Happy Thanksgiving

Ladies and Gents, Playa's and Pimps have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving and please tell your family that the Glenn Family says hello.  It is neat that we have now been friends for at least 10 years now.  I feel like I have known you all forever and love every minute of it, especially coming out of our rooms in tightie-whities ready to rumble with our main man Goldberg.  I love you guys, look forward to visiting.

I really do cherish our friendships and hate to hell that we can't spend more time together.

w

Vayikra (Leviticus in Hebrew)

Can I just take you all to the place where things came together in a heavy way for me. By heavy I mean the weight of glory. By glory I mean God's presence, and boy do I really not "get it".
It is very easy to answer or regurgitate "God's glory",...blah, blah, blah, right? I totally am not at present in a spiritual place where this weight holds me down to worship. And I think it should. Not the manifestation of the Glory, just the idea.
Moses, Aaron and his sons are in the front of the tent of meeting. Moses says, "This is the thing which the LORD has commanded you to do, that the glory of the LORD may appear to you". By the way this is all the way up in chapter 9. However, it is the purpose for the all laws previously stated regarding sacrifice and offering. The end of chapter 9 states, "...when all the people saw it [glory], they shouted and fell on their faces." What the hell did they see? I can tell you some visible ways God has caused people to get down before him. A.K.A. - burning bush, mighty angels, all consuming mountain fire. Again, I digress.
Where I find myself not fitting in is, the understanding of coming before my LORD. These high priest brought the Presence of the LORD to the people, you'll read. So I am trying to figure out how my High Priest, Jesus, is doing this for me. Then comes the truth, crystal clear and ringing in my hollowed head like a shout in the Grand Canyon. The people came and followed Moses and Aaron. The presence was not a 24/7 ongoing experience for the Israelite. The LORD was always represented in the form of high priests and sacrifices, but His glory he reserved for when he wanted it revealed. Like a miracle of Jesus, gift of the Holy Spirit, or vision from the prophets the weight of the glory of God comes when He wishes to administer it to His people.
So as we read, we wait. A week. A year. A lifetime? I have already read and experienced enough of God's grace to be saved and acknowledge Him as God. There is nothing else I must have. He will never owe me any glimpse of Light. But still he lavishes His truth to those who do not suppress the knowledge of God.
I think I am learning about how to worship God again. Not to mean I understand worship. But I do mean that I have a sacrifice to bring, a Christ to follow and a God whose glory I long to shout and fall over for. So I'll wait, until He desires to rush in and crash into me.

wheww...
B

First Post Ever

I am trying this out for the first time. I did my reading and have to agree with the other posts that there is repetition to show how important it is for us to be holy when coming before our Lord. There is sooooo much of the same when it comes to the sacrifices and I am super glad that we can have the freedom to just ask for forgiveness. We truly are blessed to have our spiritual freedom, but it is too easy to just ignore the blessings we have.
Liebs

Worship

Chapters 2 & 3 seem to be a repetitious continuation of God's instruction on worship.  But, I think there is something more, I think God is teaching us that there are many ways to connect and communicate with Him.

Our worship should not be mundane, repetitive or half-hearted but the act of worship is a combination of many different elements.  In order to approach the throne we must be presented as holy before the Lord (thankfully, confession has replaced animal sacrifice) and Christ has fulfilled those requirements for us.  We have full access to God and our time of worship should be spent meditating on who God is and what he has done.  It is so easy to fall into a rut of focusing on our own struggles, wants and needs.  Our worship has good intentions but it ends up being all about "ME".  The very act of worship should be "God focused" and a reflection/meditation on the very nature/character of God.  

The fellowship offering is a clear indication of how we are able to connect to the Father.  Our God is unlike any other.  He desires intimacy with his people.  He is a God of blessing, promise, forgiveness and acceptance.  How often do you reflect upon his goodness and show gratitude? God doesn't ask much of us but it is amazing how little we give him. Worship is not about us, it's about Christ Alone.

w

The HOLY Place

The tent of meetings. The Holy of Holies.  The place God resides.  God is a holy and just God, without blemish, stain or sin yet willing to pursue a filthy people who are disobedient and selfish.  Why would God put up with our arrogance?  Why would he allow a group of self-righteous individuals to proclaim his name?  

Leviticus makes it clear that the right to proclaim the name of the Lord comes at a cost = sacrifice.  The Same is true today.  We may not slaughter living animals but we are told to take up our cross and lay down our lives.  The very word sacrifice indicates letting go of something of value.  How is it that we have come so far in our casual approach to God that even reading about true sacrifice seems so foreign?  The animal or grain used in these sacrifices was the most valuable asset they possessed.  Not only were they willing to lay it down before the Lord but they had no back up resource to replace them.  Trust, Faith and belief were the driving forces behind their sacrifice.  

