ApprehendingGrace.com

Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, is the holiest, most reverent day of the year for Jews. Leviticus 16 records God’s institution of this holy day. It is the only day of the year in which the High Priest went past the veil inside the Tabernacle (and later the temple) and entered into the Holy of Holies – the place where the presence of God dwelt. It was this veil that was torn in two from top to bottom when Jesus breathed His last breath on the cross (Luke 23:45). In the Old Testament, only the High Priest was permitted to enter the presence of God. Under the New Covenant, we are all welcomed to come boldly to God’s throne of grace. (Hebrews 4:16) Hallelujah! Only God could tear the heavy veil from top to bottom. Only God could remove the separation of His presence from His people.

On the Day of Atonement the priests wore only simple linen clothing instead of the more decorative, richly embroidered tunic and sashes and gold medallion (or plate) they typically wore. One writer interpreted this as a picture of Christ who laid aside His glory to be born as a child who would one day be crucified for our sins (Philippians 2:7).

The Day of Atonement also introduces the scape goat. Two goats are presented to the Lord. One is slaughtered as a sin offering for the people of Israel. The other is presented to the Lord alive.

²⁰“When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. ²¹He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. ²²The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.
Leviticus 16:20-22

The High Priest lays both hands on the goat representing that he is placing the fullness of their sins on the goat. The following passage is a prophecy about Jesus:

⁵    But he was pierced for our transgressions,
      he was crushed for our iniquities;
      the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
      and by his wounds we are healed.

⁶    We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
      each of us has turned to his own way;
      and the LORD has laid on him
      the iniquity of us all.
Isaiah 55:5-6

Just as the sin of Israel was laid on the scape goat, our sin, in its totality, was laid on Jesus. He has carried our sin away from us just as the scape goat carried the sins of the Jews away from their camp.

The symbolism and imagery in the Day of Atonement ceremony clearly point to Christ. The book of Hebrews was written to Jews who knew and followed the Law. Read this passage in light of Leviticus 16 and what we’ve learned about the Day of Atonement:

¹⁹When Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. ²⁰He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” ²¹In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. ²²In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

²³It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. ²⁴For Christ did not enter a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. ²⁵Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. ²⁶Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. ²⁷Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, ²⁸so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Hebrews 9:19-28

The copies of the heavenly things are the manmade tabernacle and everything used in it. They were required to be purified with the earthly sacrifices. The heavenly things required better sacrifices – the sacrifice of Christ, who died for our sins and appears before God on our behalf. The High Priests had to offer sacrifices on the Day of Atonement every year, but Christ’s sacrifice was sufficient to take away the sins once for all. Hallelujah! Do you see the cohesiveness of the whole Bible? The New Testament becomes so much richer when we understand more of its background. That background isn’t necessary for us to understand that Christ died for our sins, but it helps us understand the awesomeness of God as He unveils the mystery of His plan from beginning to end. The rituals of the Day of Atonement were repeated year after year – for over a thousand years. Then Christ came to earth and the ritual was fulfilled and a New Covenant was introduced. Again…Hallelujah!

Speaking of awesomeness – here’s a cool fact I learned. Yom Kippur completes the annual period known as the High Holy Days or Yammim Nora’im. Yammim Nora’im means “Days of Awe.” God reveals to us some of the mysteries of His presence and we are awed. Awed.

The laws given in these chapters are quite some laws! It is probably my least favorite portion of the Bible. I typically eat breakfast while reading my Bible in the morning…except when I hit these chapters. I move to the New Testament reading, perhaps even reading a bit ahead…until I find an evening to read through this material. I appreciate that God is giving the Israelites laws for cleanliness, some I believe for healthy living and some to identify the Israelites as set apart from the nations around them.

Those who serve the God of the Israelites are to live differently – we are to live differently. Sometimes that means abstaining from certain foods or drinks, sometimes it means abstaining from certain activities. Always it means being more loving toward one another than those who don’ know our God.

I’m studying the book of 1 John with the folks at a local nursing home. This week we were in chapter 4.

“Beloved, let us love one another.” 1 John 4:7a

F.F. Bruce wrote the following about this verse in his commentary The Epistles of John:

“The love which the New Testament enjoins involves a consuming passion for the well-being of others.”

“A consuming passion for the well-being of others.”  That’s a radical way to live! It’s a biblical way to live!

