March 11

The Israelites had great success at Jericho except for one thing, a man named Achan took things that he was commanded not to take. The command of the Lord was to NOT plunder, but to destroy, but Achan, because he wanted the items, decided to rebel against God. The rebellion went untold until 36 people died in a battle that the Israelites should have won easily. We know the fate of Achan, death. Do we realize that the fate of 36 men was death because Achan wanted some stuff? Our sin rarely only affects us alone.

The grander point for me – a leader – was what Joshua did at the defeat by Ai. He cried. He tore his robe and asked God why He did this to them. Did you get that? The first thing he did when something didn’t go as planned was to accuse God! Blame God? I think I have done that a few times. (It sure is easy to point out Joshua’s deficit though). What did the Lord do? Rebuked Joshua! God told him to get up and stop your sniveling! This wasn’t the Lord who had planned this rout of the Israelites, it was a rebellious Israelite who was RESPONSIBLE for the defeat!

I too often, even when inquiring of the Lord about what is going on, have this attitude like: hey God, this is your fault, why is this happening. Oh Lord, I am sorry for all of those times, may I know that you are faithful and will complete everything that you have said you would do. If there is a kink in the plans, it is on the human end and not on your end. May I humbly inquire of you what to do next and never accuse you for the rest of my days.

March 10

In yesterdays reading God told Joshua to be strong and courageous and don’t be afraid and in today’s reading he tells him 3 more times! Why? Because he needed it! Imagine having set before you all the Israelites who haven’t exactly been faithful and good followers some of the time. Now Moses is dead and you da’ man! God knows what we need doesn’t He? He is so encouraging to us as He was to Joshua.

There were a people who feared – the people of Jericho. The difference between the Israelites and the Jerichoites was glaring. The people of God are NOT supposed to be afraid, but strong and courageous. The people of the world are supposed to fear for any number of reasons. However, MY security, my surety, by confidence and lack of fear rests squarely in the fact that GOD IS WITH ME. Either you believe it or you don’t. If you don’t, you will be afraid, if you do, you won’t be afraid. Maybe you can cry out with me, “I do believe, help my unbelief”.

God help me to stand in that confidence – that you are with me – even when nobody else believes that you are.

March 9

What a bummer not to enter the Promised Land. To see it and to do all the work to get the people to the point of entry and then not to enter – man… that would be a bummer, maybe even depressing. So right after Moses was reminded by God that he wasn’t going to enter it ------ he blessed all the people who were going to enter it!

Did you get that? I did. It is easy to want what others have, or if you have matured in Christ, you avoid being jealous and just take your lot in life. Moses goes beyond that and I want to be like Moses. He not only takes his lumps, but he BLESSES the people who were going to get the blessing!

I don’t want to be that kind of person who can’t be happy for others who are being favored or blessed when I am not receiving the same blessing. I want to bless people in their blessing when I am NOT flowing in that blessing. I imagine Moses thought about all the blessings that he HAD experienced, how God had provided for Him and exalted Him and blessed him beyond anything he could have ever asked for. I want to look at what I DO have and bless the Lord. Then I want to bless you – all who would read (hear and experience) my blessing.

Be blessed child – when you wake up, when you lay down, when you sow and when you reap. The favor of God be on you and your family, His confidence in your doings and in your prayers. You are the head and not the tail and have a greater destiny in store for you than you can see. So see it and follow the Lord in everything.

March 6

I can’t move on to today’s reading without commenting on something I just found. In looking for a verse from yesterday’s reading to journal, I found something so foundational, so revelatory, that I have to share it.

Leviticus 25:38 (NIV)
38 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt to give you the land of Canaan and to be your God.

Do you see it? God brought US out of Egypt for 2 things:
1. To give us territory
2. To have relationship with Him

The point of the passage is that HE brought us out, not us but only Him, so obey everything He is tell us. The point you have to slow down to see is awesome! It is the why did He bring us out answer.

Our Egypt is our bondages, our living for ourselves apart from Him. It is the place we came from, the way we used to live and don’t anymore. Egypt is the place of just getting by, surviving and getting all we can for #1 – me. Even our giving was so that we could feel good about ourselves. God has brought us out of that and asked us, no, directed us to live like He tells us to live SO HE CAN GIVE US EVERYTHING HE HAS INTENDED TO GIVE US, including the most important thing, sweet fellowship with Him, our creator who loves us most! He wants us to have His love ruling in our hearts and He wants us to see that we are significant in His plan to take the gospel to the world by giving us territory to rule in. Wow! That is good stuff!

In today’s reading he goes on to list all the awesome things that will happen to us and how He will BE ABLE to bless us if we obey. He gives us the choice and gives us the consequence of those choices, but the choice remains ours. On the other hand, the consequences of our choices remain His. He chooses blessings, (that is why he saved us), but He can’t bless disobedient kids.

March 5

Although I would like to go over the part about the children honoring and obeying their parents, I’ll refrain.

