Numbers 28:3-4

3 And you shall say to them, This is the food offering that you shall offer to the LORD: two male lambs a year old without blemish, day by day, as a regular offering. 4 The one lamb you shall offer in the morning, and the other lamb you shall offer at twilight;

I heard a pastor give a sermon this past week on Leviticus 1 and was pretty amazed at all of the life application he got from such a strange passage. He started by pointing out how many of us when we adopt a Bible reading plan often stumble and get completely derailed by Leviticus. I have to admit, that has happened to me, but I have also read that book a few times and still don’t have a clue what it says. I am not proud to admit that, but it is the truth.

Leviticus 1 talks about the burnt offerings that the Isrealites were to offer God. I wish I had time here to lay out the entire sermon I heard, as it was quite good, but I wanted to just share one application that has been solidified with me today when I read Numbers 28. Do you realize that they were instructed to give two bulls, sheep, doves, or grain a day? They were to sacrifice once in the morning and once at night. Now we know that Jesus has made the final sacrifice for our sins, and that we no longer need to offer one, but I am impressed by God’s instructions here. And I do pause to ask myself, why twice a day and 4 times on Sunday if I am reading it correctly? Could it be that my sin is so great that I need to repent at least twice a day?

I don’t want to get too legalistic here, or suggest anything works based, but I believe that God is calling me to come to him in submission and repentance at least twice a day. I need to come to Him each morning to ask that He keep me from sin, and then confess my sins and ask forgiveness each night. I really MUST give God a larger place in my daily life if I want to remain IN Him.

Father, forgive me. Help me to keep from sin today and bring me to you throughout each day as I strive to live my life completely sold out to you.

Lamentations 3:22-24

22 The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”

One of the reasons that so many wiser folks are so sad to see us younger folks cease to sing the great old hymns is that they are filled to the brim with amazing doctrine and Biblical truth. I encourage you to listen once again to a golden oldie, and really let these words sink deep into your soul. As so many of my African American friends are quick to say, “God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good.”

May you find strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow in the awesome mercy and faithfulness of our Heavenly Father.

Father, how can I possibly thank you for your mercy, love and most of all your great faithfulness. I am weak, and prone to wander from you, draw me near and never let me go dearest love. Forgive my unbelief, my weakness and my wandering heart.

1 John 2:22 & 23

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

1 John 4:2 & 3

2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Oh how I love the word of God! I have my favorite books though, and I must confess, 1 John is one of them for many reasons. One of those reasons is that it is just jam packed with wonderful doctrine that is easy to understand.

I often hear critics of Christianity harking on us because we are so “narrow-minded.” Along with many, many quotes directly from Jesus, you should memorize these few verses in 1 John as a defense. We have clearly been called to be VERY narrow minded by God. Belief in Christ alone is our salvation. . .any other doctrine is of the Devil. PERIOD. There is no room for any other goofy belief here. Either Jesus Christ is fully God (he and the father are one) AND fully human (100% flesh), or you are following Satan. Narrow minded, absolutely, God intended for it to be pretty easy to grasp. As further proof, I will quote my favorite author here:

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
-Jesus Christ

Oh Holy Father, thank you for your son. Thank you for his sacrifice. Thank you for your word that makes it so very clear how we ought to follow and seek after you. Help me to seek you and to find you today.

Joshua 7:1

But the people of Israel broke faith in regard to the devoted things, for Achan the son of Carmi, son of Zabdi, son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of the devoted things. And the anger of the LORD burned against the people of Israel.

As I read Joshua 7 today I am struck by the depth of my own depravity. Actually, if I am completely honest with myself, I was first struck by the severity of the punishment for stealing here. But as always, God revealed to me me a bit about He and me as I waited to hear Him explain this to me. He seems to be reminding me again how sinful I am and how Great He is.

This chapter reminds me of a conversation I had with my daughter recently. She had found a verse that was reminding us to fear God, and she asked me why we needed to fear Him. I will admit, she stumped me and I offered a feeble attempt to point out his majesty. But the reason we ought to fear God is because we deserve the punishment that was handed out to Achan here. We do far worse than he did here, and yet we go on as if nothing has happened. We sin DAILY, and for many of us, we sin HOURLY and yet God allows us to live and thrive in spite of our sin. Why do we get grace that Achan did not? He is called Christ.