As you can see, sometimes God uses Scripture to teach me, encourage me, convict me, or inspire me using the direct meaning of the text. Sometimes, as in the case of these chapters, He uses it circumspectly – to teach a tangential or underlying point – reminding me of another teaching that He wants to reinforce. All Scripture is profitable…

In Chapters 8 through 10, we see the priests – Aaron and his sons – separated unto God. They were anointed and set apart from the people. They made sacrifices in the temple for the first time and the Glory of the Lord went out and burned the offering on the altar. What an awesome show of acceptance by God. Scripture describes the scene:

the glorious presence of the LORD appeared to the whole community. ²⁴Fire blazed forth from the LORD’S presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. When the people saw all this, they shouted with joy and fell face down on the ground.
Leviticus 9:23b-24

Wow! Joy and humility characterized the people’s response. How will you respond when you experience the Lord’s presence in such a manifest way? How do you respond when you experience Him? I’ve not experienced the literal fire of the Lord, but I’ve experienced times when the presence of the Lord was so strong I felt like I would literally touch Him if I reached out my hand. True awe best expresses my reaction.

Waiting
Before the Lord’s presence awed the Israelites, there was a time of anointing, preparation and sacrifice as Aaron and his sons were appointed as priests.

Remembering that we are part of the royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), I found the process for ordaining Aaron and his sons into the priesthood interesting. There were two things that particularly spoke to me:

• Their anointing accomplished two things – it made them holy and acceptable in God’s eyes, and it empowered them to bless God’s people. Any blessing God gives to us He wants us to pass on.
• The process set them apart for God’s use – both in their eyes and in the eyes of the Israelites. This was particularly evident in the requirement for Aaron and his sons to stay at the entrance of the tabernacle for eight days. During that time, as the Israelites went about their daily life they would have seen Aaron and his sons and recognized that these men were called by God to represent them before God. Likewise, the weight of their responsibility would have settled on Aaron and his sons as they watched the people living their lives.

Eight Days…and Three Suggestions
This eight days at the entrance of the tabernacle also speaks to me of waiting upon the Lord. The tabernacle was where the presence of the Lord dwelt. Aaron and his sons waited…and waited…and waited…in the glow of the presence of the Lord. Can you imagine it? Knowing that the presence of the Lord was just feet, perhaps inches, away but not being able to enter. I can imagine that it built up a hunger for God, an expectation of experiencing His presence, and an anticipation for serving Him. I imagine it also created some frustration and thus taught patience and obedience. We also need to set ourselves apart for God’s use. Here are three ideas about how to do that:

• Observe a Sabbath or Lord’s Day each week. You’ll find a series of three blogs I wrote about keeping the Sabbath identified here.
• Schedule times away with God. I had a friend who worked for a large church. Everyone on staff was given four paid hours each month during which they could participate in any activity that would draw them nearer to God. What a great idea! Now you may not have anyone paying you to seek the Lord, but make time for it anyway.
• Observe holidays as holy-days. The Old Testament is full of festivals that were observed by the Israelites. Make changes to how you anticipate and celebrate Easter and Christmas so that they truly are holy-days, reminding you and your family that you are a people set apart for God’s use.

Knowing that we have been set apart for good works, for worship and for fellowship with God can radically change our outlook and our behavior. Learn to anticipate Him by building times of being in His presence into your life.

Don’t Mourn
There’s one incident in these three chapters that has always bothered me. Two of Aaron’s sons are killed by the fire of the Lord when they offer a sacrifice inappropriately. Moses tells Aaron and his two remaining sons “not to mourn by letting your hair hang loose or by tearing your clothes…” That always seemed so callous to me and totally impractical. How could a man not mourn the death of his sons or his brothers? I never understood until this reading that Moses isn’t telling them not to mourn – not to experience the emotion of grieving. He’s telling them not to go through the actions that were normal in their culture to indicate that you were in mourning. They might not be the actions we would take today – letting our hair hang loose or tearing our clothes – but it was the normal actions in their culture. Such recognition of your grief is a way of honoring the life of the one who has died. To honor the life of one whom God has just most severely punished was inappropriate for the newly installed priests. It would have been as if they were saying that God was wrong to punish them. Aaron and his living sons would have been honoring the men (who dishonored God) above God.

