If the Lord has redeemed you, speak out! Tell your story at every opportunity. Each of us has a story to tell. Some of us were lost and homeless, some of us were imprisoned, some were foolish, some faced dangers from the forces of nature. However, when we cried out to God, when we turned to Him, He saved us from our distress and showed us how to live our lives. He will rescue us from trouble and provide for us. Let us give thanks to the Lord for what He has done for us and tell our stories to those who will listen.
Under the old covenant, the blood of goats and bulls was used to purify people of ceremonial impurity. The high priest took an offering of such blood into the Most Holy Place to intercede with God for the people. This Most Holy Place was a copy of the one in heaven. Christ has entered into the Tabernacle in heaven (the one which the earthly Tabernacle was a copy) and offered His own blood as a sacrifice to purify everyone, once and for all time, before God. Christ offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sins, and, since He was perfect, He only had to make this sacrifice one time.
This once and done nature of Christ’s sacrifice is part of what makes it different from the myths and legends which bear it some resemblance. Almost all of the myths which people compare to the Gospel story involve the god dying and rising from the dead each year as part of the cycle of the seasons. Christ’s death and resurrection are not like those myths created to explain the seasons in that Christ died just once and rose from the dead to eternal life. Instead of being a metaphor for the changing of the seasons, Christ’s death and resurrection are about God, once and for all time, reconciling mankind to Himself.
Some of the leaders of Israel came to Ezekiel asking for a message from God. The message they received was not the message they had hoped to receive. God condemned them for asking for a message from Him. The reason for God’s condemnation was that they had come for a message from God, but they intended to continue to worship idols. They wanted to be like the people’s around them. They fully intended to continue offering their children as sacrifices so that they would not stand out as different. They wanted the benefits of worshiping God without being different from those who do not. That is not one of our options. We can be just like those around us. We can live our lives so as to be accepted by those who deny God. Or, we can live our lives worshiping God. God will not accept our worship if we live like those who do not worship Him, who deny His very existence.
For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have been convicted to seek to develop a disciplined prayer life. It is still a work in progress. Please pray for me, that the Holy Spirit may show me how to pray in a disciplined manner.
If you act with wisdom you will bring joy to your parent’s hearts, and those who criticize them will be in the wrong. The signs that someone was a good parent is that their children act wisely.
This psalm makes a good point; let those whom the Lord has saved tell others their story. Perhaps by telling your story you will give someone the hope to turn to God for redemption. This psalm does a great job of listing the various ways in which people find God’s redemption.
Some are wanderers, seeking for something, they know not what. They are lost and alone, hungry, thirsty, and homeless. For some this was physical, for others this was spiritual. In either case, if they cry out to God, He will offer them a home, a family, food, and drink. There is nothing like coming home to the family of God.
Others were imprisoned by misery (or miserable because they were imprisoned). Their imprisonment (whether literal or figurative) was the result of their refusal to listen to God. However, when they were willing to call on Him, He was ready, and able, to free them from their misery. No matter how imprisoned they were, God was able to give them freedom.
Still others were fools and rebelled against God, reaching the point where nothing brought them satisfaction or pleasure. They were ready to die. Yet when they called out to God, He answered them and redeemed them. He showed them how to find joy once more.
And still others went about their lives believing that they did not need God. When the troubles of life overwhelmed them, they too cried out to God and He saved them. No matter what our story is, whatever circumstance God saved us out of, let us praise His name. Let us tell our story so that others will see that God can save them from the trouble they face. I will not keep silent about what God has done for me!
Under the old covenant, sacrifices had to be made again and again for sins. However, Jesus offered Himself up on the cross once and for all. I have often struggled with what this passage means for us. I get the fact that Jesus died for our sins once and that is all that is needed. However, the writer hear spends a lot of time talking about that. So, it seems like there must be more to it than that. And I think that the “more” struck me today.
