11Feb/100

Week 6 Day 4 – Give it All, 10% is a Good Start

Leviticus 27:1-34

This chapter is dealing with special vows that are made to the Lord as a demonstration of extreme devotion and dedication. These vows are in no way demanded by the Law. However, God does take vows very seriously. This whole chapter could be summarized like this, "You don’t have to give special offerings to God and make over and above commitments to God...but if you do, you had better follow through with them. God does not take promises lightly."

Here’s the part of the chapter that may be lost to the contemporary reader. In vv. 30-33 God clarifies something. He says that you cannot dedicate your firstborn or your first 10% of your crops and income. Why is that? Does God not want our best? Yes, of course He does. The point is that you cannot dedicate it to God because...YOU’VE ALREADY GIVEN IT. The tithe BELONGS to the Lord.

OK hold it right there. As American Christians we have bought into the idea that tithing (giving 10% of all that we have) to God is an optional act. In our minds we feel like we are really stepping out in faith when we work our way up to a 10% giving level. Read this passage again. The 10% belongs to God; it isn’t yours to choose to give or not to give. If we follow this to its logical conclusion then we could say that by not giving our 10% to God we are actually stealing from Him by withholding from Him what belongs to Him. Yikes! How many times have we heard that preached? By even writing these words I am risking being accused of legalism and emotional extortion. Yet, that is what this chapter is teaching.

Why is giving so hard for us? Why do we hold back from God? Bottom line...its a trust issue. We don’t believe that God is the one who provides our needs. We don’t believe that this is His Kingdom and that everything we "own" actually belongs to Him and He is letting us use it. If we would just let go of the notion that we can own anything and that we can control our own destiny through economic or political manipulation, we would be free of worry and be able to operate, every moment, in the peace of God that passes all understanding.

It’s true; you do not have to give big offerings to God. You do not have to take a vow of poverty and shave your head. Some may be compelled to do so. If so, they had better follow through. For the rest of us, we need to remember that the 10% issue is a matter of ownership. It’s not yours, it’s God’s.

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10Feb/100

Week 6 Day 3 – Creating Space for Perspective

Leviticus 23:1-25:55

The value of our times seems to be this: "work hard all the time so that you can earn money and afford to buy all the stuff you want that will make you happy. You earned it, its yours." How did you feel when you read chapters 23-25? In the 50th year all property was to be returned?!? How preposterous. What’s the point of buying and selling land if you can’t keep it? Exactly.

There are two lessons to keep in mind from today’s reading. God set aside special days in the yearly cycle of His people in order to force them to stop, take a deep breath, and reflect on the nature of reality. Notice how He forced them to do things on these festivals that go against basic human nature. They were called upon to make sacrifices, confess their sins, stop working, and live in simple tents. Why? Because God knew that the natural human tendency is to buy into the notion that it is through our own hard work that we are worth anything. God says, "Stop it!" you need to just sit down and take a look around. Who is God here? You need to rest, enjoy my creation, and stop thinking that the fate of the world rests in your hands.

1. As Christians we are no longer bound by the strict religious calendar. Especially in Protestant traditions we have completely lost sight of the fact that there is a natural flow to the year. There are seasons of intense work and then there are seasons of rest, reflection, worship, and celebration. Perhaps it would do us well to follow a simple plan of "creating space for perspective"

Daily: Take time to breathe deeply and meditate on the fact that God is in control and you are not.

Weekly: Take a Sabbath day to worship God and fellowship with your spiritual community.

Seasonally: Observe the seasonal flow of the year and take advantage of Holy-days like Christmas, Easter, and Summer vacation! If you want to last for the long haul in an effective life of ministry, it would do you well to allow yourself to slow down in these seasons and rest.

2. The second lesson has to do with property. We think that we actually own things. We spend a great deal of time and energy acquiring things, protecting things, and maintaining things. For what? So that when we die we can do what with them again? Oh yes...nothing! The sooner we can grasp the idea that EVERYTHING belongs to the Lord and that we are nothing more than stewards of what He has chosen to give us, the sooner we can get on with living in the Kingdom of Heaven.

