The Order of Things – Leviticus 9:7

“Then Moses said to Aaron, “Approach the altar and sacrifice your sin offering and your burnt offering, and make atonement for yourself and for the people. And sacrifice the people’s offering and make atonement for them, just as God has commanded.””

The order of things matters.  The sequencing of components is critical.  The chronology of events is crucial.

There are ingredients in a recipe when removed, ruin the meal.

Change the sequence of your DNA and you become a different person.

Remove critical links in history and our world transforms into something very different.

I struggle with my Bible reading plan, when it comes to Leviticus.  Leviticus is about the law.  Leviticus is about rules.  Also, Leviticus is about the order of things and that the order of things, matters.

The Israelites got to experience the glory of God.  They were allowed to witness His power.  They were overwhelmed with joy and worshipped.

Leviticus 9:23–24: Then Moses and Aaron entered the tent of assembly. When they came out, they blessed the people, and God’s glory appeared to all the people. Then a fire went out from before God, and it consumed the burnt offering and the fat portions on the altar. And all the people saw it, so they shouted for joy, and they fell on their faces.

Yet, there were instructions, whose fulfillment were necessary, prior to God revealing His glory to His chosen people.  Atonement for the sins of the priests and the people was necessary before God came down amongst them, fulfilling their joy and worship.

The order mattered.

I am reminded that the order still matters. Atonement still matters. Atonement is still the critical ingredient for a true relationship with God. We do not dictate the terms of our relationship with God.  God determines the order of things.

I fear that many people are seeking well-being, harmony, and a form of joy through a spiritual experience with god, absent atonement.  The problem with atonement is that it requires me to acknowledge:

• That I am a sinner,
• That my sin separates me from God and His glory,
• That I need a sacrifice to atone for my sin,
• That Jesus Christ was the atoning sacrifice for my sin.

Once again, the ingredients of atonement matter.  I cannot know salvation without the belief in all those critical ingredients.  Remove any one and Christ’s atoning sacrifice is no longer applicable to me.

We rarely talk about atonement anymore.  We rarely talk about sin anymore.  I don’t know what other people are experiencing when they describe a spiritual experience while denying the critical ingredients of atonement.  Whatever they are experiencing, it is a pale imitation of the true joy predicated on a relationship properly ordered with the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Let’s not be content with a pale imitation.

Let’s obediently acknowledge the true order of God’s plan, starting with atonement.

If you have any questions on atonement, please send me an email or a comment.

https://ref.ly/Le9.7 via the Logos Bible Android app.

VETERAN PEACEMAKERS- Nov 11 (Reblog)

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:10

Today is the day we honor our veterans in the United States. Appropriately, ceremonies with be held in appreciation of the sacrifice that so many have given in the service of our country. These ceremonies will inherently have a melancholy mood at least for me.

As I have written before (Imagine a World without Veterans), veterans are the product of war and threats of war. I recently ran across a quote by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones in which he asked a series of pertinent questions.

Why are there wars in the world?
Why is there this constant international tension?
What is the matter with the world?
Why war and all the unhappiness and turmoil and discord amongst men?
According to this Beatitude (Matthew 5:10),
there is only one answer to these questions-sin.
Nothing else; just sin.”
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Sin is the reason there are wars and rumors of war. Sin is the reason that we needed the service of our veterans. Sin is the reason we will be creating new veterans long into the future.

Have you ever considered the cost of sin?

Many want to dismiss the costs of sin. They cast sin as a private matter of personal choice. However, consider the quantifiable costs we all pay due to a world enslaved to sin.

The annual budget of the US Department of Defense is $495.6 billion.
The annual budget of the US Department of Veterans Affairs is $163.9 billion.
The United States spends $659.5 billion every year just because of sin.

If there was no sin, we would not need the DOD or VA. We would be freed to spend over a half a trillion dollars every year on other things – science, medicine, technology. How far could a $659.5 billion annual investment progress our society?  I hope that we can agree that the DOD and VA costs are only a fraction of the quantifiable costs that sin imposes upon this world. A more careful accounting will reveal a staggering annual cost that we all pay to counter the effects that proceed from sinful hearts.

It is ‘out of the heart’ that evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornication, jealousy, envy, malice and all these other things proceed; and while men are like that there will be no peace. What is in, will inevitably come out.
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

The impact of sin upon our society becomes staggering when we consider the unquantifiable costs of sin.

What have families emotionally paid during deployment separations?
What are the costs to relationships impacted by PTSD?

What of the costs beyond wars and rumors of war?

What is the payment for drug addiction?
What are the costs wasted into pornography?
What costs have been incurred from anger, gossip, hate…

What about the ultimate wage of sin?