I am aware of a lot of people who spend time feeling guilty for what they have done, struggling with seeking forgiveness for their past mistakes. I think the point the writer is making here is that we need to admit our mistakes and move on. When we commit a sin we need to recognize that we have done wrong. Then we need to put it behind us and strive to do what God wishes us to do. When we spend time worrying about, and feeling guilty for, the sins we have committed we do not have time to seek and do what God wants us to do now. Instead of spending time seeking to “make right” and gain forgiveness for the sins we have committed, let us accept the forgiveness God offers us through Christ and move on to the next thing He wants us to do. The only reason we should spend any time thinking about the sins we have committed in the past is to seek to avoid them in the future. Let us ask God’s Spirit to show us the sins we are unaware of which have led us to commit the sins we are aware of.
The leaders of the people of Israel came to Ezekiel requesting a message for God. God answered them through Ezekiel, telling them that He would not give them the answer they were looking for. God told them how their ancestors time and again rebelled against Him, choosing to worship idols rather than dedicating themselves to God alone. They wished to be like the people around them so they worshiped idols and sacrificed their children. I was going somewhere else with this, but as I wrote that last sentence I realized that is the message for us today. Do we wish to be like the people around us?
Well, God has an answer for that. The people of God will never be like the people around them. They may try, they may even go so far as to worship idols like those around them, perhaps they will even offer their children as sacrifices to those idols. However, God will purge His people of those who do such things. He will use His strong arm to cause us to abandon such idolatry. Those who seek to be like the people around us will be purged from God’s people. We are God’s people and He calls us to be different from those around us. Let us live lives so that those who do not follow God will see that we are different. That God has transformed us. If we are not different than the people around us, why should they wish to join with us?
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. In order to make that possible I read the passages and write my thoughts a day in advance. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them.
Some of the elders of the people of Israel came to Ezekiel to ask him to inquire of God on their behalf. Ezekiel condemned them for following in the sinful footsteps of their ancestors. He gave a list of the sins of their ancestors and suggested that the people of the current generation intended to practice those same sins. Then he tells them the root of all of their sins, they want to be like the peoples around them, the peoples of the world. All too often that is the sin that we fall into. We do not want to be different. We want to be just like everybody else. So, instead of doing the things which God tells us to do, we commit the same sins that those around us commit.
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I will strive to live my life by the philosophy that if following God’s will makes me stand out from the crowd, so be it. The only way to be a Christian and not stand out from the crowd is to convince others to follow God’s will too.
The law of the first covenant required that nearly all of the parts of the Tabernacle be cleansed with the blood of animals. However, the Tabernacle and everything in it were mere copies of things in heaven. Christ did not enter a holy place made with human hands that was a copy of the one in heaven, rather He entered into heaven itself. As a result He needed a sacrifice that was better than the blood of animals and thus offered up His own blood in sacrifice. He did not need to do this time and again as the high priests of the first covenant did. Instead He offered Himself up once and for all to take away our sins. This happened but once so that when He returns it will not be to offer Himself up again, but will be to welcome into heaven itself those who have accepted His cleansing.
The psalmist challenges us to tell others of how the Lord has redeemed us. We all have different stories to tell. Some of us were lost and homeless, some were near onto death. Some of us were in darkness and gloom, some were imprisoned in misery. Some of us were fools and rebelled against God and suffered for our rebellion. Some faced dangers in far away lands. Some were like this young man, at their wits end. But just like this man, when we cried out to God, He heard our cries and He answered us.
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I hope you followed that link and watched the video (if you have not already seen it). I was going to summarize the story, but it is better if you watch the video for yourself. However, I will say this, the young man cried out to God for help, not truly believing there was a God, and God answered him in a way that makes it impossible for him to ever doubt that God is real.
I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I am sorry if my posts are not posted in a timely fashion for the next little while. Well, I have my power back, but I am still not able to get online in my normal routine because my Internet service has not been restored. I am able to post by using either the Internet at a friend’s house or by going to someplace that has free Wifi access. I am going to try to get something closer to my normal routine by writing down the passages for the next day and writing the blog offline. In addition, I usually compose these on my desktop PC and typing them on my laptop is a different experience. Please bear with me until I get back into my usual routine.