Serving God is Serious Business
Aaron and his sons didn’t just walk into the temple one day and begin serving God. Similarly, we ought to prepare ourselves every day to serve God, and we would do well to take special times throughout the year to remind ourselves (and allow God to remind us) that we have been set apart to serve Him.

And the wonderful, very cool thing is that such times are so refreshing and enjoyable…even when they involve waiting. When are you going to fit your next time with God into your calendar?

Is the Book of Leviticus Relevant Today?

After reading the excitement of the books of Genesis and Exodus, we come to a book of regulations and instructions – the change in drama is significant. Leviticus seems boring compared to the two books that precede it. It is, however, part of a natural progression of the same story.

• In Exodus we read about how God had chosen the Israelites as His “treasured possession” and a “nation of priests” (Exodus 19:5-6). The book of Leviticus establishes regulations for the priesthood. .
• In Exodus, the design for the tabernacle was given, it was built and the Lord’s glory filled it. In Leviticus God teaches the Israelites how to minister in the tabernacle.
• In the final chapter of Exodus, the glory of the Lord – His very presence – filled the temple. The book of Leviticus begins with God calling out to Moses from the tabernacle. What follows are instructions to the Israelites about how to live a holy life in and with the presence of God.

Do the instructions, regulations and lessons of Leviticus have relevance for us today? Yes. As I wrote in my previous blog, even when we can’t find or see the relevance of a passage, we believe that it is profitable for study because Scripture says it is. Beyond that, however, looking at the three bulleted points above, a New Testament Scripture comes to mind:

⁵you 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… ⁹But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
1 Peter 2:5,9 (NIV)

Believers today are a part of the “treasured possession” and “nation of priests” that God called out in Exodus. We gain a much deeper and richer understanding of that role and its responsibilities by understanding its history.

Finally, in response to the question “Is the book of Leviticus relevant for believers today?” let me say that I was surprised to learn that it is quoted at least forty times by New Testament writers! That alone makes me think there’s more to this book than I was getting as I began reading it this week. And there is! Let’s take a deep breath and dive into the first seven chapters.

Leviticus 1-7: It’s All About the Sacrifices

Chapters one through seven are all about sacrifices (but then you knew that if you’ve been following along with our Resting at the River’s Edge readings). It’s easy to get lost in the details of the five different types of offerings identified in these chapters, so we’re going to take them one at a time and look at what they teach us that is relevant to us today.

Burnt Offering: The word used to describe the burnt offering is olah. It comes from a root verb (alah) that means “to ascend.” The burnt offering ascends to God, going before the priests as a way of purifying the path so to speak.

He [the priest] is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him.
Leviticus 1:4 (NIV)

Laying his hand on the head of the animal to be sacrificed shows his identification with the animal. The action reminds the priest that it is for his sins that the animal is being slaughtered and the burnt offering goes before him making him acceptable in God’s sight. It also a “complete” offering – the entire offering is burned, which reminds us that we are to surrender not just a portion but all we are and have to the Lord.

Grain Offering: This offering was made of flour, oil and incense. A portion of it is burned before the Lord and the remainder given to the priests for food. The burned portion and the burnt animal offering seem to me to be a complete “plant and animal” offering – a picture that God is redeeming to Himself all that He has made. The portion of the grain offering that is given to the priests for food foreshadows the One who would become the “Bread of Life” and who would give eternal life to those who trust in Him. Interestingly, honey is forbidden to be used in the preparation of this sacrifice. No reason is given, but one writer made note that honey “does not smell very nice but frankincense [the incense that was commonly used] receives its highest degree of fragrance after it had been burned.” (http://www.angelfire.com/nt/theology/levitic.html)

Peace Offering: Unlike the burnt and grain offerings, everyone shares in the peace offering – the one giving the offering, the Lord and the priests and their families. It is truly an offering of reconciliation – between the one making the offering and the Lord, and all those involved.

Christ has given us – delegated to us – this ministry of reconciliation:

¹⁷Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! ¹⁸All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: ¹⁹that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. ²⁰We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. ²¹God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (NIV)

“We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making His appeal through us” We are that peace offering. A portion is to be burned to rise to the Lord atoning for our sins and the sins of those we represent, and the rest is to be shared with others. Wow!

