Leviticus 22:17 – 23:44
Notable Verse 23:44 “So Moses announced to the Israelites the appointed feasts of the LORD.”
Don’t you just love feasting? The tables groaning under the weight of all the dishes set on it. Smells and sights that both please and tempt you. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. But you know, no one ever has a feast just because it was Tuesday, fests are used to remember special events: being thankful, the birth of Christ, a birthday.
This passage is all about feasting. How sad it seems that the feasts of the Old Testament, especially the Passover Seder are remembered today only in thimbles and bread crumbs in what can only be jokingly referred to as the “Lord’s Supper.” Supper? Karen Carpenter would have walked away hungry. When we remove the feasts, we not only remove the joy found within them, we also remove the reason why we celebrated them.
What ceremonies do you celebrate? How do you celebrate them?
Mark 9:10 – 10:12
Notable Verse – 9:48 “where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’
Jesus is quoting Isaiah 66:24
People have certain notions about Jesus; the biggest one is that Jesus is nice. He’s a good guy who would talk about Hell. As we can see in this passage, that isn’t the case. Jesus talked about Hell a lot and this passage is one of them.
Hell is never easy to talk about, and most of us would hate bringing it up. Hell, though, is as real as gravity or the sky being blue. Somehow we have gotten the idea that somehow mentioning Hell is somehow using scare tactics and unfair to those we are evangelizing.
Why is it bad to scare people? If a building is on fire, do we refuse to tell people in order to avoid a panic? To be honest, we don’t mention Hell, not because we don’t want to scare people, but because we don’t want to believe it is true. We are deceiving ourselves and dangerously ignoring the plight of people on their way to Hell.
I am confronting myself way too much. I am going to stop now.
Psalms 44:1 – 8
Notable Verse 1 “We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.”
Goes well with the feast, doesn’t it.? Do you remember who first shared the Gospel with you? Do you remember the stories in your life, or in the lives of your family and friends that not only tell about God, but practically scream it.
As I look back on my life and where I have come in the 22 years since I became a Christian, it is hard to believe how little I remember of God’s goodness and faithfulness. I imagine it is because I don’t tell people about it. I am usually too busy complaining to realize that God has done in my days long ago.
Who can you tell this week about what God has done?
Proverbs 10:19
Notable Phrase – “When words are many, sin is not absent….”
As a blogger, this is a hard phrase to read. It is also hard because I am a talker. I can’t tell you how many times my mouth has gotten me into trouble. Really, I can’t. It has been that often. Perhaps it is best I stop talking now.