Did you catch in the previous chapters the notion of the gleanings? (19:9-10) The people who had the crops were only supposed to run through the fields one time for the harvest. Anything that was left over belonged to the poor. In that way everyone was taken care of in the community, regardless of their wealth. Can you imagine if everyone in our world did not consider their own property their own, but took it upon themselves to make sure that everyone had enough to eat? It would be a very different world.

Take some time and examine your own life. Are you taking time to breathe and step off the rat wheel of "success" in our culture? Do you view your property as God’s and not your own? Are you hoarding your "hard earned" treasures for yourself, or are you allowing the "gleanings" to go to the poor?

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9Feb/100

Week 6 Day 2 – Be Holy

Leviticus 19:1-37

In Leviticus 19 we come to the heart of the matter. What does God really want from His people? Does He want them to become enslaved to the tedium of ritual law, frozen in petrified ineptness? No. What God wants is holiness.

This statement begs the question, "What is holiness?" When we think of holiness we tend to think of it as synonymous with perfection. The Hebrew word translated "holy" is the word Kadosh. In the Septuagint (Greek translation of the Old Testament) and in the New Testament the word translated "holy" is hagios. In both languages the word means "to be set apart for a specific purpose."

That is what God wants from His people. He doesn’t want them to be perfect by following external rituals. Everyone knows that you can go through the motions on the outside and not be authentically present on the inside. God is not after the externals, He is after the heart. A holy heart is a heart that has been called out from the kingdom and the ways of the world and has committed itself to focus on the Kingdom of God. A heart that is holy will automatically modify the external behaviors. The term "sanctification" is hagiazo, which is the verbal form of hagia. In other words, to be sanctified is the process of being set apart and transformed into the image of God.

When Jesus came He said in Matthew 5 that He did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it. He did abolish the tedious external laws, because those had become the idol of the Pharisees. They thought they would be made holy by observing a list of "do’s" and "don’ts". Jesus did not abolish the Law, He intensified it.

He said in Matthew 22:37-40, "‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

Do you see how the entire book of Leviticus is summarized in these three verses? Leviticus 1-10 is all about loving God through sacrifices. Leviticus 11-27 is all about loving your neighbor.

How can we be holy? We can understand that God has called us out of the world for the purpose of knowing Him, being filled by Him, and overflowing with His presence in love for the world around us.

With that understanding of holiness in mind, read the following New Testament verses and see if they have new meaning for you.

1 Corinthians 1:2

To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified

[being made holy] in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

Ephesians 1:4

For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.

Hebrews 12:14

Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.

1 Peter 1:15

But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: "Be holy, because I am holy."

1 Peter 2:5

you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

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8Feb/100

Week 6 Day 1 – Healthy Sexuality

Leviticus 15:1-33, 18:1-30

Sex sells. It is the American way. Americans will use sexuality to sell just about anything. Think about this for a minute. What does a scantily clad woman really have to do with a car? Is she an expert on its fuel efficiency or horsepower? Is she a mechanic? The model hired to sprawl over the hood -- probably not. So why is she there? She’s there because the typical American male has given in to his animal-like sexuality. In fact, in our culture we have even exalted this type of voyeuristic and consumerist sexuality as the norm and as good.

When it comes to sexuality there seem to be two camps. On one side we have the pin-up girl, free-love, recreational, voyeuristic, barn-yard sexuality where women are sex objects and men are competing to be the alpha male. In the other camp there is the "Victorian" approach to sexuality. Somewhere along the line the church bought into the notion that sexuality was dirty and evil. The church has clung to the notion that spiritual things are good and physical things are bad. Since sex is one of the most physical things humans can do, it was seen as debase and obscene.

Unfortunately, most Christians are very confused in this area which has led to a great deal of emotional pain and confusion. Much of the confusion about sexuality has come from a misunderstanding of passages like we find in Leviticus 15 and 18. Upon first reading it sounds like God is saying that sex is bad and that if you do it you will be "unclean."