What was the last sacrifice you made for the Lord?  Is waking up thirty minutes early the best we have to offer?  God demands our all.  The life of the sacrifice was taken, blood was shed.  The sacrifice was complete.  The individual no longer had access to the asset.  He had to LET GO completely.  What is so valuable that we will not let go.  We cling to so many areas of our life and wonder why God is not responding to our prayers.  God demands our best and complete sacrifice.

w

Public Enemy

I have read through chapter 7 now. Sorry to over achieve. I do not understand what is meant by, "do not write in thoughts". I re-read and I can only see that there might be grammatical error, sorry. I will try harder, that's what Israel said. Ha!
So, chapters 5-7 are a bit redundant at first glance it would seem. One reason I say "at first glance" is because I am certain that a more learned person would disagree. Also because as I, a less learned person, read there was some cool continuity. While the writings of Leviticus seem to go back and forth between types of offerings or who it is speaking: priests, common folk or Moses, I gather the repetition is for emphasis. I like the verse in chapter seven that hints at the purpose of the last several sections.

"This is the law of the burnt offering, the grain offering, and the sin offering and the guilt offering and the ordination offering and the sacrifice of peace offerings, which the LORD commanded Moses at Mt. Sinai in the day that He commanded the sons of Israel to present their offerings to the LORD in the wilderness."

Just so we get a general idea about the area, here is where things took place that were commanded in Leviticus. The writing of the book may have happened elsewhere as they lived by oral tradition until the writings could be accurately recorded. Though, not too long afterward. I digress...

The reason I titled my post as I did was regarding the idea, that I saw, about bringing sin to light. As you read these chapters notice what the LORD has his people do when they realize they are in sin intentionally or unintentionally. They are to go then and do the obedient thing, which is offering and sacrifice. The great thing, I think, is that it is done publicly and there are consequences. However, this is how great God's relationship is with His people. He casts away sinful people until atonement is made. This is such a huge, anti-cultural idea both then and now. Other nations/cultures then could not get their heads around God dealing personally with His people or interacting with them. Albeit through human priests in Old Testament times. It is so amazing to see the way God uses His purposes to have his people stand apart. I see in reading this that when an Israelite had to confess, clean up and bring the offerings for sacrifice the public nature shows the connection to the community as well as the demand for purity not to be forgotten.
God has and is always acting on behalf of purity and holiness first, then on behalf of restoring relationship with broken people. It is a beautiful thing.

Ramblings over, thoughts...? (Please tell me if anything is unclear or if I might be wrong about a certain view.)

See, if your not careful you will have typo's. 

Here I am a first time blogger and feeling very uncomfortable.  I know, it will get easier, but that's what she said and she is right.  

Let's get this party started right.  We are covering three chapters a week so this week is 1-3 and B the over achiever/unemployed has already covered 4.  John I hope your trip to Cincy was swell and I am excited to hear about what you learned.  Liebs, technology is a wonderful thing, join us!!!!!

PS - please write in a way that we can understand.  Use grammar and punctuation.  Write in sentences not thoughts.  I'm not picking on BJ but for heaven's sack reread your posts.

W

Offerings: Peace to Sin

I found the first 4 chapters of the book quite punctuated with the theme atonement. Now, since we all know that, I wonder if we can also agree that the perspective of atonement from God's children in these passage might seem/feel very encompassing. As in, God is actively working to make sure that His people will all have access to full atonement. I think it is interesting to see the sacrifice move from burnt offerings to grain, from grain to peace and from peace to sin. Also within each set of strict guidelines there is a way for poor or rich to come. In the first chapter he moves down from bulls all the way to a bird. Who could not get a bird is the point I gather. From this there stems the idea that all need to bring offering to God. One, because he asks and is worthy. And Two, because we are all in need of what He offers. Past this idea of general offering for offering sake I see the differentiation in having peace with God and being viewed as righteous by God, even if only for a moment as an Israelite.
I think further reading will help to illuminate what I expect to find in the differences between offerings of spiritual atonement and offerings of law. Which is why, I think, Jesus came to fulfill the law not abolish it. Glad to chat. Thoughts...?

Leviticus and Me

Well I am the first to write. Now we can easily keep up, and post our thoughts, about how God is working in our lives and hopefully reinvest in each other through the study of our Holy literature.

love you guys