February 17 - Leviticus 4:1-6:30

Good morning everyone,

Well, there is a lot to take in and glean from in this morning’s scripture. One of the things that got my attention is, and it is repeated over and over, “ If _____ sins, bring to the Lord a sin offering.” It begs the question; who does not sin? Especially when, and this brings me to another  one of many verses that really caught my attention, 5:1 “If anyone sins because they do not speak up when they hear a public charge to testify regarding something they have seen or learned about”. This is the sin of omission, that is to say that just because you are not the one who took the candy from the candy store, you may not even share in the bounty from the candy store but if you know who did and withhold that information, you are just as guilty as they are. 

Today we read of unintentional sins, unfaithful to God sins, many different kinds of sins rewiring many sacrifices; how does that translate into today’s world? Well, the ways are countless especially with the media offering up so many mind stimulants. Sometimes I will find myself jumping on someone’s bandwagon against something, anything that I really don’t feel as strongly as they do about or in some cases have no feelings about at all. Shaking my mental fist, yelling my mental “that’s right!! Get em!!” and will be just a breath away from pushing that “thumbs up like button” when I realize I don’t even know the facts, or, despite how I personally feel about the leaders we have elected, they are in fact our leaders and the Bible calls us to support them. The point is sometimes I do, you do, we all have allowed the enemy to let us “think” things that are not appropriate. Sinful things. Sin isn’t always necessarily a visible act, it can and probably most often is, in the mind either my actual, your actual thought or one of omission. Romans 3:23 “we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Now, having said that, I can only imagine the line of people with their bulls, rams or bird cages in hands, headed down the road to make sacrifices for their sins. 

The act of taking another life, even if just a sacrificial animal, for me, and for most of us I would imagine, is not an easy thing to do. We have a small cattle ranch and every year we call the butcher to come out to “take down”, that is to kill, our two year old bulls or steers to put in someone’s freezer. It is our food, they are raised with this in mind, but I am here to tell you that many years ago, the very first time I witnessed this, and I have not watched one since, that I do believe my heart stopped for just a moment. As I write this I am brought to tears at how insane it felt to me that, in one moment I had my eyes on a healthy, innocent, breathing creation of God who had no idea that in a few short moments he would draw his last breath. In the blink if an eye and the sound of a shot he laid limp on the ground, his heart no longer beating a rhythmic sound, his life was snatched away. I audibly gasped, and had to turn my head. It was in that moment I realized just how quickly and easily anyone of us could, by car accident, a falling object, or really by anything and everything unpredictable, suddenly as loose our lives too, we have no time guarantees here.

I had been exposed to death before by illness or old age but never intentional death. The is what the Israelites were doing day after day, year after year and then … then there was Jesus. People, how enormous, how huge, how special, the sacrifice Christ made for us can not be adequately put into words. We will never, ever be able to thoroughly comprehend or grasp the pain, the suffering, the humiliation the Son of God went through on our behalf; and for what? Because He had to? No! Because He loves us so much He willingly gave up His life so that we could have a relationship with God, so that we can spend eternity in heaven. You guys, we all need to really get this! If the price to get into heaven is the blood of the Lamb, the life of the Son of God, and you need to know that it is, then heaven has got to be a super awesome place! Yes?! You can count me in, for sure. He wants you there too. 

Do you know Jesus to be your personal Savior? Or, if you do, have you talked to Him lately? Revelation 3:20 says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me”, like friends. He loves you and He wants to be your friend.

There is a song that echoes my thoughts, “Oh, how I love Jesus! Oh, how I love Jesus! Oh how I love Jesus, because He first loved me.” Amen …

I pray you have a great day. To God be the glory.

God bless you all …