Old Testament
1. Nazarite vow..."either men or women,...setting themselves apart to the Lord in a special way." This vow required the man or woman to:
- Abstain from wine, wine vinegar, grapes, raisins, and according to some - alcohol and vinegar from alcohol
- Refrain from cutting the hair on one's head
- Avoid corpses and graves, even those of family members, and any structure which contains such
- The most "famous" Nazarite in the bible was Samson.
2. Blessing the people
- "May the Lord bless you and protect (keep) you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you .
May the Lord show you his favor (bless you)
and give you his peace.
- This should sound familiar...sounds like benediction at the end of Sunday morning service.
3. The Tabernacle is set up, anointed and set apart.
4. The furnishings, altar and utensils are also anointed and set apart. This section lists the dedication offerings brought by the leaders of each tribe of Israel at the time the altar was anointed.
5. Then...
- "Whenever Moses went into the Tabernacle to speak with the Lord, he heard the voice speaking to him from between the two cherubim above the Ark’s (of the Covenant)cover—the place of atonement—that rests on the Ark of the Covenant. The Lord spoke to him from there." The direct and unmistakeable voice of God...wow!
New Testament
6. Warnings about false teachers.
7. The widow's offering.
- We have all heard this verse used and much more often misused to get people to "dig deep and give (to me)." Especially by those TV evangelists.
- "For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on."
- This is not just about money to your favorite televangelist. At least, I don't think so. This goes back to the discussion about our hearts. This woman beleived so strongly in the message she was receiving and in the promise of God's blesings that she gave from her heart. And, she gave her heart...to God.
- Back at the beginning of this we talked about tithing. Tithe where you are fed, where you are spiritually nutured. And don't give just to get the numners in or for credit on your account with God. We give to God's house so that others can be nurtured. But our gift ultimately is to God.
8. Beware of false prophets...people claiming to be the Messiah.
- Remember Jim Jones ( of Jonestown) and David Koresh (Waco) and Move organization.
9. A few of the disciples want to know when this will happen. "What sign will show us that these things are about to be fulfilled?"
- They are still looking for the inside track.
- As usual Jesus doesn't give them a specific answer. History will continue in it's usual fashin. we will continue to hate, harm and kill each other.
- But our job, our goal in all this is to endure.
- "...But the one who endures to the end will be saved." If you hold on, if you stick with Jesus, you won't be sorry, you'll be saved.
Psalm
10. "But as for me, God will redeem my life."
11. "So don’t be dismayed when the wicked grow rich and their homes become ever more splendid. For when they die, they take nothing with them. Their wealth will not follow them into the grave."
12. We will all die, our bodies fade away...but what will happen to you after?
Proverbs
13. "The hopes of the godly result in happiness, but the expectations of the wicked come to nothing"
- I beleive this speaks to our eternal happiness.
See you next post...
Showing posts with label Tabernacle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tabernacle. Show all posts
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Numbers 4-5:31; Mark 12:18-37; Psalm 48:1-14; Proverbs 10:26 (New Living Translation)
Old Testament
1. The duties of the Kohanites, Gershonites, Merarites.
- Moving the Tabernacle. Keep Holy thigs holy, keep the sacred things sacred.
- Don't touch the holy things if that's not your job. You will be put to death. (this comes up later in the OlD Testament)
- Ministry of work. Not for priestly duties, but to do the heavy lifting for God. Shouldn't more of us be doing this? Everyone wants to be in charge. Wants to be up front and acknowledged. Who is left to do the grunt work?
- This thought may apply more to the New Testament for us, but are we spending too much time and effort wearing the cross, and not so much on bearing the Cross?
2. Unclean things banned from the camp.
3. Protecting marital faithfulness.
- "The husband will be innocent of any guilt in this matter, but his wife will be held accountable for her sin."
- Doesn't say anything about the man being unfaithful???? We will have to wait and see if this gets addressed.
New Testament
4. The Sadducees approach Jesus. The scripture clearly says that hese religious leaders did not beleive in resurrection. Strange that they would ask about what happens after the resurrection.