Sin Offering: The first three offerings were made as burnt offerings on the altar in the Tabernacle. The sin offering, on the other hand, was burnt on the bare earth outside the camp. The writer of the book of Hebrews references the sin offering and tells us that Jesus’ death outside of Jerusalem is an atonement for our sins:

¹¹The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. ¹²And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.
Hebrews 13:11-12 (NIV)

Guilt Offering: The sin offering and guilt offering are very similar. It is also burned outside the camp. Christ’s crucifixion outside Jerusalem takes away not only our sin, but also our guilt. He sets us free, indeed! The guilt offering includes financial compensation to parties who have been wronged, introducing the principle of restitution. Christ frees us from our sin and guilt before God, but we have a responsibility to be reconciled with others and that often requires restitution.

Interestingly, this offering is the only one which is not described as a soothing aroma. Perhaps I am stretching an analogy too thin, but I can’t help but remember that guilt is never pleasing to God. He brings condemnation and desires/requires repentance. But ongoing guilt is simply a malodorous burden from the enemy.

¹Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, ²because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. ³For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering.
Romans 8:1-3 (NIV)

We were guilty, but Christ’s offering removed that guilt from us. Hallelujah!

Final Thoughts about Offerings

The word for “offering” in Hebrew is corban. It comes from a root word meaning “to bring near.” The offerings described in Leviticus brought the Israelites nearer to the Lord and to the holiness that the Lord required. The offering itself brought them near to God – it went before them to make them acceptable to Him. The act of bringing the offering demonstrated their obedience and that obedience was a precursor to holiness. The offerings we bring today do the same – they bring us near to God and develop an obedience in us that moves us closer to the holy standard God requires. I am not, of course, saying that we become God or we earn a righteousness by our actions. We are righteous only when we accept Jesus’ sacrifice as the atonement for our sins – when we believe that He paid the price we owe and we live our life according to His plans and purposes.

Is the Book of Leviticus Relevant for Today?

You bet it is! When Jesus represented Himself to be baptized, John the Baptist proclaimed:

“Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29b (NKJV)

John the Baptist recognized that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Old Testament sacrificial system – that Jesus’ death met all the requirements and did so forever. Hallelujah!

Many thanks to the following blogs for their help in writing this blog:

http://www.angelfire.com/nt/theology/levitic.html

http://bible.org/seriespage/learning-love-leviticus#P89_4464

If you’re reading along with us using the Resting at the River’s Edge reading guides, you started the book of Leviticus this week. I’ll be honest with you – as I read about the various offerings this week, I was a little less than excited about what I was reading. I know there’s more to the book and I knew I was missing it. So I began to do a little research, and of course, that research becomes a blog…but not for today. As I started to write the first blog on Leviticus, I found that my “premise for writing” encompassed a full blog on its own, so I’m going to run with it. I’ll share what I’ve learned about the book of Leviticus in upcoming blogs. In the meantime…on to the premise.

I knew I was missing something as I was reading Leviticus because I start from the conviction of 2 Timothy 3:16-17:

¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. (NIV)

I love the phrases used in this translation – “God-breathed”, “useful for…” and “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” All Scripture is all those things. How can I discount major portions of Scripture when it is all God-breathed? How can I not honor it when its purpose is to equip me – thoroughly equip me – for every good work. As I wrote in my last blog, God has ordained works for each of us. Scripture prepares us for that work. Whew! Or perhaps more appropriately – “Hallelujah!”

This year I’m reading through the Bible using the New Living Translation. While it is not as accurate as some other translations, it offers a more every-day language experience while reading. The NLT translates the passage this way:

¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. ¹⁷It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. (NLT)

We have some of the same words, yet some words and phrases that are expressed differently. I like the phrase “make us realize what is wrong in our lives.” Yep, I need that sometimes. OK, all the time. I also like the phrase “It is God’s way of preparing us in every way.” Yes the meaning is the same (of course) as the NIV translation, but it reminds me that God is preparing me – in every way – for the work He has for me.

Dwight Moody put it this way in his book The Pleasure and Profit in Bible Study (copyright 1895 by Fleming H. Revell Co.):

“I never saw a fruit-bearing Christian who was not a student of the Bible. If a man neglects his Bible, he may pray and ask God to use him in His work; but God cannot make use of him, for there is not much for the Holy Ghost to work upon.”