For the wages of sin is death…(Romans 6:23a)
What is the cost of a person’s soul?

While some may argue that Christianity has caused much of the evil in this world, the reality is that our world needs more biblical peacemakers to truly quell the costs of sin upon mankind.

The first thing, therefore, we must say about the peacemaker is that he has an entirely new view of himself, a new view which really amounts to this. He has seen himself and has come to see that in a sense this miserable, wretched self is not worth bothering about at all. It is so wretched; it has not rights or privileges; it does not deserve anything. If you have seen yourself as poor in spirit, if you have mourned because of the blackness of your heart, if you have truly seen yourself and have hungered and thirsted after righteousness, you will not stand any longer on your rights and privileges, you will not be asking, ‘What about me in this?’ You will have forgotten this self…

 Let me sum it all up like this: the benediction pronounced on such people is that they ‘shall be called the children of God’…It means that the peacemaker is a child of God and that he is like his Father. One of the most glorious definitions of the being and character of God in the Bible is contained in the words, ‘the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.’ (Heb. 13:20)…

 That is the New Testament teaching. You finish with self, and then you begin to follow Jesus Christ. You realize what He did for you in order that you might enjoy that blessed peace of God, and you begin to desire that everybody else should have it. So, forgetting self, humbling self, you follow in His steps’ who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.’ That is it.
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

I am grateful for the service of my country’s veterans. They have been a bulwark against the evils of man. They have spared me and my family from some horrible costs of sin. However, I think we do them a disservice if our gratitude does not go beyond an appreciation for a “peaceful and prosperous” life.

Our world needs veteran peacemakers – biblical peacemakers. We will all continue to pay the horrible costs of sin while the world chases humanistic and idealistic solutions to our fundamental problem – the sinful hearts of men. We need to be thankful for the opportunity our war veterans have given us so that we, as children of God,  can do what we have been called to do; be peacemakers.

We have been called to be peacemakers within our own world. We have the only solution to the dreadful cost of sin. May we faithfully serve our calling and become veteran peacemakers. Let us use this opportunities that our veterans have provided to lead as many to the One who can save them from paying the ultimate wage of sin.

…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23b

PRAYER: Father, thank you for the United States of America and the men and women who have served in the military to defend this country.  May you bless their service.  Lord, thank you for keeping the costs of sin bearable.  Thank you for giving time and opportunity for men and women to come to you.  Lord, help me to be a peacemaker; help me to be like You.  May you be glorified in those that you have called to be your children – peacemakers.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

 

 

SELFIE- Jan 5

“The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” Genesis 2:9b

View image | gettyimages.com

I don’t really understand the preoccupation with “selfies”. I scroll through Facebook and I am amazed at the number of pictures that my “friends” post just of themselves, taken by themself. I read this article, Why we really take selfies: The terrifying reasons.

Dr Terri Apter, psychology lecturer at Cambridge University, says taking selfies is all about people trying to figure out who they are and project this to other people. “It’s a kind of self-definition,” says Dr Apter. “We all like the idea of being sort of in control of our image and getting attention, being noticed, being part of the culture.”

However, I wonder if it isn’t a manifestation of something more. The reality is that we all like to get attention, be noticed, and  be  part of our culture, but have you stopped to wonder why?

Why do I want attention?
Why am I posting a picture of myself?

View image | gettyimages.com

Consider the immediate response after ingesting the knowledge of good and evil:

Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. (Genesis 3:7)

Nakedness in the Old Testament suggests weakness, need and humiliation (Deut. 28:48, Job 1:21, Isa. 58:7) The impact of receiving this mysterious knowledge was an awareness of self. Before they ate of the fruit, Adam and Eve were not even aware that they were naked. It was not that they were comfortable with their bodies. They were blind to their nakedness.

I have no idea what that could be like.
I have never been naked and did not know it.
In fact, I have rarely, if ever, been unaware of myself.

The knowledge of good and evil causes everyone to function on a basis of self awareness. It is an awareness particularly of our deficiencies. We know the difference between good and evil and we can see it in ourselves. As a result, this awareness drives us in pursuit of selfish desires, often absent is a compassionate consideration of our impact on others.

I wonder if the phenomenon of “selfies”
is just another manifestation of original sin.

If they had the technology, I don’t think Adam and Eve would have been taking “selfies” prior to the fall. After all, they would not have had any place to carry their cell phones but more importantly, I don’t see a person, unaware of himself, being inclined to take a “selfie”.

Now, I don’t want to be a curmudgeon.

However, I think that it is always good to evaluate why we do what we do. It is important to hunt out all the secret ways we feed our desires for self.