- Jesus' answer is that our earthly concepts of marriage and intimacy will change, be washed away with our "old selves". That all of these pleasures will be shared with God.
5. Sadducees- definition- Sadducees rejected oral Torah (first 5 books of bible), and created new interpretations based on a literal understanding of verses. In their personal lives this often meant an excessively stringent lifestyle from a Jewish perspective. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of, "an eye for an eye". The Jewish understanding for centuries was that the value of an eye was to be sought by the perpetrator rather than actually removing his eye too. In the Sadducees' view the law was to be taken literally, contrary to that traditional interpretation. From the point of view of the Pharisees, the Sadducees wished to change the Jewish understanding of the Torah.
6. The most important commandments...
- Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
- Only two commandments to worry about. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself. You know, if we could embody these two rules and nothing else, all the other commandments, and in fact, all of life would fall into place.
- Unfortunately, we are not whole-hearted. Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted and to set the captive free. We are not whole-hearted and we are not free.
- Our hearts are divided. We try to serve too many gods. Money, our ego, our career, our children. Don't you know people who would at least say that they would sacrifice anything and everything for any one of these things. Well, if we think we can make such a huge sacrifice to get ahead in our workplace, why can't we use that same single-mindedness to get to God?
- And love your neighbor as yourself? What would happen if you just thought of this phrase every time you were about to open your mouth to make a smart remark about someone? Or to speak about someone else in a not-so-flattering way? Or to gossip? Or just think before you said anything..."What if someone else were saying this about me? How would it make me feel when I found out?"
- Feeling convicted yet?
- Our hearts are broken, and we are not free. That's what Jesus came for, and why He should be living in our hearts all the time.
7. The people like Jesus' teaching. That's a problem for the Pharisees, the Saducees and as we talked about yesterday, the Herodians.
Psalm
8. "O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.." Even the Old Testament tells us we should meditate on things.
Proverbs
9. "Lazy people irritate their employers..."
See you next post...
1. The duties of the Kohanites, Gershonites, Merarites.
- Moving the Tabernacle. Keep Holy thigs holy, keep the sacred things sacred.
- Don't touch the holy things if that's not your job. You will be put to death. (this comes up later in the OlD Testament)
- Ministry of work. Not for priestly duties, but to do the heavy lifting for God. Shouldn't more of us be doing this? Everyone wants to be in charge. Wants to be up front and acknowledged. Who is left to do the grunt work?
- This thought may apply more to the New Testament for us, but are we spending too much time and effort wearing the cross, and not so much on bearing the Cross?
2. Unclean things banned from the camp.
3. Protecting marital faithfulness.
- "The husband will be innocent of any guilt in this matter, but his wife will be held accountable for her sin."
- Doesn't say anything about the man being unfaithful???? We will have to wait and see if this gets addressed.
New Testament
4. The Sadducees approach Jesus. The scripture clearly says that hese religious leaders did not beleive in resurrection. Strange that they would ask about what happens after the resurrection.
- Jesus' answer is that our earthly concepts of marriage and intimacy will change, be washed away with our "old selves". That all of these pleasures will be shared with God.
5. Sadducees- definition- Sadducees rejected oral Torah (first 5 books of bible), and created new interpretations based on a literal understanding of verses. In their personal lives this often meant an excessively stringent lifestyle from a Jewish perspective. An example of this differing approach is the interpretation of, "an eye for an eye". The Jewish understanding for centuries was that the value of an eye was to be sought by the perpetrator rather than actually removing his eye too. In the Sadducees' view the law was to be taken literally, contrary to that traditional interpretation. From the point of view of the Pharisees, the Sadducees wished to change the Jewish understanding of the Torah.
6. The most important commandments...
- Jesus replied, “The most important commandment is this: ‘Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.”
- Only two commandments to worry about. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbors as yourself. You know, if we could embody these two rules and nothing else, all the other commandments, and in fact, all of life would fall into place.