Because of the cross of Jesus Christ and his great sacrifice, we can now continue to have fellowship with God even though we sin and envoke his wrath quite frequently. Because when God looks at us he sees Christ we are able to live.

Should we fear God? Absolutely! Should we seek to love and thank and glorify him regularly for our very lives? Absolutely!

Father God, forgive me. Forgive me for my unbelief, forgive me for my sin, forgive me for my lack of commitment, forgive me for not serving you more, loving you more, seeking you more. Help me Lord I pray. Change my heart, turn me fully toward you and help me to love you completely with my whole heart always. Thank you for the cross Lord.

Joshua 4:23-24

23 For the LORD your God dried up the waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the LORD your God did to the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, 24 so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the LORD is mighty, that you may fear the LORD your God forever.”

Do all the peoples of the earth know that the hand of the LORD is mighty? Probably not, because we have not told them of all the things the LORD has done for us. We have not told them of all the waters that the ever gracious hand of the LORD has held back. We have not told them the times we deserved great punishment but received great grace instead. We have not told them the times when we should have fallen, but we were picked-up and help up by the mighty hand of God.

How about it? When was the last time you told someone how God has delivered you from the gates of Hell, or the time he saved your child, your marriage, your home, your life? God is good. . .all the time, and all the time. . .God is good. We don’t get the hell we deserve, instead, we get hundreds of opportunities to share the miracles God has done. Use them!

Father God, for your grace and mercy I thank you. Thank you for this life I live, may I use every moment of it to glorify you and lift you up and serve you. Help me remember that I server you by serving others, and that you are glorified by my love for you demonstrated in my love for others. Help me to love them all father, all the people you put in my path. Help me work hard and share you over and over again until my dying day. . .I love you, I thank you, I give you my life again today as an offering to you.

Joshua 2:11

11 And as soon as we heard it, our hearts melted, and there was no spirit left in any man because of you, for the LORD your God, he is God in the heavens above and on the earth beneath.

As I re-read the story of Rahab today, I am struck by God’s power, and I am humbled by my lack of story telling. Rahab did not need to be told the plan for salvation or be given a tutorial on the Old Testament. Rahab heard about God’s deeds from other witnesses and therefore when the Isrealites came, she already feared God and was ready to accept Him.

As I started thinking about this today, I had to pause and ask myself if my stories of God’s grace and works would cause anyone to want to be part of the family. I used to tell every and any one who would listen all that God had done for me, but if I am honest, those tellings have dwindled to almost nothing. I am ashamed to say that some of the most awesome things God has done in my life have stopped being exciting to me, and so I have stopped telling the stories. But I am convicted anew today that we MUST be story tellers. All of us have so many blessings and ways that God has loved, cared, and sustained us. When was the last time you told one of your God stories to a non-believer?

Father, forgive me for my short memory. Help me remember the joy of my salvation. Help me not forget the amazing things you have done in my life and open my mouth and my heart that I will not ever stop telling the wonderful stories of your work in me.

Joshua 1:6-9

6 Be strong and courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to their fathers to give them. 7 Only be strong and very courageous, being careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good success[a] wherever you go. 8 This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. 9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”

I heard a sermon on this passage of scripture recently and have come back to it again and again. I really like to dwell here on this promise of God.

To quickly summerize the verses above: do what God commands, keep his word on your heart always, be strong and courageous because the Lord is always with you.  I am not sure I can really add any value, so I will stop and encourage you to just reflect on these few verses for a moment.

Father, thank you for your promises, your word, your Son and for my life today.  Make me a blessing and may you be glorified in my life today.

Deuteronomy 10:14-15

14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.

It seems everywhere I turn this week there is someone advertising sentimentality to get me to buy my mother an expensive gift for Mother’s Day. But what all of this advertising is really doing is making me think about my Mom and all she has done, and that leads me to her most significant contribution to my life, my introduction to Jesus Christ and God the Father.