What I saw was the command of the tender heart of God. After all of the sacrifices and laws and the penalties that we have been reading about, here is the heart of God for others plainly displayed. He speaks about your neighbor and his livestock that you should care about, the people who planted a vineyard or just got engaged and especially the widow and orphans and the poor. (Not to mention the aliens among us). What a beautiful picture of His endless care for the downtrodden and the unfortunate of this world.

We are not supposed to use everything (gather every fruit off the tree), that the Lord blesses us with. We are supposed to leave some for others to come and get. We are not supposed to USE EVERYTHING TILL IT DIES – we are admonished to share. That is the point that hit me – share, give and take care of others.

There is one more thing that I want to point out. The poor were to come and gather their own food. How wonderful is that! God provides a way for poor people, or widows or orphans to work for their food so they can have a sense of accomplishment. They know they are in hard times, but God is saying you can fen for yourselves under my covenant and care. Beautiful!

March 4

What we can eat! I love eating! Most of these commands make perfect sense for health reasons. But what am I to take from a section like this – stay away from the shell fish?

Lev. 20:25 says you must make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds…

We have to make distinctions in life don’t we? We do it every day. God is calling me (us) to use His Word, and since we have the Holy Spirit living in us, use the Holy Spirit, to discern between the things we should do, eat, watch, listen to etc… We all have the tendency to do what we have always done in spite of a current revelation of God. I know I have lived life like I am not in control of it. Like decisions are already made for me by???? God is saying to me, that I am the one responsible to control what I eat (which in the broader life concept includes everything and not just eating). I have the duty and therefore the power to control whether or not I become “spiritually contaminated”. It is mine to discern, with the help of the Spirit.

Give me discernment Lord and then give me the courage to deny myself when I know what to do.

March 3

Separation from uncleanness that was infectious was really important. The Lord really spoke to me about the infectious things that grow in me and how I need to separate myself from them. After I have been infected or contaminated, I have to come to Jesus and let Him give me an honest evaluation of the situation. Isn’t it great that His blood can cleanse us from all unrighteousness? Yet there remains on us the command to cleanse yourself. When infected, why not separate myself to Him who can cleanse me and lead me to cleanse myself. I have got to be more diligent in what I allow to come into me – for that is what makes us unclean right? Not what comes out, but what comes in. What thoughts do I allow in, what shows do I watch and what “news” do I suck in? Am I breathing mold or God’s breath?

Of course our passage today was about the exterior of the skin and clothing and houses, but God is concerned about our inside. Yet it is the outside that I allow in that gets to my inside and infects me with things like, negativity, jealousy, dis-trust and good ol’ stinkin’ thinkin’. The battle really is in the mind, but it does trickle down to the heart at times.

Purify me and cleanse me and keep me from infection Lord. May I be discerning, strong and diligent in what I let into my soul.

March 2

Whew! That was a day huh? Some very tough things are being spoken of and we have to remember that this was said to people in this time period and this culture and that it can serve us if we don’t get bogged down in the – why…? Or the what??? I don’t mean to say that it was out of line, it was just a hard line. Glad I am living now!

There is a powerful principle that God reminded me of in today’s reading. The land becomes defiled! Not only to we become defiled by sin, but the land can become defiled. It says that the land will vomit you out – that’s strong! The lesson for me is that if I let things happen on my land (house/property/church) then the land or area is affected. This is not a new teaching to me, but is a great reminder that we can’t sin without consequences, even on the area we live. I must not allow myself or others to violate my management area by sin. What I mean is that if I allow one of my boys (which I never would) to bring his girlfriend home and have sexual relations with her (which they never would), I would be opening the door for the devil to put a curse on my home. Likewise, if I have some kind of religious “charm” in my home, I open my home and everyone in my home to demonic influence. (Charms-idols-etc… can be demonically attached – meaning that a demon can have some influence where the idol is)

I don’t want any “outside” influence in my home. In fact, as today’s reading illustrates – GET RID OF THE IMPURITY FROM AMONG YOU! Show me what I need to get rid of Lord.

Feb 27

The king God chooses is suppose to remain like the people he rules. It seems as though that the top dog is suppose to serve the people and in order to serve the people he wasn’t suppose to have a lot of “stuff” and be the big powerful rich guy. Neither was he supposed to indulge himself with women, because he would be led astray. Why be king then? To serve and do the Lord’s bidding.

The king (we are all kings, but many of you are kings in the marketplace) was suppose to take the law (the Word) and write it (himself) on a scroll (that was just for him) and read it all the time. I need the Word in order to rule like God wants me to rule! To bring Him glory, I MUST put away materialism and being loved and satiated by women (both in person and in media) and keep the Word before me. In fact – writing the Word coupled with Reading the Word aloud is food for my spirit so I can keep my spirit strong! With my spirit strong, I can say no to my flesh and say yes to God.

Feb 26

There were a lot of offerings given in those days. The requirements were very strict for the offerings. Even if you gave land that you were giving, you had to pay for it as well – it’s like a double gift! As I was reading today I realize that although I give somewhere between 10-15% of my income, that really isn’t that much. As I read it, the first 10% isn’t even mine, it is the Lords, so I don’t know how much I should pride myself in that. (I am not proud about it, it is just a figure of speech).

