Multiple postings from the past couple of days ...
I've been too busy to actually post my write-ups lately. I haven't done my readings for today, but will do so later. Now that I'm back at work, I tend to do them around 9 pm at night when I have no more distractions.
Lev 10
A reminder that we are to ensure we don’t get so familiar with God that we fail to honor him. Aaron and his sons had just begun their ministry when the young men got too comfortable and offered unauthorized fire, against his command. A big catastrophe. Youthful exuberance. Aaron was old and wise enough to remain silent, despite his pain. He understood the gravity of what they’d done. But God still allowed Aaron to be human: he couldn’t eat the sin offering because oh his grief, but Moses was allowed to overlook this.
Matthew 25
God notices what we do for others. In fact, when we do good toward others, God takes it that we’re doing good toward him.
Lev 11-12
A litany of rules and regulations impossible to remember and to keep! Thank God for the Blood that saved us from all this labor!
Matthew 26
Sweet Jesus, visiting the home of Simon the Leper! Reclining at the table. May I be like him.
At the women’s retreat I attended yesterday, our overall Pastor talked about how gentle Jesus was toward women - about how he protected them whenever men tried to put them down or be harsh. This chapter gives proof of this again. ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’
Vs 20-23. Jesus reclining again - this time just with the disciples. Eating. Human. Casually predicting his betrayal. Why didn’t Judas change his mind at this critical moment?
There’s something about knowing how things will end that gives you the grace to be gracious, even to your enemies like Jesus was with Judas. I think we spend so much time caught up in the present that we miss this fact and find it hard to forgive as a result. Give me an eternal mindset, Lord.
Lev 13: Eww! Boils and rashes and mold. The embarrassment of having to stay outside the camp and publicly declare oneself unclean so that others don’t get infected. What a contrast to Matthew 26, in which Jesus poured out the blood of the new covenant ‘for MANY, for the forgiveness of sins’ (vs 28). What good news! It’s for many of us - whosoever will.
Matt 26:30 - Jesus sang hymns. How interesting. Jesus sang, and he sang a hymn.
Vs 36-39: Prayer is a context in which we can be ourselves, pour it all out, tell God how we feel. Jesus was sorrowful and troubled, overwhelmed to the point of death, during his prayer time. He didn’t pretend otherwise. He told God how he felt. He battled with the will of God in prayer, asked God to make it easier, if possible, but ultimately surrendered to his perfect will. He prayed the same prayer three times - and the first prayer session was an hour long. As much as we try to find the perfect formula for prayer, I’m convinced that there really isn’t one. Recommend patterns, perhaps. But when you get right down to it, all we need to do is pray. From the heart, and not in a mechanical way. Some say you shouldn’t pray about something more than once - that doing so shows a lack of faith. But what Jesus did disproves that, in my opinion.
Vs. 41: Prayer and watching out help us not to fall into temptation.
Vs 50: Jesus called his betrayer ‘friend.’ Hm.
Lev 10
A reminder that we are to ensure we don’t get so familiar with God that we fail to honor him. Aaron and his sons had just begun their ministry when the young men got too comfortable and offered unauthorized fire, against his command. A big catastrophe. Youthful exuberance. Aaron was old and wise enough to remain silent, despite his pain. He understood the gravity of what they’d done. But God still allowed Aaron to be human: he couldn’t eat the sin offering because oh his grief, but Moses was allowed to overlook this.
Matthew 25
God notices what we do for others. In fact, when we do good toward others, God takes it that we’re doing good toward him.
Lev 11-12
A litany of rules and regulations impossible to remember and to keep! Thank God for the Blood that saved us from all this labor!
Matthew 26
Sweet Jesus, visiting the home of Simon the Leper! Reclining at the table. May I be like him.
At the women’s retreat I attended yesterday, our overall Pastor talked about how gentle Jesus was toward women - about how he protected them whenever men tried to put them down or be harsh. This chapter gives proof of this again. ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’
Vs 20-23. Jesus reclining again - this time just with the disciples. Eating. Human. Casually predicting his betrayal. Why didn’t Judas change his mind at this critical moment?
There’s something about knowing how things will end that gives you the grace to be gracious, even to your enemies like Jesus was with Judas. I think we spend so much time caught up in the present that we miss this fact and find it hard to forgive as a result. Give me an eternal mindset, Lord.
Lev 13: Eww! Boils and rashes and mold. The embarrassment of having to stay outside the camp and publicly declare oneself unclean so that others don’t get infected. What a contrast to Matthew 26, in which Jesus poured out the blood of the new covenant ‘for MANY, for the forgiveness of sins’ (vs 28). What good news! It’s for many of us - whosoever will.
Matt 26:30 - Jesus sang hymns. How interesting. Jesus sang, and he sang a hymn.
Vs 36-39: Prayer is a context in which we can be ourselves, pour it all out, tell God how we feel. Jesus was sorrowful and troubled, overwhelmed to the point of death, during his prayer time. He didn’t pretend otherwise. He told God how he felt. He battled with the will of God in prayer, asked God to make it easier, if possible, but ultimately surrendered to his perfect will. He prayed the same prayer three times - and the first prayer session was an hour long. As much as we try to find the perfect formula for prayer, I’m convinced that there really isn’t one. Recommend patterns, perhaps. But when you get right down to it, all we need to do is pray. From the heart, and not in a mechanical way. Some say you shouldn’t pray about something more than once - that doing so shows a lack of faith. But what Jesus did disproves that, in my opinion.
Vs. 41: Prayer and watching out help us not to fall into temptation.
Vs 50: Jesus called his betrayer ‘friend.’ Hm.
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