separate from the immoralities of the world, even if a
stranger came into their came, they became a child of God if they of
their own free will wanted to live among them. This law applied to
any person whether an Israelite or stranger, “Ye
shall not eat any thing with the blood: neither shall ye use
enchantment, nor observe times. Ye shall not round the corners of
your heads, neither shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard. Ye shall
not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor print any marks
upon you: I am the LORD. Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her
to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become
full of wickedness. Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my
sanctuary: I am the LORD. Regard not them that have familiar spirits,
neither seek after wizards, to be defiled by them: I am the LORD your
God. Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honour the face of
the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD. And if a stranger
sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the
stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among
you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the
land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”
- Leviticus 19:26-34. Right here, even before Jesus came on earth to
show that Jew and Gentile alike could be a child of God, God tells
them that any stranger dwelling in the camp becomes as one with them.
You see, although God had chosen the Israelite's to represent His as
His people, He did not just keep the rest of the nations from knowing
who He was and that anyone can come to Him. Today, this could not be
more truer, Jesus died for every person and nation, in fact, He said
that all who accept Him are to go out into the world and teach all
nations that they can know Him and be saved. “Go
ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am
with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
- Matthew 28:19,20. Praise God!
The purpose of all the
commands that God gave the Israelite's was that He was preparing for
them to enter the promised land, which was inhibited by heathens,
idol worshipers, and witchcraft. God gave specific commands to avoid
all of these things, “And
the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Again, thou shalt say to the
children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of
the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed
unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land
shall stone him with stones. And I will set my face against that man,
and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of
his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy
name. And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from
the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not:
Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and
will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit
whoredom with Molech, from among their people. And the soul that
turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go
a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and
will cut him off from among his people. Sanctify yourselves
therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. And ye shall
keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you.”
- Leviticus 20:1-8. Molech was a bronze statue with a head of a calf
or bull, and the base of a man; and was hollow. When a fire was built
at the base, the fire would spew out its eyes, nose and mouth. Molech
stood with outstretched hands, beckoning followers to come and the
people would give their children to this statue as a sacrifice. God
was commanding the Israelite's to stay away from this practice or
they too would be put to death. Today, many of they gruesome
practices still take place, while God may test our faith by allowing
affliction to come upon children, He in no way allows a person to
take a child's life. God sent one person to become a human sacrifice
in order to save His people from hell and that is Jesus Christ and He
proved Himself the One and Only God and LORD of all by resurrecting
Him 3 days later. As Christian's, we are a child of the living God,
He says to us, “I am the LORD your God, which sanctify you” This
means that we are to cast away all of the idols and false gods, such
as careers and possessions that take us away from God or are immoral,
immoralities, such as fornication and homosexuality, and witchcraft,
such as horoscopes from our lives. As Christians we must set the
example and abstain from any conduct that may influence others to be
less than their best for Christ. We are children of God placed in a
nation full of heathens and God is preparing us to go to the promised
land. Although, Praise God, we can not get be put to death for doing
some of the things we know are wrong to do today, we are to still
think about what we are doing and make sure everything we do keeps us
holy before. Praise God that we are His chosen people!