- Unfortunately, we are not whole-hearted. Jesus came to heal the broken-hearted and to set the captive free. We are not whole-hearted and we are not free.
- Our hearts are divided. We try to serve too many gods. Money, our ego, our career, our children. Don't you know people who would at least say that they would sacrifice anything and everything for any one of these things. Well, if we think we can make such a huge sacrifice to get ahead in our workplace, why can't we use that same single-mindedness to get to God?
- And love your neighbor as yourself? What would happen if you just thought of this phrase every time you were about to open your mouth to make a smart remark about someone? Or to speak about someone else in a not-so-flattering way? Or to gossip? Or just think before you said anything..."What if someone else were saying this about me? How would it make me feel when I found out?"
- Feeling convicted yet?
- Our hearts are broken, and we are not free. That's what Jesus came for, and why He should be living in our hearts all the time.
7. The people like Jesus' teaching. That's a problem for the Pharisees, the Saducees and as we talked about yesterday, the Herodians.
Psalm
8. "O God, we meditate on your unfailing love.." Even the Old Testament tells us we should meditate on things.
Proverbs
9. "Lazy people irritate their employers..."
See you next post...
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Numbers 2-3:51; Mark 11:27-12:17; Psalm 47:1-9; Proverbs 10:24-25 (New Living Translation)
Old testament
1. How to set up camp...around the Tabernacle.
2. How to organize the march.
3. Geneology of Aaron and Moses. Remember that Aaron had lsot 2 of his sons.
- The tribe of Levi will attend to the furnishings of the Tabernacle.
- The trobe of Levi will stand in for the firstborn of the Israelites who belong to God. They are consecrated by His destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians.
- The Levite number 22,000. The real firstborn males of the Israelites number 22,273.
- The extra are redeemed with a set price of silver to be paid to the Tabernacle.
New Testament
4. Mark has already established a theme with his first two stories. How can it be that Israel's faith, rooted in God's Old Testament revelation, had become futile and empty? What was it that had distorted in practice the beauty of the faith God Himself had revealed?
5. Empty authority.
- The chief priests and religious teachers had never commissioned or recognized Jesus, So they liked to think that He spoke without any real religious authority. This despite the fact that Jesus did speak as a Man with authority, unlike their official leaders. Jesus question to them showed how empty their "authority" was. The obvious answer, to anyone who has spiritual authority is that John's baptism derived ultimately from God. So anyone who exercises authority must refer to God and God's will in making his decisions.
6. Misuse of authority. (Parable of the evil farmers)
- Jesus told the parable of the person who prepared the land and planted a vineyard. The leaders realize that Jesus has spoken this parable against them, and became even more determined to arrest Him. They had not used their authority as God's agenst to serve Him at all! They had misused their authority, seeking only their own benefit. Their fathers had been willing to kill God's servants, the prophets, and now this generation was eager to kill His only Son!
7. Hipocrisy.
- The Pharisees and Herodians came to try to trap Jesus. The Herodians were a political party that beleived in accommodation with the Romans. To them Jesus seemed a dangerous revolutionary. Both these groups, usually opposed to each other, feared Jesus and hated Him passionately. His answer to their trap: Let Caesar have his things, but give God your heart.
- There it is again...give God your heart!
Psalm
Proverbs
8. "The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled; the hopes of the godly will be granted."
9. "When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation." A lasting foundation!
See you next post...
1. How to set up camp...around the Tabernacle.
2. How to organize the march.
3. Geneology of Aaron and Moses. Remember that Aaron had lsot 2 of his sons.
- The tribe of Levi will attend to the furnishings of the Tabernacle.
- The trobe of Levi will stand in for the firstborn of the Israelites who belong to God. They are consecrated by His destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians.
- The Levite number 22,000. The real firstborn males of the Israelites number 22,273.
- The extra are redeemed with a set price of silver to be paid to the Tabernacle.
New Testament
4. Mark has already established a theme with his first two stories. How can it be that Israel's faith, rooted in God's Old Testament revelation, had become futile and empty? What was it that had distorted in practice the beauty of the faith God Himself had revealed?