Within the confines of the covenant relationship of marriage, sex is a beautiful and ordained gift from God. It was meant to be enjoyed. However, outside of the confines of a covenant relationship (e.g. Lev. chapter 18...sheep? hello!) sex can be one of the most emotionally, physically, and spiritually devastating experiences in a person’s life.

Sexuality is sacred to God. That is why sexuality is under such intense attack in our culture. If culture sees sex as nothing more than a recreational pastime, then we will be destroyed by the damaging effects of promiscuity. If the church is convinced that sex is "dirty" and a desire to be suppressed or overcome, then good marriages will be destroyed and Christians will be attacked by shame, leaving them wounded in the battle.

How are you doing in this area? Are there past experiences that haunt you and keep you from being positive and healthy in your current place? What are you doing to get free from the shame that you are heaping on yourself?

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5Feb/100

Week 5 Day 5 – Infection in the Camp

Leviticus 12:1-14:57

In the middle of this passage of Leviticus which deals with the very physical reality of infection in the camp of Israel, there is a spiritual lesson to be learned for the church of today. Infection has disastrous effects on the community. In the OldTestament, physical infection represented sin in the minds of the people. If a person, clothing, or a house, had become infected, it had to be isolated from the Tabernacle (worship of God) and the community (fellowship). If the infection never went away then the infected person essentially became the "living dead" and would have to stay outside the camp, in complete isolation, crying out "unclean, unclean." While this seems like cruel and unusual punishment, we must remember that the person was not necessarily being made to pay for their own personal sin. Rather, they were a living testimony to the reality of the infection of sin and its effects on worship and community.

Sin isolates. There are just no two ways around it. Today, when we allow sin to creep into our lives, we are infected. When this infection is detected by the priest (we are all priests...remember) it is the duty of the priest to take drastic action to isolate the infection and get rid of it. What would have happened if the priests in Moses’ camp had just let the infection slide out of "grace and compassion"? The tabernacle would have been defiled, God would have been dishonored, and the infection would have spread like wildfire throughout the camp, perhaps killing everyone. So it is with sin. Sin in the camp of God is serious business. It is a spiritual infection that goes way deeper than any skin disease, it worms its way into the soul of a person and kills him with eternal death. Sin must be identified and isolated.

Is that where it stops? Should we just take anyone who is a "sinner" and throw them out of the camp? Not at all. Yes, we must isolate the sin. We must not deal lightly with sin. We must isolate it, but then we must wait "seven days" and see if the infection is gone. In the Old Testament the number seven was a symbol of perfection. It was God’s number. It is during those "seven days" of isolation when the healing can take place. When there is sin in the camp, it is not God’s desire to punish the sinner. God loves the sinner. Yet, sin isolates. Sin cannot come into the presence of God. If it does it throws the whole worshipping community into chaos. God loves the sinner, but He hates the sin that isolates His child from Him. The purpose of the isolation is not punishment, the purpose is healing. If after seven days the person returns and is found to be without infection, if the sin is gone, then they can be reinstated into proper worship of God and fellowship with the community. They must make their sacrifices, shave their head, wash from head to foot, and then they are back.

When we sin, it takes some doing to get back into the swing of things. We need to sacrifice ourselves before God again. We need to ask God to forgive us for our sin. We need to humbly stand before the community and seek forgiveness and restitution. We must be cleansed with the Spirit of God. Then we will be renewed. Never again will that sin have effect on our worship and our fellowship. We are clean. God doesn’t hold it against us. The community doesn’t hold it against us.

Do you see the point here? It’s not that God delights in punishing us for sin and sits around waiting to zap anyone who steps out of line. The natural effects of sin are the punishment in themselves. When you sin you are hurting yourself and everyone else in your community. You are disrupting your relationship and open worship of God. You are dishonoring His name. You are jeopardizing the health of the community. That sin must be isolated or else everyone, starting with you, is going down. As a community we cannot allow sin to fester in our people. We must deal with it quickly, speak the truth about it, isolate it, repent of it, get healed from it, seek forgiveness, make restitution, and experience the cleansing power of God once again. Too many times, in our Christian perspective, in light of Grace, we think that sin is no big deal and that God will just forgive us automatically. That’s not how it works. Grace happened in the fact that God made the once-for-all atoning sacrifice for our sins and made it possible for all people to enter into His presence without a human mediator. That didn’t wipe out the effects of sin in our day-to-day lives. Sin is a nasty infection. It must be dealt with in truth and in love.