It is Scripture that teaches us God’s way of thinking, God’s way of living, and God’s way of loving. Learning those things makes us usable in the Kingdom – to accomplish the purposes God has prepared for us.

Two words that these translations have in common that apply to our upcoming look into the book of Leviticus are those two words at the beginning of verse 16: “All Scripture”. It doesn’t say that some Scripture is useful, it says that all Scripture is useful. Which takes me back to reading Leviticus. It is a book of codes and regulations. Is there application for me today? According to 2 Timothy there is. Join us as we explore the book in the coming weeks.

It All Started with Edward
In 1855 there was a man named Edward Kimball. Edward taught Sunday School at a church in Boston. There was a 17-year-old boy in his Sunday School class who Kimball described as having one of the darkest hearts he’d ever seen. One day Mr. Kimball felt lead to visit the boy outside of Sunday School, so he went to the store where the teenager worked. By his own admission, Mr. Kimball was unsure of himself. He wrote about it later:

“I began to wonder whether I ought to go just then during business hours,” he latter reported. “And I thought maybe my mission might embarrass the boy, that when I went away the other clerks might ask who I was, and when they learned, might taunt [him] and ask if I was trying to make a good boy out of him. Then, I decided to make a dash for it and have it over at once.”

Can you sense Mr. Kimball’s insecurity from his own words? He later described himself as having made a rather anemic presentation of the gospel with the young man. But the boy was ready. God had been working on him.

That young man’s name was Dwight L. Moody.

I see several things in this story…

• We never know what is in another person’s heart or when they are ready
• Trust the Spirit’s prompting
• Believe that God is going to use you!

Dwight Moody was holding a meeting in the late 1870′s at Lake Forest College in a suburb of Chicago. After the service, he counseled a student who was struggling with the assurance of his salvation. That young man later became a friend and co-laborer with Dwight Moody.

That man was J. Wilbur Chapman.

Mr. Chapman was an evangelist like Dwight Moody and later hired a young man to assist him in his ministry.  That man was an former baseball player who had come to know Christ at a city mission in Chicago.

The man was Billy Sunday.

Billy Sunday was saved in 1887. Many years later he told the story like this:

“Twenty-seven years ago I walked down a street in Chicago in company with some ball players who were famous in this world … and we went into a saloon. It was Sunday afternoon and we got tanked up and then went and sat down on a corner. … Across the street a company of men and women were playing on instruments – horns, flutes and slide trombones – and the others were singing the gospel hymns that I used to hear my mother sing back in the log cabin in Iowa and back in the old church where I used to go to Sunday school.

“And God painted on the canvas of my recollection and memory a vivid picture of the scenes of other days and other faces.

“Many have long since turned to dust. I sobbed and sobbed and a young man stepped out and said, ‘We are going down to the Pacific Garden Mission. Won’t you come down to the mission? I am sure you will enjoy it. You can hear drunkards tell how they have been saved and girls tell how they have been saved from the red-light district.’

“I arose and said to the boys, ‘I’m through. I am going to Jesus Christ.”

His story tells me some things:

• God uses seeds planted in our childhood.
• God used the Christians playing various instruments and singing on a street corner to touch long-overlooked memories.
• God used the gentle boldness, enthusiasm and compassion of some unknown person to bring Billy Sunday to the mission and another nameless person in history to bring Billy Sunday to Christ.

Billy Sunday became a well-known evangelist. He held a series of evangelistic meetings in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1924.

Out of those meeting an organization of businessmen with a heart for evangelism was formed.

This group held an all day prayer meeting in the cow pasture of William and Morrow Graham. During that prayer meeting, someone prayed “Lord, raise up a man out of Charlotte, North Carolina, who will preach the Gospel to the ends of the earth.”

That summer the businessmen invited an evangelist named Mordecai Ham to hold evangelistic meetings in their town. During those meetings, a young man came forward and accepted Christ.

That man was Billy Graham, the oldest son of William and Morrow Graham.

Lots of Names, One Theme
Well, I’ve just thrown a lot of names and details at you, but the theme is that history full of people – people just like you and me – whom God has used in extraordinary ways.