We just might be feeding our sinful appetite for self one selfie at a time. 

PRAYER: Father, you know how much I love myself.  Forgive me of all the ways that I seek praise and attention from the world.   Forgive me for seeking my self-worth above yours and others.  Lord, help be to think less of myself.  Father, I give you all my nakedness.  I give you all my failures and deficiencies.  Help me to no longer seek to cover them.  Help me to forget myself. I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

VETERAN PEACEMAKERS- Nov 11

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Matthew 5:10

Today is the day we honor our veterans in the United States. Appropriately, ceremonies with be held in appreciation of the sacrifice that so many have given in the service of our country. These ceremonies will inherently have a melancholy mood at least for me.

As I have written before (Imagine a World without Veterans), veterans are the product of war and threats of war. I recently ran across a quote by Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones in which he asked a series of pertinent questions.

Why are there wars in the world?
Why is there this constant international tension?
What is the matter with the world?
Why war and all the unhappiness and turmoil and discord amongst men?
According to this Beatitude (Matthew 5:10),
there is only one answer to these questions-sin.
Nothing else; just sin.”
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

Sin is the reason there are wars and rumors of war. Sin is the reason that we needed the service of our veterans. Sin is the reason we will be creating new veterans long into the future.

Have you ever considered the cost of sin?

Many want to dismiss the costs of sin. They cast sin as a private matter of personal choice. However, consider the quantifiable costs we all pay due to a world enslaved to sin.

The annual budget of the US Department of Defense is $495.6 billion.
The annual budget of the US Department of Veterans Affairs is $163.9 billion.
The United States spends $659.5 billion every year just because of sin.

If there was no sin, we would not need the DOD or VA. We would be freed to spend over a half a trillion dollars every year on other things – science, medicine, technology. How far could a $659.5 billion annual investment progress our society?  I hope that we can agree that the DOD and VA costs are only a fraction of the quantifiable costs that sin imposes upon this world. A more careful accounting will reveal a staggering annual cost that we all pay to counter the effects that proceed from sinful hearts.

It is ‘out of the heart’ that evil thoughts, murders, adultery, fornication, jealousy, envy, malice and all these other things proceed; and while men are like that there will be no peace. What is in, will inevitably come out.
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

The impact of sin upon our society becomes staggering when we consider the unquantifiable costs of sin.

What have families emotionally paid during deployment separations?
What are the costs to relationships impacted by PTSD?

What of the costs beyond wars and rumors of war?

What is the payment for drug addiction?
What are the costs wasted into pornography?
What costs have been incurred from anger, gossip, hate…

What about the ultimate wage of sin?

For the wages of sin is death…(Romans 6:23a)
What is the cost of a person’s soul?

While some may argue that Christianity has caused much of the evil in this world, the reality is that our world needs more biblical peacemakers to truly quell the costs of sin upon mankind.

The first thing, therefore, we must say about the peacemaker is that he has an entirely new view of himself, a new view which really amounts to this. He has seen himself and has come to see that in a sense this miserable, wretched self is not worth bothering about at all. It is so wretched; it has not rights or privileges; it does not deserve anything. If you have seen yourself as poor in spirit, if you have mourned because of the blackness of your heart, if you have truly seen yourself and have hungered and thirsted after righteousness, you will not stand any longer on your rights and privileges, you will not be asking, ‘What about me in this?’ You will have forgotten this self…

 Let me sum it all up like this: the benediction pronounced on such people is that they ‘shall be called the children of God’…It means that the peacemaker is a child of God and that he is like his Father. One of the most glorious definitions of the being and character of God in the Bible is contained in the words, ‘the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus.’ (Heb. 13:20)…

 That is the New Testament teaching. You finish with self, and then you begin to follow Jesus Christ. You realize what He did for you in order that you might enjoy that blessed peace of God, and you begin to desire that everybody else should have it. So, forgetting self, humbling self, you follow in His steps’ who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously.’ That is it.
~ D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Studies in the Sermon on the Mount

I am grateful for the service of my country’s veterans. They have been a bulwark against the evils of man. They have spared me and my family from some horrible costs of sin. However, I think we do them a disservice if our gratitude does not go beyond an appreciation for a “peaceful and prosperous” life.

Our world needs veteran peacemakers – biblical peacemakers. We will all continue to pay the horrible costs of sin while the world chases humanistic and idealistic solutions to our fundamental problem – the sinful hearts of men. We need to be thankful for the opportunity our war veterans have given us so that we, as children of God,  can do what we have been called to do; be peacemakers.