What infection do you have today? Is there cherished sin that you hold on to? Perhaps you struggle with lust and private fantasy in your thought life. Perhaps you harbor resentment or bitterness toward someone. Perhaps there is an act that you have done in secret that haunts you. Perhaps you have an addiction that seems "safe and harmless" but hangs around your neck like a 100 pound chain. That infection is destroying your fellowship with God and your fellowship with others. Oh, you may be able to go through the churchy motions, but deep down inside you know you are already standing outside the camp screaming "unclean, unclean". Remember that Jesus went outside the camp. He touched the unclean one and said, you, too, can be forgiven. God loves you. He does not want you to suffer from this infection. Your community loves you. If you want to be clean, here’s’ what you need to do.

Find at least one godly person who will sit down with you and listen.
Verbally name the sin and confess to that person that you have been committing that sin.
Pray, verbally, with that person and ask God to forgive you for the sin.
Commit to God that it is your desire to not go back to that sin in your life.
Verbally speak the name of Jesus and claim that it is through His blood sacrifice that you have been forgiven and through the power of the Holy Spirit that you can be set free from your sin.
Ask God, verbally, to give you the strength to move away from that sin.
Ask the person to hold you accountable through regular follow-up conversations to not repeating that sin.
Make any restitution to offended people that need to be made.
Publicly, in the context of your true spiritual community, confess (not necessarily in the same level of detail as with the individual) that you have sinned and would like to re-enter a healthy relationship with the community.

If we, as the church, would function in this way, we could begin cleansing our camp, and the Spirit of God could be unleashed to do His work in us and through us.

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4Feb/100

Week 5 Day 4 – Bad Boys!

Leviticus 10:1-3

There are three thoughts for today.

1. God takes disobedience seriously. In our age of cheap-grace we often forget that the God who incinerated Aaron’s boys is the same God that we worship today. He has not become less holy or more tolerant of sin and disobedience. Fortunately, as Paul says in Romans 5:9, "God has poured out this all-consuming wrath onto His son Jesus in our place." Never lose sight of the enormity of God’s Grace and the severity of God’s holiness.

2. It’s God’s way or the Highway. What did the boys do wrong anyway? So they used the wrong fire, what’s the big deal? The New Bible Commentary has a good slant on this issue.

Unauthorised fire (1) is unexplained. The Hebrew (zara) means ‘strange’, ‘from outside’. Perhaps they took fire from outside the sanctuary instead of from the altar (cf. 16:12), as if to say, ‘Any fire will do’. Such fire would be unholy, unclean, ‘illicit’ (neb), and therefore, in the context of all that had gone on so meticulously up to this point, wantonly offensive. Their action with it was also usurping the role of the high priest, and therefore included presumption, or perhaps jealous impatience. Their behaviour was not just an accidental slip in a minor detail of ritual, but a cavalier disregard for the most serious meaning of the events they were part of. It is as if a Christian minister in the middle of celebrating the Holy Communion were to inject rites or objects associated with the occult.¹

We must remember that we don’t get to make up the rules. In our culture we have a sort of "Spirituality Smorgasbord" idea about approaching God. We walk up to the kaleidoscope of religions that sprinkle our cultural scene and choose a little of this and a little of that. "Oh, I really like the loving and kind God, I’ll take two of those. Ooh, I need to stay away from the wrath bar, I’m allergic. Ah, over here is tolerance, I’ll take three, please." Zap! Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. We don’t get to make God up, rather, our job is to figure out what God has revealed to us through scripture, what He expects from us, and then line up our lives with that. It’s HIS highway, not ours.