There are many other offerings that we have read about that go way beyond 10%. I am especially interested in the “freewill” offerings. That seems to be something that I should be doing a lot of out of my grateful heart. Yet, because I don’t have a lot of money left over at the end of the month, if any, what can I give? How about me? How about my time? How about my gifts and talents?

Money is such a sticky point to us. As I was thinking about my tax return and the tax credit I will receive for buying a house, I was thinking, do I tithe on it? In the middle of reading about all the offerings I am asking myself – do I tithe on it? The flesh wants to keep it and use it – or more aptly – wants to control it. That is really what it all boils down to right? Control. Who has control? By the way – of course I will tithe on my return. For me, it is increase.

Feb 25

There are two things that really stick out to me personally in this section, but the lessons that are here are awesome! They point towards Jesus – to the max! (Dude) But let’s stick to personal.

If you touch something unclean, you become unclean. Jesus touched people who were unclean and didn’t become unclean. In fact, He made them clean! There are 2 reasons that we touch things that are unclean. The first is to make them clean like Jesus, and in that case we shouldn’t fear becoming “unclean”, or effected by the evil that we are purging from others. The second is that we CAN be totally affected by “uncleanliness” when we are participating in the thing that would make us unclean. The Lord reminded me that I can’t hold fire without being burned. I need to be careful where I go, what I do and what I say AND what I accept into my mind and soul.

The second is that it is the water that cleanses and the blood and oil that brings atonement. There is such a great parallel in our life, which I won’t go into, but the Lord spoke to me about first being washed with water – with His Words. That is how I am cleansed! The other thing is that the oil AND the blood brought forgiveness. I knew the blood did, but the oil… How I need the Holy Spirit to minister to me the forgiveness that the blood brings, and more than that, anything without the Holy Spirit ministering it to me wouldn’t be alive to me

Feb 24

Redemption. This day we read of something that we KNOW points to our future redemption. Yet, we have been reading about laws and sacrifices that have pointed us to our desperate need for a Savior. After reading all the requirements of the law, I am convinced that I need Jesus the Messiah more than ever! How glad I am to be living in the year of Jubilee.

Redemption is a wonderful thing and I could go one about it. I wished our society would adopt something similar to the year of Jubilee to give people another chance of living right before the Lord. But what struck me was faintly related to the joy of release. It was that God said that the land was His and nobody had any rights to anything that He didn’t give them.

I think sometimes we all try to reason with God, but God is God and not us! What He says goes whether we like it, understand it, or not. We can ask why, but God doesn’t have to answer us. Many times, in fact most of the time He graciously does because as Jesus put it, we know His business and He calls us friends and not slaves. (Wasn’t that in our passage as well?) God is so good and He rules for our release and redemption! That means you may be on the giving end so someone else gets their release – which is so exciting to me! I get to partner with God! It may cost me something – SO WHAT! All that I have is the Lords.

Feb 23

There sure is a lot of offerings! Those priests must have been very busy. Unbelievable really! I am sure they had some sort of system and there were plenty of them to do the job. There is one thing about the priest’s ministry that struck me, finally. After all of the offerings and priestly duties, I finally got what they were doing. I do understand that they were ministering to the Lord, however in Lev. 5:18 I finally realized what my job (our ministry) is in relationship to all of these offerings (to the people).

Leviticus 5:17-18 (NIV)
17 “If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. 18 He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the wrong he has committed unintentionally, and he will be forgiven.

I am an agent of ministering forgiveness! I am to help appropriate the blood of Jesus to people’s lives so they will realize their forgiveness. It only makes sense since Paul tells us that we are “ministers of reconciliation”. It is all coming together in my head. We aren’t to condemn the world and tell them how bad they are, we are to concern ourselves, as priests, to reconcile people to God and minister the forgiveness that comes through Jesus Christ. Part of my Father’s business – alleviated the guilt of those who are guilty but are coming to Jesus for forgiveness.

Feb 20

There are a lot of celebrations! I knew being a guy who likes parties was a godly trait! Seriously, there were 4 major feasts that Israel was to celebrate throughout the year and on 3 of them, they were to all gather together. So as Christians we celebrate Christmas, Easter and… Thanksgiving? Three out of four isn’t bad huh?

I have got to see these celebrations as they were, A BIG DEAL! When we celebrate, we do so for 2 hours at church and then an evening with the family, and these feasts lasted a week! I think the point for me is that God wanted people to remember certain things. So He created a culture of celebrations that took planning and effort. These feasts were designed to create a culture of remembrance and a culture of worship. Did I say they lasted a week? As I write I am asking the Lord, what can I do to create a culture like that? I’ll tell you this, whatever the Lord speaks to me, it won’t be a 2 hour Resurrection Sunday service that will create any kind of culture for me, my family and my church family.

There was one thing that was woven into all of these feasts – time off work. Vacation time. We have the culture we have created – work and busyness. If I want God to be my preeminent object of worship, then I am going to have to give Him time. Thinking back to yesterday’s concept of first fruits, I need to give my Lord and Master the first of my day and somehow at least of tithe (first fruit) of my vacation time. Maybe that is a starting point – speak to me Lord.