5. Empty authority.
- The chief priests and religious teachers had never commissioned or recognized Jesus, So they liked to think that He spoke without any real religious authority. This despite the fact that Jesus did speak as a Man with authority, unlike their official leaders. Jesus question to them showed how empty their "authority" was. The obvious answer, to anyone who has spiritual authority is that John's baptism derived ultimately from God. So anyone who exercises authority must refer to God and God's will in making his decisions.
6. Misuse of authority. (Parable of the evil farmers)
- Jesus told the parable of the person who prepared the land and planted a vineyard. The leaders realize that Jesus has spoken this parable against them, and became even more determined to arrest Him. They had not used their authority as God's agenst to serve Him at all! They had misused their authority, seeking only their own benefit. Their fathers had been willing to kill God's servants, the prophets, and now this generation was eager to kill His only Son!
7. Hipocrisy.
- The Pharisees and Herodians came to try to trap Jesus. The Herodians were a political party that beleived in accommodation with the Romans. To them Jesus seemed a dangerous revolutionary. Both these groups, usually opposed to each other, feared Jesus and hated Him passionately. His answer to their trap: Let Caesar have his things, but give God your heart.
- There it is again...give God your heart!
Psalm
Proverbs
8. "The fears of the wicked will be fulfilled; the hopes of the godly will be granted."
9. "When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation." A lasting foundation!
See you next post...
Friday, February 15, 2008
Exodus 39-40:38; Mark 1:1-28; Psalm 35:1-16; Proverbs 9:11-12 (New Living Translation)
Old Testament
1. The bible gives a lot of detai about the making of the Ark, Tabernacle, Tent, and clothing the priests.
- For many people this ranks right up there with reading the geneologies. I think we have so many specifics because God is establishing a culture with the children of Israel. And learning the details can lead us to understand the specifics of the will of God. For us Gentiles, these specific items and ornamentaions don't mean a lot. They are not part of our culture. But it's the ideas behind them that should strike a cord with us.
2. Each of the items mentioned has a specific meaning...for instance, pomegranates. Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 commandments of the Torah. However, the actual number of seeds varies with individual fruits. The pomegranate is one of the few images which appear on ancient coins of Judea as a holy symbol, and today many Torah scrolls are stored while not in use with a pair of decorative hollow silver "pomegranates " For the same reason, pomegranates are a motif found in Christian religious decoration. They are often woven into the fabric on vestments and liturgical hangings or wrought in metalwork.
3. The work is finished. Moses inspects it, and blesses the people.
4. The tabernacle is set up. And the Glory of the Lord fills it!
5. And the Lord led them---a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.
New Testament
6. We have finished the Gospel of Matthew, and begin the Gospel of Mark today.
7. The Gospel of Mark, is anonympous, but was attributed to Mark, a disciple of Peter.
8. Overview of Mark - It narrates the life of Jesus from John the Baptist to the Ascension. It concentrates particularly on the last week of his life. It very quickly describes Jesus as a heroic man of action, an exorcist, a healer and miracle worker. It calls him the Christ (the Greek translation of Messiah), the Son of Man, and the Son of God.
9. Mark begins with John, the Baptist (or baptizer). John had strange habits camel hair clothes, eating honey and locusts, living and preaching in the wilderness.
10. Interestingly, John is regarded as a preacher and ascetic regarded as a prophet by four religions: Christianity, Islam, Mandaeanism and the Bahá'í Faith.
11. John is the messenger (or forerunner, or precursor) of Jesus' coming.
12. John recognizes Jesus, and states his unworthiness. He baptises Jesus nonetheless.
13. The Holy Spirit escends on Jesus and compels Him to go into the wilderness, where He is tempted by the devil for 40 days. The wild animals and angels took care of Him.
14. John gets arrseted.
15. Jesus calls His first disciples...Simon, and his brother Andrew...the brother James and John. (Remember James and John's mother from Matthew...trying to get them seats next to Jesus.)