I tend to think of God as an annoyed parent more than I do a loving father. As I think about the gook in my heart, all my sin and darkness, it is easy for me to forget that God loves me, I mean really loves me. I understand the significance of who he is. I understand that in his holiness I am filthy, but yet it says here in verse 15 that the “LORD set his heart in love” on his people. But as I consider God and compare our relationship a bit with my own with my children I think perhaps I understand where God comes from. We are his children, and nothing can change the love he has for us. We will frustrate, anger, hurt and disappoint him, but he has chosen to adopt and love us in spite of our doings. I thank God for this incredible, extravagant love that is so wonderfully modeled here on earth in healthy parental models. I don’t love every choice and action my child makes, but I love that little person with all my heart and soul.

Dearest Father, thank you for you love. Fill me completely with your love, so that through that place of loving abiding I can go out and bless and love all of those people you put in my path. Help me to bless my family and friends and strangers today out the overflow from your love.

Deuteronomy 9:13-14

13 “Furthermore, the LORD said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven. And I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’

That is our tendency, right? To say, surely I am not like them. I don’t act like that, or I don’t do that. But the fact is, we anger God with our sin daily. Every single day that I am alive I give God cause to smite me. I too am a stubborn person.

The actions of the Israelites here in the early chapters of Deuteronomy do lend themselves to a great example of just how evil our little human hearts are though. Think about it. These folks had seen God in physical action more than we can even imagine, and yet, when left a lone for a bit, they turned from God and thought it a better idea to worship a golden calf! CRAZY! These are the same people who got to walk down the middle of the Red Sea, mountains of water to their left and their right, and yet, they thought a gold calf would be better than that God. I don’t get it. And there is a big part of me that wants to scream. . .Not me God. I wouldn’t abandon you like that. . .and then I think of Peter. Dearest Peter. Peter my favorite disciple. For a reminder of his unfortunate lack of faith, have a look-see over at Matthew 26, Mark 14, Luke 22 and/or John 13. I think it is no small accident that ALL 4 Gospels have this shameful story.

It is our story, if we are honest. It is what’s wrong with humanity. God created us, He loved us, He gave us a way to live and a way to escape death, and yet with practically all of our strength we fight him off. Those of us who are parents can even see this pattern repeated regularly with our children. Surely we are like them. . and surely we must deny that nature today and trust Abba Father, the Great I AM, the Alpha and Omega.

Father, forgive me. Forgive my unbelief, my stubborn heart and my sinful mind. Change me today to be more like you. Grant me more faith, remove my doubt and my stubborn heart and my sinful ways. Create in me a clean heart oh God.

Deuteronomy 8:19-20

19 If you ever forget the LORD your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. 20 Like the nations the LORD destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the LORD your God.

We should never forget that our God will not tolerate competition. He is the only thing worthy of our praise, therefore he can’t tolerate it when we are unfaithful and don’t trust Him when He tells us to worship Him alone.

A friend and I were talking yesterday about the differences in many religions and what makes Christianity so exclusive and we sort of ended up with the fact that we are called to worship the One Creator God, who took human form to save us. These verses I am reading today confirms how much God hates for us to look elsewhere. There is nothing grater than God. Those things that I so often chase after, money, fame, admiration of men and women are not something I need to go after. They are idols that just keep me from my goal of loving God and loving others. If I do as God requests, he takes care of the rest. He will provide food and shelter and family and friends. He gives, no my own mental strength or anything I do. . .God provides all I have. If I were to loose my job tomorrow. . somehow. . .God would ensure I eat and drink and sleep.

God is in control of it all, my life, the lives of my family and friends and I must rest assured, knowing that He is working it all out for His glory. I can’t see it all, I don’t know it all, but I can rest it all in Him. He wants to love and bless and give to his children if they but get out of His way and let him be glorified.

Father, quiet my inner self today enough that you can shine out and through me. Help me to be less and you to be more. Please control my mind, my heart, my thoughts and my words today that they would build and love and most importantly glorify you at all times.