3. The leader’s job is to honor God. There is a profound and startling leadership lesson in this story. The priest’s job was to represent God to the people. He was the go-between. Notice what God’s indictment against the boys was all about. They did not honor God. The word translated "honor" is a rich Hebrew word, kabod, which means "to be heavy, be weighty, be grievous, be hard, be rich, be honourable, be glorious, be burdensome, be honoured."² When you are the representative of someone you carry an important responsibility to present an accurate picture of that person to others. When you represent the heavy weight of the glory of the Almighty God, you had better have your ducks in a row. God will not be mocked by flippancy or sloppy work on the part of the leaders of His church who feel that it is "no big deal" and want to just "let it slide". Being a minister of the gospel is a job that requires a sober mind. This doesn’t mean it has to be boring and like a funeral dirge. It does mean that the minister should think seriously before teaching people about God before he has done his homework. The minister needs to be sure that his cup is being filled with the authentic flame of God’s Spirit before he tries to light fires in other’s hearts.

Therein lays the real sin. The boys brought another fire. The original fire on the altar was started by God Himself, not by some guy in the back of the tabernacle with a bic lighter. Aaron’s boys thought they could fake it, and it would be OK. Not so. We, as ministers of the good news (all of us are ministers at some level, so you’re not off the hook) need to make sure that we are lighting our fires from the true flame of God’s Spirit, not from some humanly constructed spirituality that looks good, but has a faulty foundation.

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3Feb/100

Week 5 Day 3 – The Eternal Flame

Leviticus 6:8-13

In the introduction to the devotional this week we discussed the 5 different types of sacrifices that were to be brought to the tabernacle. We highlighted the fact that the burnt offering was a special offering, different than the other four, in that it was a blood offering designed to atone for the sins of the person. We discovered that Jesus is the burnt offering. Yesterday we also discussed the reason behind a burnt offering; God desires us to torch our physical desires and fixations and trust in His eternal Kingdom plan.

Today there is one more aspect of the burnt offering that will be helpful for us. God told the priests to make sure that the fire never went out on the altar. When the pillar of cloud moved and it was time to tear down the Tabernacle and migrate across the desert, the priests would take the embers of the fire and keep it burning until the new location could be established and the offerings resumed.

There is a deep truth in the fact that God required an eternal flame to burn at the door of His entrance.

Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins is eternal. We do not have to sacrifice Jesus over and over again in order to receive redemption from sin. The sacrifice has been made and we are reconciled to God...eternally.
The flame is a representation of the Spirit of God. The physical flames of the altar in the Tabernacle during the Old Testament have been exchanged for the spiritual flame of the Spirit of God in our hearts. Our bodies are the Tabernacle of God and His Spirit burning within us is the altar of sacrifice. The only way that we can worship God authentically and offer up our "stuff" to him as a burnt offering is if the Spirit of God is burning brightly within us.

This is the task of spiritual formation and the role of the Spiritual Disciplines in our lives. The Apostle Paul said in Galatians 6:8

The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

If we want to grow spiritually and be able to pass through the Tabernacle into the Holy of Holies, then it is vital that we focus on keeping the fire of the Spirit burning in our souls. I realize that it is a stretch to draw the analogy this far, but it may serve as a nice visual for us. Think of the Spiritual Disciplines as the process of keeping the fire burning. The priests had to remove the ashes from the fire, walk them out to the edge of the camp, come back and add logs to the fire, and then change into clean clothes. This ritual, tedious as it was, was an important part of the sacrificial system. In our lives the Spiritual Disciplines can seem to be tedious. That’s because sometimes they are. Yet, without the discipline of Bible Study, Prayer, Silence, Simplicity, Fasting, Worship, and Service, the fires of the altar would get choked out by the ashes of laziness and neglect.

The priests didn’t live to take out the ashes. They lived to keep the fire burning. Yet, without the ash removal there would be no flame. We do not live to be good spiritual-discipline-doers, we live to worship in the flame of the Spirit. Yet, without the disciplines in place to keep the ashes out, we will slowly kill the flame and the altar will become dull.