16. Jesus casts out evil spirits. Amazingly, the evil spirits recognize jesus as "the Holy One sent from God," but the rest of the audience doesn't know who He is. This is, according to Mark, the beginning of Jesus' fame.
Psalm
17. “Lord, who can compare with you? Who else rescues the helpless from the strong? Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?”
Proverbs
18. "Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life."
See you next post...
1. The bible gives a lot of detai about the making of the Ark, Tabernacle, Tent, and clothing the priests.
- For many people this ranks right up there with reading the geneologies. I think we have so many specifics because God is establishing a culture with the children of Israel. And learning the details can lead us to understand the specifics of the will of God. For us Gentiles, these specific items and ornamentaions don't mean a lot. They are not part of our culture. But it's the ideas behind them that should strike a cord with us.
2. Each of the items mentioned has a specific meaning...for instance, pomegranates. Jewish tradition teaches that the pomegranate is a symbol for righteousness, because it is said to have 613 seeds which corresponds with the 613 commandments of the Torah. However, the actual number of seeds varies with individual fruits. The pomegranate is one of the few images which appear on ancient coins of Judea as a holy symbol, and today many Torah scrolls are stored while not in use with a pair of decorative hollow silver "pomegranates " For the same reason, pomegranates are a motif found in Christian religious decoration. They are often woven into the fabric on vestments and liturgical hangings or wrought in metalwork.
3. The work is finished. Moses inspects it, and blesses the people.
4. The tabernacle is set up. And the Glory of the Lord fills it!
5. And the Lord led them---a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night.
New Testament
6. We have finished the Gospel of Matthew, and begin the Gospel of Mark today.
7. The Gospel of Mark, is anonympous, but was attributed to Mark, a disciple of Peter.
8. Overview of Mark - It narrates the life of Jesus from John the Baptist to the Ascension. It concentrates particularly on the last week of his life. It very quickly describes Jesus as a heroic man of action, an exorcist, a healer and miracle worker. It calls him the Christ (the Greek translation of Messiah), the Son of Man, and the Son of God.
9. Mark begins with John, the Baptist (or baptizer). John had strange habits camel hair clothes, eating honey and locusts, living and preaching in the wilderness.
10. Interestingly, John is regarded as a preacher and ascetic regarded as a prophet by four religions: Christianity, Islam, Mandaeanism and the Bahá'í Faith.
11. John is the messenger (or forerunner, or precursor) of Jesus' coming.
12. John recognizes Jesus, and states his unworthiness. He baptises Jesus nonetheless.
13. The Holy Spirit escends on Jesus and compels Him to go into the wilderness, where He is tempted by the devil for 40 days. The wild animals and angels took care of Him.
14. John gets arrseted.
15. Jesus calls His first disciples...Simon, and his brother Andrew...the brother James and John. (Remember James and John's mother from Matthew...trying to get them seats next to Jesus.)
16. Jesus casts out evil spirits. Amazingly, the evil spirits recognize jesus as "the Holy One sent from God," but the rest of the audience doesn't know who He is. This is, according to Mark, the beginning of Jesus' fame.
Psalm
17. “Lord, who can compare with you? Who else rescues the helpless from the strong? Who else protects the helpless and poor from those who rob them?”
Proverbs
18. "Wisdom will multiply your days and add years to your life."
See you next post...
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Exodus 35:10-36:38; Matthew 27:32-66; Psalm 34:1-10; Proverbs 9:7-8 (New Living Translation)
Old testament
1. More instructions regarding the Ark of the Testimony and the Tabernacle. And, if you read carefully, it sounds as thogh eveyone contributed either in mateials or deed.
2. God has gifted certain craftsmen with the skills they need to perform their tasks. We will cover it in more detail later in the New Testament, but God gives us all specific skills or gifts. The Lord, I think, is generous in His gifting, but none of us has all gifts and talents at our disposal!