Beginning with Mr. Kimball – he was a Sunday School teacher of teenage boys,  and by his own admission his presentation of the gospel was pretty weak – but God used him to bring one of the greatest evangelists of all time to the Lord, Dwight Moody. But Mr. Kimball’s influence didn’t end there. There is a direct line of influence from Dwight Moody all the way down to Billy Graham. And of course the influence continues. Billy Graham’s son Franklin leads an organization called Samaritan’s Purse that provides food, clothing, shelter and medicine to people in need all over the world. It is not an exaggeration to say that thousands, perhaps millions of people have been impacted by this ministry.

And we can trace it back to Edward Kimball, a Sunday School teacher in a church in Boston. And we can trace it back to a young man who struggled to believe Scripture that says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  (1 John 1:9)

And we can trace it back to men and women who played instruments and sang gospel songs on a street corner where drunk ball players took a break from their drinking.

And we can trace it back to some businessmen who attended an all-day prayer meeting.

We can even trace it back to that one individual who boldly prayed “Lord raise up a man out of Charlotte, North Carolina, who will preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.”

The thing that stands out so clearly to me from all of this is that within this chain of historic events there are a number of Christians who had large ministries that were used by God to sweep multitudes into His kingdom, and there were a number of ordinary Christians who faithfully lived out their calling and obediently ministered to the few whom God put in their path. The chain of events would have broken down without the obedient and faithful action of the ordinary Christians. While Edward Kimball and the slide trombone player on the Chicago street corner were never called by God to have a worldwide ministry like that of Dwight Moody or Billy Graham, both of those great evangelists can trace their spiritual ancestry back to those faithful Christian workers.

God has a plan for each one of us. Scripture makes that clear in both the Old and New Testaments.

Jeremiah 1:5 (God is speaking to Jeremiah) “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”

There was nothing extraordinarily special about Jeremiah. What God did for Jeremiah, He has done for each of us – not necessarily calling us to be prophets to the nation, but creating us for a purpose.

The Psalmist wrote this awesome passage that has the same message:

¹³    For you created my inmost being;
    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

¹⁴    I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
    your works are wonderful,
    I know that full well.

¹⁵    My frame was not hidden from you
    when I was made in the secret place.
    When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,

¹⁶    Your eyes saw my unformed body.
    All the days ordained for me
    were written in your book
    before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139: 13-16

The message is repeated in the New Testament:

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
Ephesians 2:10

God has worked in your history, setting things in motion, preparing you and preparing the world in which you live, for the good works that He’s called you to.

That’s an important sentence. God has worked in your history, setting things in motion, preparing you and preparing the world in which you live, for the good works that He’s called you to.

So, everyone in that chain of history that began with Edward Kimball and ended with Billy and Franklin Graham stepped up to the plate to swing at the pitch God threw them. They had given their time and their talents to God. Instead of staying home and watching the latest episode of their must-see-TV, they spent all day in prayer. Instead of going out drinking with his buddies, Billy Sunday said “Today, I’m going to Jesus.”

I want to encourage each of us to get in the game. Let’s not be satisfied with life as we know it, but allow God to use us in ways that leave a lasting impact on this world.

I want to see God move. I’m not going to see it without getting in the game. I’m not going to see my community won to Christ by just going to church every Sunday. I’m not going to see men and women grow in their faith by just enjoying fellowship with other believers. I’m not dissing those things. Both are very important. But we can’t change the world without being in it and being purposeful in it.

What has to change for you and me to accomplish the purposes that God has prepared in advance for us to do? Here are some ideas:

• Believe that God wants to use us
• Change our patterns and schedules
• Know what He has called us to
• Step out in faith, even when we don’t have all the answers

A Final Encouragement

Phil 1:4, 6 “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy…being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”

God will bring the work He’s started to completion, but we have a role to play. Your role may be large, but more likely it will be small. You may not be used by God to lead thousands to Christ, but you may be used by God to lead the world’s next great evangelist to Christ. You are a part of God’s chain of events in human history.

Others can’t keep us from accomplishing the things God has ordained for us to do, but we can. We can step out of the chain of events and not have that impact that God wants us to have. God will still accomplish His purposes on earth…He’ll just use someone else. Don’t let someone else receive the blessing of serving God that He has set aside for you. Get in the game. Step up to the plate. Start today!