We have been called to be peacemakers within our own world. We have the only solution to the dreadful cost of sin. May we faithfully serve our calling and become veteran peacemakers. Let us use this opportunities that our veterans have provided to lead as many to the One who can save them from paying the ultimate wage of sin.

…but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23b

PRAYER: Father, thank you for the United States of America and the men and women who have served in the military to defend this country.  May you bless their service.  Lord, thank you for keeping the costs of sin bearable.  Thank you for giving time and opportunity for men and women to come to you.  Lord, help me to be a peacemaker; help me to be like You.  May you be glorified in those that you have called to be your children – peacemakers.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

 

 

QUOTE (Johann Gerhard) – Oct 17

“Rise up, faithful soul, and love that highest Good, in whom every good thing exists, without which there is nothing that is truly good. No creature is able to satisfy our will because no creature maintains perfect goodness, but rather has only shared in such. A sort of stream of good is transmitted to them from the Divine, but the source always remains in God. Why then do we want to eagerly pursue a stream that has been abandoned by the source? Any good in the creature is a kind of image of that perfect good that is in God, yes indeed, that is God himself. Why then do we who have been laid hold of by the image want to desert the very thing itself? The dove sent out of Noah’s ark was not able find a place where its foot could rest in the turning of the waters (Genesis 8:8). So also, our soul is not able to find in any of the numerous things under the moon anything that completely satisfies our desires because all of these things are unreliable and fragile.”
~Johann Gerhard

In honor of Johann Gerhard, German Lutheran theologian, who was born on this day in 1582.

Resources:
October 17 – Today in Christian History
Sacred Meditations

 

 

QUOTE (Theodor Zahn) – Oct 10

“When we look around, we see many who never seem to fight, but who follow their natural inclinations, the customs of the world, without any perceptible resistance; and yet they are baptized Christians, for whom, so it seems, Christ has lived, fought, and conquered in vain. We see others, again, who confess the same Lord with us, and who have, as a matter of principle, renounced the Evil One, and yet we must close our eyes very tightly if we are not to see with sorrow that they never withstand the very simplest trial. We have also known other Christians who seemed to be brave fighters; we have seen them standing firm when others wavered; we have rejoiced over them; we have encouraged ourselves by their courage and strength. But in decisive moments we have seen them bend the knee to the Evil One who has power in the world.

It is very saddening, even discouraging. It might almost tempt us to unbelief in the victorious power of truth, and to superstition as to the impossibility of conquering sin.

But for this very reason, I say: “God be praised, that He sent His Son to us, that He might be tempted like as we are, and yet remain free from sin.” Let everyone who is tempted to despair in the midst of the battle, look, not on himself or his own strength or weakness; not on the thousands who fall on his left, and the ten thousands who fall on his right hand, but let him look at Jesus. “Behold the Man.” …They know also that it is not the destiny of man to live on in sinful weakness, and to die conquered by sin, but first of all to fight, and then to conquer under the Captain of salvation.”

~Theodor Zahn

In honor of Theodor Zahn, a German biblical scholar and author of the 3-volume “Introduction to the New Testament”, who was born on this day in 1838.

Resources:
October 10 – Today in Christian History
Christ’s Temptation and Ours – A Sermon By Theodor Zahn

 

QUOTE (David Brainerd) – Oct 5

“My desires seem especially to be after weanedness from the world, perfect deadness to it, and that I may be crucified to all its allurements. My soul desires to feel itself more of a pilgrim and a stranger here below, that nothing may divert me from pressing through the lonely desert, till I arrive at my Father’s house.” ~ David Brainerd

In honor of David Brainerd, an American missionary to the Delaware Indians of New Jersey, who began ministering to the Indians on this day in 1744.

Resources:
October 5 – Today in Christian History
David Brainerd Quotes

 

QUOTE (J.R.R. Tolkien) – Sept 2

View image | gettyimages.com

“We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic ‘progress’ leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.”
~ J.R.R. Tolkien

 

In honor of John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, best known as the author of the classic works The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, who died on this day in 1973.

 

Resources:
J.R.R. Tolkien – Wikipedia
Quotes by J.R.R. Tolkien

 

 

 

Related articles

• It’s Tolkien Day! 5 Facts About the Man, the Myth, the Geek Legend
• J.R.R.Tolkien: “Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbor”

THE DAY FOR MEDIATION – August 5

“For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” 1 Timothy 2:5-6

 Mediation is a process intended to intervene in a dispute in order to resolve it. The success of mediation depends upon the disputing parties’ willingness to resolve the conflict. A mediator will never be successful if either or both disputants are unwilling to resolve that which separates them. 

I was reminded of this prerequisite during a mediation I recently participated in.  I have blogged several times about a dispute that has entangled my company for several years.