3. If you are interested in reading about spiritual gifts, see 1 Corithians 12 (in the New Teastament). It clearly says that we are given these gifts for the common good. Not our own good or our own knowledge, or so we can show off...but for the common good.
Read the whole chapter, it gives a wonderful illustration using bodily senses.
Examples of spiritual gifts:
- utterance of wisdom
- utterance of knowledge
- faith
- gifts of healing
- working of miracles
- prophecy
- discernment
- tongues
And all of these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses! ...as the Spirit chooses!
In plain English, some of us can lead, or preach, or sing, or prophecy, or even
discern...but I don't think there is anyone who can do all of these things exceptionally well. Now, being human, many of us think we can do it all...but we are commanded to do as the Lord has gifted.
3. The people give and give, and it's too much for the craftsmen to use. Moses must restrain the people from bringing things.
- When is the last time you heard that from your church or your favorite TV ministry...stop bringing / giving / sending in money, we have too much?
- This leads me to a random thought about tithing. Tithe in it's purest sense means 1/10th, or 10%. Tithes are to be given, I believe, as thanks to God, for what He has given us. For all He does for us. For all we take for granted. And what do we have that has not come from God?
- I think many people misunderstand tithing and give out of a place of fear. The fear is that God won't keep giving them what they want, won't keep giving what they have asked for, or take something away from them. The fear that people wround them will think less of them.
- Or worse, they confuse it with a membership fee.
- We tithe as thanks, not as obligation or duty. As a covenant with God...not with other men. We strive to help those places and organizations which feed us spiritually. And that is why we go to service, isn't it. To be fed and replenished, so that we can go back out and help feed a hungry world?
- How many of you know people who go to church every Sunday, pay their tithes or dues, and get back to everyday life as soon as the service is over. Sunday worship is just a bump in the road of a very busy life...well, it shouldn't be.
- I am not saying that you should or shouldn't tithe. You should know what it is and understand why you do it. Anyway, back to today's text.
4. Instructions for the Tent of the Meeting.
New testament
5. Simon of Cyrene was the person compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion at Golgotha.
6. The soldiers give Him gall to drink. Actually some of the other gospels much more clearly say that on arrival at Golgotha, Jesus was offered wine laced with myrrh to lessen the pain, but he refused it.
7. Jesus is crucified...His crime,"King of the Jews"
8. Two theives were crucified also.
9. Look carefully at the passage, verse 43. When the leading priests say, " He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ... These are the chief priests talking, the leaders of the people. His crime, in their minds does not seem that He proclaimed that He was King of the Jews...but that He trusted God, and God did not act in a way the priests deemed appropriate.
10. The prayer that Jesus says can be found in Psalm 22:1. We talked about this particular Psalm briefly in January.
11. As Jesus dies, the veil is torn.
- Looking back at Exodus, this is the veil outside "The holiest of holy" place. Here only the high priest can go to offer atonement for the sins of the people. He can only go once a year, and has to waer a bell and rope, so God doesn't carry him away.
12. The soldiers belive that this was the Son of God.
13. Joseph of Arimethea claims the body and puts it in his tomb.
14. The Pharisees obtain a Roman guard so that the disciples don't steal the body to try to fool everyone about the resurrection. Who is the fool?
Psalm
15. "I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises." That wouldn't leave a lot of room for what uasually comes out of our mouths. Hmmm....
16. "I will boast only in the Lord"...Only in the Lord, from which comes all my help and hope.
17. "I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears."
- There's a lyric by Selah, that says, " God will take away all your pain, IF you choose to let them go."
Proverbs
18. "But correct the wise, and they will love you."
- Perhaps we should check our reaction when someone tries to correct us. Or when we do it to others. Is our correction factual? Is it in love?
See you next post...
1. More instructions regarding the Ark of the Testimony and the Tabernacle. And, if you read carefully, it sounds as thogh eveyone contributed either in mateials or deed.
2. God has gifted certain craftsmen with the skills they need to perform their tasks. We will cover it in more detail later in the New Testament, but God gives us all specific skills or gifts. The Lord, I think, is generous in His gifting, but none of us has all gifts and talents at our disposal!