¹⁰Then the LORD told Moses, “Go down and prepare the people for my visit. Purify them today and tomorrow, and have them wash their clothing. ¹¹Be sure they are ready on the third day, for I will come down upon Mount Sinai as all the people watch…¹⁴So Moses went down to the people. He purified them for worship and had them wash their clothing. ¹⁵He told them, “Get ready for an important event two days from now…”
Exodus 19:10-11, 14-15a (NLT)

What’s your Sunday morning routine like? For most people it’s rush, rush, rush to get out of the house and make it to church on time. Then there’s likely an argument in the car on the way to church. Finally, there’s the rush into church (on time if they’re lucky), put all their stuff down and join the already in progress time of worship. Ouch!

Even if your Sunday morning experience is only half as frantic as I’ve described, it’s a far cry from preparing for worship in a way that honors God. In this Old Testament passage, the Israelites were told to prepare for three days – three days! – to meet with God. I wonder how much richer my experience with God would be if I prepared for three days before meeting with Him!

Well, like you, I don’t have three days to set aside each week to prepare to worship God. There are some things that we can do on Saturday and Sunday to help us prepare to meet with God. Over the years Phil and I have developed seven strategies that help us arrive at church ready to worship.

• We plan to arrive early. If we plan to arrive at the start of the service, the probability that we’ll either be late or frustrated increases dramatically. We’ve found that arriving early gives us time to get settled, read through the bulletin, visit with friends and be ready to worship when the service starts. So, depending on our responsibilities that Sunday, we plan to arrive anywhere from ten minutes to an hour early.
• We come with an anticipation of participating in worship and meeting God. That anticipation helps to keep us from becoming a spectator. If you have children, develop and reinforce this sense of anticipation about going to church with your children. Be careful about your speech – “Tomorrow we get to go to church” instead of “Tomorrow we have to go to church.” This might seem minor, but our words mean things and convey to others our real attitudes about our activities.
• On the drive to church, there are topics that are verboten in our car. Finances and schedules top the list. No matter now innocuous a question or comment on those subjects may seem, at best it has the potential of causing stress or discouragement in one of us. At worst it could cause a disagreement. So when we’re on our way to church and I remember that I meant to ask Phil if he had paid a specific bill or cashed a check the day before, I stop myself. It’s not that those things inherently carry stress. It’s just that we’ve learned that they are topics that quickly lead us to the cares and frustrations of this world. That’s not where we want to be on Sunday mornings. Put at the top of your list any topics that are likely to cause stress, frustration, annoyance or discouragement for anyone in the car.
• We try to take care of the practical things the night before. Things like learning the shirt we were going to wear is dirty or not being able to find what we need to take with us can lead to a cranky rush as we make our way toward the car.
• We are sensitive to what’s on the television while we’re getting ready for church. On a typical day, I have a news program on TV while getting dressed in the morning. On Sundays we often change that routine and listen to televised church services.
• We are careful about the time we go to bed on Saturday night. Sometimes we miss this one and when we do, we’re usually sorry. It’s hard to truly worship God and even harder to hear His voice when we’re fighting fatigue and sleepiness.
• We frequently pray on the way to church. (What a radical idea)! We pray for our selves, the worship team, those teaching and giving the message. We thank God for the privilege of meeting openly in this country. Sometimes we’ll sing praise songs or old hymns while we drive. It’s amazing how the attitude in the car changes when we do this.

We have this awesome opportunity to spend time with the creator of the universe in corporate and private worship every Sunday morning (or whenever your church meets). Let’s make the most of it by preparing in a way that honors Him.

Resting at the River’s Edge provides an opportunity to participate in reading through the Bible in a systematic way. We’re following a two year plan (2012 and 2013) that has us reading the New Testament each year and the Old Testament stretched over the two years. Each month our reading plans also provide a column titled “Additional.” This column provides readings that will allow you to read through the entire Bible (that is, the complete Old and New Testaments) during the year 2012.

Join the conversation as we read together each month. E-mail me, leave a message on the Apprehending Grace Facebook page, or post a comment at the end of any blog. God has treasures for each of us as we read. Let’s share them!

Also, NEW in 2012 are our RARE bookmarks. Click on the link below to download them. Each bookmark provides two months of Resting at the River’s Edge reading schedules and is great for tracking your readings. (We found an “oops” in the bookmarks we uploaded last month – we forgot to include Feb 29 in the schedule. The bookmarks have been updated to reflect the additional day we get this year.)