Leaders of the people of Israel in exile came to Ezekiel seeking a message from the Lord. Ezekiel condemns them telling them that the people of Israel have turned from God to worship idols generation after generation. They continued to turn to the idols of those around them, refusing to follow the Lord’s commands. They refused to follow the Lord’s commands even though those commands led to long life and happiness. Time and again God made plans to destroy them, but held back in order to glorify His name throughout the earth. Time and again the people of Israel turned back to idols as soon as the crisis was past and sacrificed their children in the fire. Ezekiel tells the leaders who came to him that they were still worshiping idols, they were still offering their children to the fire.
Ezekiel tells them to go right ahead and continue to worship the idols and offer their children as sacrifices to those idols, but sooner or later, they would turn to God and obey Him. When God brings them back to Him, they will be ashamed of their sinful ways and hate themselves for the evil they have done. As I have read the book of Ezekiel, and to some degree the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah before it, I cannot help but see the way that our culture practices abortion in the same light as the child sacrifice that Ezekiel condemns. The one thing I am seeing is that the child sacrifice, and abortion today, were not so much the terrible sin as it was a symptom of the terrible sin. Abortion is a sin, but stopping abortion would not stop the sin that is at the root. The root sin is idolatry. It is the worship of self and selfish desires. We do not need to change the laws on abortion if we change the attitudes of those who have abortion and promote abortion. Let us as Christians stop trying to fix the country by changing the political situation and focus on bringing individuals to know and follow the Lord. If we seek first the Kingdom of God, all these other things will follow. Christ’s Kingdom is not of this world, let us stop acting if this world is our kingdom.
Christ has become the High Priest over all good things. He has entered into the perfect Tabernacle that is in Heaven. A tabernacle not made with human hands and not part of this created world. He entered, not by the blood of goats and calves, but once, for all time, by His own blood so that our redemption might be secured forever. By His own blood Christ has become the mediator between God and man under the new covenant. He set us free from the penalty for the sins we committed under the old covenant so that now we can receive the inheritance of eternal life.
Christ did not enter the heavenly tabernacle to offer Himself again and again, as was done with the sacrifices in the earthly tabernacle. Instead He has offered Himself once for all time with His death on the cross. By doing so, He has removed sin from all who accept His sacrifice on their behalf.
I could be wrong, but in the author’s emphasis on the fact that Christ died once for all time I see a refutation of those who might have wanted to attach the Easter story to the Spring rebirth myths of various pagan mythologies wherein some god, or goddess, dies each year (either figuratively by going to the Kingdom of the dead, or literally) and then is reborn/resurrected. I think in this emphasis the author was saying that the story of Christ is not part of the Cycle of Life or connected to the cycle of seasons, which it would very readily lend itself to.
I will definitely give thanks to the Lord for He is good. He has redeemed me and I will speak out. Some were lost and homeless, suffering from hunger and thirst. When they cried out to the Lord for help He answered. That was not me. Some sat in darkness and gloom, rejecting the Word of God. God broke them by showing them the hard work of this life when nothing means anything. When they cried out to the Lord, He heard them and showed them joy. I am not sure that my experience fits what the psalmist is talking about here, but those words describe what I experienced. I struggled to know whether or not God was real. I could find nothing to satisfy my logic and I cried out to the Lord to show me the evidence. He told me, “Have faith.” That wasn’t what I wanted to hear, so I looked for something more. As time went by I became more and more depressed. If there was no God, what was the point. Life is hard work and I am lazy. The only thing that kept me from suicide was the pain it would have caused my mother. Once more I cried out to the Lord, “Show me that you are real.” Again He replied, “Have faith in Me. What do you have to lose?” This time I got it. I said to myself, “Life without God is intolerable. I cannot go on living if there is no God. I will live my life from here forward as if He is real and has revealed His will in the Bible.” Soon after things began to happen that proved to me that God is real. Now, I know that God is real and that the Bible is His revelation of how He wants us to live. Since that decision to have faith the proof has come, but the faith came first.