Let’s remember to ask God to light the fire in our hearts today and do our part to keep the flame of the Spirit burning brightly in our lives today.

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2Feb/100

Week 5 Day 2 – Sfumato!

We are starting a new book today. You may want to read the introduction to Leviticus

Leviticus 1:1-17

It is a very rare and wonderful occasion when my wife and I are able to take an actual overnight get away alone, without the kids. On one such occasion we were slowly browsing through the quaint shops of a little lakeside village in Minnesota and we happened into a little book store. As soon as I entered the shop the book began to call my name. It sounds strange, I know, but it was as if I was drawn directly to this book from across the shop. I followed this urge and walked right to the lonely white book on the bottom shelf, picked it up, and read the title, How to Think Like Leonardo Da Vinci. Without hesitation I knew I had to have this book, so I purchased it and began reading.

Being an artist and a lover of learning, Leonardo has always been one of my heroes. This book was marvelous. The author was also a Leonardo fan and had spent much of his life in the study of this great Renaissance thinker. Through the study of Leonardo’s life and writings, the author observed seven principles by which Leonardo lived, and through which he was able to unlock his creative genius.

So, what does that have to do with Leviticus 1? One of the principles that Leonardo lived by was what he called Sfumato! This is an Italian word that means "up in smoke." Say the word out loud in the best, expressive Italian accent you can muster...it’s just fun to say...Sfumato! The principle is based upon the realization that nothing in life is permanent. Things constantly change. Even the best and most wonderful things will eventually come to an end. You could be in the most wonderful, mutually edifying marriage relationship. You could even be married for 75 years. Yet, even that, as truly good as it was, will eventually end when one partner dies. Leonardo observed that most people spend their lives clinging on to things that won’t last. They believe that things like money, power, position, and pleasure will bring them great happiness. This observation makes great sense when we realize that Leonardo was living in Northern Italy during the time when the Medici family was ruling the financial and political climate. Even then, in the late 15th century people were chasing after and holding onto temporary things in an attempt to fill an eternal hole.

In light of this observation, Leonardo said that the only way to experience true freedom, peace, and creativity is to realize that everything in life is Sfumato! it will go "up in smoke." You think you have a sure thing and then, poof! it’s gone. Most people experience depression and despair because they have placed their assurances on these smoky shadows and have watched everything disappear in the puff.

So, if everything will go up in smoke, then where is the hope? Why should we put any effort into living at all? The answer to this is found in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. If we cling to the eternal Kingdom of God, and build our lives on the things that will not pass away, then we will know true peace. Leonardo’s practical principle was that we should do everything we do in life with the intensity of believing it is the most important thing in the world, but then step back and say, Sfumato! it doesn’t really matter. What was important about the project was the creative process of working on it, not the product itself. It was in the creative process itself that the image of God was being realized and the intersection between God and Man could take place.

So, the question still remains. What does this have to do with Leviticus chapter 1? The first half of Leviticus is all about burnt offerings. Why did God require burnt offerings from His people? Why did He ask each family to take their most prized bull, a real cash cow (literally), bring it to the altar, and then watch the entire thing be burned into a puff of smoke and ashes? I believe God was trying to connect His people, and us, to the principle of Sfumato! That bull, that thing that you think is so important, that thing that you think will provide for your family and bring security to your life, that thing is nothing more than a puff of smoke in light of eternity. As Christians we need to be willing to take all the things that we hold on to in this life -- our financial, relational, and emotional security -- and light them on fire. Yes, those things are necessary for living in the physical world. Yes, we need to be good stewards of them and work hard at them. But we also need to be able to authentically step back and say "Sfumato! God, I lay all these things on the altar. They came from you and they are for you. Take my stuff and burn it up if you want to. All I want to do is be obedient to you."

What are your "sacred cows" that you cling to; those things that you are just not willing to give up out of fear of being without them? God looks at you and says, "Do you trust me enough to lay that thing on the altar and strike the match?" Poof...Sfumato!

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