3. If you are interested in reading about spiritual gifts, see 1 Corithians 12 (in the New Teastament). It clearly says that we are given these gifts for the common good. Not our own good or our own knowledge, or so we can show off...but for the common good.
Read the whole chapter, it gives a wonderful illustration using bodily senses.
Examples of spiritual gifts:
- utterance of wisdom
- utterance of knowledge
- faith
- gifts of healing
- working of miracles
- prophecy
- discernment
- tongues
And all of these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses! ...as the Spirit chooses!
In plain English, some of us can lead, or preach, or sing, or prophecy, or even
discern...but I don't think there is anyone who can do all of these things exceptionally well. Now, being human, many of us think we can do it all...but we are commanded to do as the Lord has gifted.
3. The people give and give, and it's too much for the craftsmen to use. Moses must restrain the people from bringing things.
- When is the last time you heard that from your church or your favorite TV ministry...stop bringing / giving / sending in money, we have too much?
- This leads me to a random thought about tithing. Tithe in it's purest sense means 1/10th, or 10%. Tithes are to be given, I believe, as thanks to God, for what He has given us. For all He does for us. For all we take for granted. And what do we have that has not come from God?
- I think many people misunderstand tithing and give out of a place of fear. The fear is that God won't keep giving them what they want, won't keep giving what they have asked for, or take something away from them. The fear that people wround them will think less of them.
- Or worse, they confuse it with a membership fee.
- We tithe as thanks, not as obligation or duty. As a covenant with God...not with other men. We strive to help those places and organizations which feed us spiritually. And that is why we go to service, isn't it. To be fed and replenished, so that we can go back out and help feed a hungry world?
- How many of you know people who go to church every Sunday, pay their tithes or dues, and get back to everyday life as soon as the service is over. Sunday worship is just a bump in the road of a very busy life...well, it shouldn't be.
- I am not saying that you should or shouldn't tithe. You should know what it is and understand why you do it. Anyway, back to today's text.
4. Instructions for the Tent of the Meeting.
New testament
5. Simon of Cyrene was the person compelled by the Romans to carry the cross of Jesus as Jesus was taken to his crucifixion at Golgotha.
6. The soldiers give Him gall to drink. Actually some of the other gospels much more clearly say that on arrival at Golgotha, Jesus was offered wine laced with myrrh to lessen the pain, but he refused it.
7. Jesus is crucified...His crime,"King of the Jews"
8. Two theives were crucified also.
9. Look carefully at the passage, verse 43. When the leading priests say, " He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” ... These are the chief priests talking, the leaders of the people. His crime, in their minds does not seem that He proclaimed that He was King of the Jews...but that He trusted God, and God did not act in a way the priests deemed appropriate.
10. The prayer that Jesus says can be found in Psalm 22:1. We talked about this particular Psalm briefly in January.
11. As Jesus dies, the veil is torn.
- Looking back at Exodus, this is the veil outside "The holiest of holy" place. Here only the high priest can go to offer atonement for the sins of the people. He can only go once a year, and has to waer a bell and rope, so God doesn't carry him away.
12. The soldiers belive that this was the Son of God.
13. Joseph of Arimethea claims the body and puts it in his tomb.
14. The Pharisees obtain a Roman guard so that the disciples don't steal the body to try to fool everyone about the resurrection. Who is the fool?
Psalm
15. "I will praise the Lord at all times. I will constantly speak his praises." That wouldn't leave a lot of room for what uasually comes out of our mouths. Hmmm....
16. "I will boast only in the Lord"...Only in the Lord, from which comes all my help and hope.
17. "I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me. He freed me from all my fears."
- There's a lyric by Selah, that says, " God will take away all your pain, IF you choose to let them go."
Proverbs
18. "But correct the wise, and they will love you."
- Perhaps we should check our reaction when someone tries to correct us. Or when we do it to others. Is our correction factual? Is it in love?
See you next post...
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