 But I Don’t Wanna to be Slapped
Dealing with Troubles
A Prayerful Run
Struggle to Forgive – Again

 As you can see, this lawsuit has been looming in the back of my mind for years. While confident that a court will vindicate our reputation, the cost and uncertainty of litigation motivated us to count the days to mediation.  I was looking forward to the appointed day of mediation.  I was optimistic that our antagonist was finally ready to resolve this seemingly endless dispute.

It has been over five years since this chasm destroyed the relationship of a long-term client. We had been their trusted advisor for more than ten years and had successfully completed hundreds of projects. Yet, that history was tossed away like rubbish when a problem arose on a significant project.

Millions of dollars (literally millions) have subsequently been spent in adherence to recommendations of new advisors. Advisors, who have reaped hundreds of thousands of dollars destroying a relationship based upon lies and mis-information in my opinion.

They have thrown treasure after a course of action without ever seeking a response to their accusations. They have readily believed the words of  “professionals” with whom they have no history, without even inquiring the opinion of the professionals with whom they have known for years to faithfully pursue their best interest.

They have swallowed the lie and have become liars. They only know one-side of the story yet they willingly followed the lie because it promises to provide the delight of their eyes that their accounts cannot afford. They believe it to such an extent that they cannot conceive of a necessity to mediate. Therefore, they rejected the opportunity to resolve our dispute and will continue their legal intrigues, sacrificing their integrity in pursuit of misguided opportunity.

The failure of this mediation means that this all too familiar burden will probably be carried into the coming year and beyond. This blog post has taken me several iterations to write as I have once again been confronted with the anger and forgiveness that this conflict distills to the surface of my mind. It is difficult to sit across the table from individuals who have plotted the destruction of your livelihood.

Yet, I should not be surprised by the conflict I find myself entangled in. I should be thankful that it does not happen more often because the basis of the dispute has been the scourge of man since the beginning. I am reminded of the first ancient lie that was blindly followed.

 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3:4)

 Adam and Eve believed what the serpent said; willingly accepting this new advisor because his words promised the delight of their eyes. They blindly followed words that they wanted to be true and never went back to God to confirm the words of the serpent or to get the other side of the story.

Since Adam and Eve, all of mankind has followed in the legacy of that first lie. The result of blindly following lies has resulted in conflict between God and every individual who has walked the surface of this earth. Every person has broken the righteous requirement of God’s law.

We all have a choice – take our chances in front of the judgment seat of God or meditate.

The good news is that God has provided us a mediator. He has sent his own Son, Jesus Christ, to condemn the sin in our flesh and to resolve our dispute with Him.

Art4TheGlryOfGod / Foter / CC BY-ND

However, the success of mediation depends upon the disputing parties’ willingness to resolve the conflict. God is willing. He has done His part. He is willing to accept the ransom of Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins. However, this divine mediation will never be successful if a person is unwilling to resolve that which separates him from God.

Divine meditation is God’s greatest gift to mankind.

Don’t reject His mediator, Jesus Christ. Don’t blindly believe whatever lie that promises to grant you the delight of your eyes. If you have not accepted Jesus Christ as the ransom for your sins, then you are still in conflict with the God.

Come to the mediation table God has prepared. Come with a willing heart and receive forgiveness of your sins and be reconciled with God.

The opportunity to mediate will not last forever – today may be your appointed day for mediation.

PRAYER: Father, thank you for the gift of mediation.  Thank you for giving your Son as a mediator.  Forgive me for so often believing the lies of the world and following after whatever is delightful to  my eyes.  Thank you for forgiving me.  Help me to forgive others.  Thank you for reminding me that our greatest need is to resolve the dispute with you caused by our sin.  Open the eyes fo those who do not know you.  Call them to your mediation table and show them their need to mediate.  I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

 

 

QUOTE (John Newton) – July 24

“The glorious Gospel of the blessed God, with respect to its dignity, depth, and importance, may seem a fitter theme for the tongue of an angel than of a man; but angels never sinned; and though they might proclaim its excellency, they could not, from experience, speak of its efficacy. In this respect sinful worms are better qualified to preach to others, concerning him by whom they have, themselves, been healed and saved. Their weakness, likewise, is better suited to show that the influence and success of the Gospel is wholly owing to the power of God. It has, therefore, pleased God to ‘put this treasure into earthen vessels,’ [2 Corinthians 4:7] and to commit the ministry of his word, not to angels, but to men.”
~ John Newton

In honor of John Newton, former slave ship captain, Pastor, and author of “Amazing Grace”, who was born on this day in 1725.

Resources:
July 24 – Today in Christian History
John Newton Quotes