Use the tracking method that works best for you – the schedule provided in this blog, the downloadable half-page PDF or bookmark. All provide the same schedule.

I pray that you enjoy your time with God as you read each day.
Sandy

Here’s March’s reading plan:

Have you walked with God today? Have you rested in Him, heard His voice and followed His leading?

Check out this blog by Eden’s  Bridge about the mystery of walking in the spirit.

Make time to cultivate your relationship with God today.

“God is still in heaven”… God immediately brought that phrase to my mind when I woke up at 4am this morning aware of several significant prayer requests for today. Yes, today is filled with sorrow and anxiety for many today. My uncle may go home to be with the Lord today. My heart grieves for my cousins. My step-mother travels to her hometown for her sister-in-law’s funeral. My heart grieves for the family. Another friend will have a double heart catheterization. She is still young in the Lord and I know she is scared. My heart is with her even though I can’t be there. I have a doctor’s appointment that was moved forward three weeks. My world was rocked a little when I got the phone call saying “the doctor would like to see you tomorrow.”

“Lord, it’s a day of big requests in my world, but I know that you are still in Your heaven and because of that, it is well with my soul.”

The verse comes from Psalm 115 and I’ve sometimes been disquieted by it:

²    Why do the nations say,
     “Where is their God?”

³    Our God is in heaven;
     he does whatever pleases him.
Psalm 115:2-3 (NIV)

When life seems to be falling apart, we are tempted to lay the disasters at the feet of God. Does what has just happened please God? What kind of God is pleased with such things? Can such a God really be good?

I am thankful that I came to the Lord in my early twenties – it gave me the opportunity to become well-grounded in the confidence of God’s goodness before the challenges of my life became overwhelming. You may or may not be in that situation – like my friend having heart surgery, perhaps you have recently come to the Lord and are facing serious situations. Let me reassure you of two things:

God is still in heaven and He does whatever pleases Him.

What pleases God is always for our ultimate good.

Let’s look at a couple of verses that tell us what pleases God.

¹⁹For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in [Christ], ²⁰and through [Christ] God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.
Col 1:19 (NIV), 1:20 (NRSV)

It pleased God to have all His fullness dwell in Christ – even though Christ would come to earth and live as a human, never sin and yet submit to die a tortured death. How can that please God? Verse 20 answers that question. Scripture doesn’t say that God was pleased that Christ was crucified. It says He was pleased to reconcile all things to Himself through the blood of Christ. There is a big difference.

Crucifying Christ was a sinful act. God takes no pleasure in sin. What pleases God is our reconciliation with Him. Without the fullness of God dwelling in Christ, He could not have lived that perfect, sinless life. His death would not have been the acceptable sacrifice which reconciled us to God. So God was pleased to have His fullness dwell in Christ.

God does whatever pleases Him. What pleases Him is to make a way for us to spend eternity with Him.

A few verses later we learn something else that pleases God.

²⁷For it has pleased God to tell his people that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. For this is the secret: Christ lives in you, and this is your assurance that you will share in his glory.
Col 1:27 (NLT)

It pleases God to share the riches and glory of Christ not only with the Jews, but also with the Gentiles. It pleases God to share the secrets of salvation with the world.

God is in heaven, and He does what pleases Him. It pleases Him to make the gift of salvation available to all people. “For God so loved the world” (John 3:16a) it pleased Him to make salvation available to all.

Let’s read the Apostle Paul’s testimony to learn more about what pleases God:

¹³You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted the Christians. I did my best to get rid of them. ¹⁴I was one of the most religious Jews of my own age, and I tried as hard as possible to follow all the old traditions of my religion.

¹⁵But then something happened! For it pleased God in his kindness to choose me and call me, even before I was born! What undeserved mercy! ¹⁶Then he revealed his Son to me so that I could proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.
Gal 1:13-16a (NLT)

It pleases God to show mercy to those who don’t deserve mercy. It pleases God to choose each of us and call each of us to know Him and serve Him. It pleases God to reveal His Son to each of us so that we can partner with Him in sharing the Good News.

God is still in His heaven, and He still does what pleases Him. It pleases Him to show mercy. It pleases Him to reveal His Son to us.

I’m so very thankful I serve such a God. And I’m so very thankful He is STILL in His heaven and that He does whatever pleases Him.