Enjoy
the rest of your day/night and God
Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
Learn
About Salvation Only Made Through Jesus Christ
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Ready to Get Saved
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Posted by Christina Scovone
February 8, 2010
Hello My Friend/Guest,
Today is Sunday February 07, 2010, and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Leviticus, chapters 16-18. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this URL onto your browser: http://www.readytofollow.com/bible-february-7
Title: Bible Study: The Day of Atonement
While we may not understand all the laws and commands that God has bestowed upon us, every one of them are made in order to keep us holy and righteous before God. Now, some of the laws that we read about in the Book of Leviticus may not apply to us today, (Praise God!) but the morals of the laws still apply. As I have said before, God did not stop at just ten commandments, He lists more here in today's reading. However, one of the most uplifting chapters in the book is chapter 16. Here God explains the Day of Atonement or forgiveness. “Thus shall Aaron come into the holy place: with a young bullock for a sin offering, and a ram for a burnt offering. He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore shall he wash his flesh in water, and so put them on. And he shall take of the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house. And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the LORD at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the LORD, and the other lot for the scapegoat. And Aaron shall bring the goat upon which the LORD's lot fell, and offer him for a sin offering. But the goat, on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat, shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make an atonement with him, and to let him go for a scapegoat into the wilderness.” - Leviticus 16:3-10. The Day of Atonement was the one day a year that the high priest could make an atonement for the entire congregation for their sins of the past year. In addition to the normal sin, trespass, and peace offering were two goats. One was offered to God as a sacrifice, the other one was a scapegoat. A scapegoat is a person who takes the blame for others, when Aaron put his hands upon the scapegoat, he placed all the sins of the entire congregation on the goat and when he let it go into the wilderness all the sins went with it, which took all the sins of the people away, making an atonement for their sins. Today, the Day of Atonement represents Jesus Christ, who has not only given us a way to atone for our sins, but escape them as well. Jesus, who is our high priest, not only became the sin, trespass, and peace offerings, but the scapegoat as well. When we call on Jesus and confess that we are a sinner and need Him, Jesus makes an atonement for us, He died on the cross and shed His blood to make a permanent atonement for us. He also carried our sins away when He resurrected from the dead 3 days later. Praise God! This means that every sin that we committed has been carried away, never to be seen again. Praise God! And this is forever, we no longer have to go year by year and offer up a sacrifice because Jesus took care of all that for us. Now, that does not mean that we are exempt from repentance when we sin, but it does mean that anything we do when we call on Jesus for repentance get carried away and forgotten. Many have confessed their sinful past lives. Real peace comes in knowing that through the blood of Jesus our past no longer counts against us. Praise God!
Just as I have said in my last message, God addresses every issue known to man, if we think that what we have seen, done, or are still doing is something new to God, think again. There is not one thing in this life that God has not seen already over the centuries, this includes every immoral, lustful, and abominable act such as eating dead animals, blood, fornication, incest, bestiality, homosexuality, and even giving into brutal lusts within a marriage bed. God stresses to the Israelite's that they are not to do the things that they had saw or done while they were in Egypt, that He is their people and they needed to start acting like it. “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, I am the LORD your God. After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the LORD your God. Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the LORD.” - Leviticus 18:1-5. Once again, I will stress that many of these laws are no longer valid to us as Christian's, but the concept of the law still applies. Although I have not listed the passages, if you read the chapters, you will understand what I am saying here. Think about it, do you know how many diseases come from eating an animal that has died for whatever reason? Whatever disease an animal has or even eats gets into our bodies when we eat it. Why do you think there are so many sick and obese people out there? It really is our diet, even the healthy foods that we think are good for us are making us sick and obese because of what is in the animal and even the grains and produce we eat as well. As for all immoral acts done with our bodies, this includes the substances that we put in them as well, you know what they are and you know that you are doing wrong. That is why people who live in the world stay away from God, they know it is wrong.
We are children of God, just like the Israelite's, that means that we are to start acting like it and not do the things that we see or have done while we were in the world either. Yes, we may have done some things while in the world that we were ignorant to, but that does not mean that we can still do them now. “Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.” - I Corinthians 6:15-20. It is time to put away all the things that defile our bodies and treat it with respect. I have been in the world and have seen and done many things that defiled my body, but now I know and respect that my body is the Temple of God and needs to be treated like one. Think about it, does anyone really respect a person who lives immorally? I never known anyone to. Praise God that He has forgiven every act that we have done with our bodies and that Jesus made an atonement for them. He always forgives those who slip up once in a while, but be careful not to take advantage of God's mercy and grace as He will not take too kindly to that either. Remember, He knows our hearts and what our agendas are and will not condone anyone for disrespecting Him by seeking salvation just to continue to live in sin.
Enjoy the rest of your day/night and God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina
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Posted by Christina Scovone
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About Daily Bible Study
A daily devotion that helps one read through the Bible in a year.
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